Pigskin Punditry

Joe Paterno: 1926-2012

2012-01-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

The end will come for all of us one day. The nature of the circle of life is that we all will, sadly, pass away. Sometimes sooner than we ever expect.

It seems weird to say that an 85 year old has passed away too soon, and yet for some reason I can't seem to help but shake that feeling now that Joe Paterno has died at the age of 85 from lung cancer.

Obviously, the events of the last two months, and the scandal that continues to engulf the biggest thing in Centre County, Pennsylvania, is the first thing that comes to mind. The events that lead to the retirement/termination of Joe Paterno seemed to be the capper on a truly scandal-ridden college football year of 2011.

To be blunt, it was an abrupt and ignominious end to a great career.

But today just doesn't seem like a day for that. Joe Paterno was the last of his kind, I think: a true lifer. He arrived in Happy Valley out of Brown in 1950 and didn't leave his job until November of this year.

61 years as a coach at one school? That is just never going to happen again. Not in this era of college football.

I had the pleasure of living in State College/University Park for three years. Two of those years were among the worst seasons that Penn State endured under Paterno. They were bad. Comically bad. And then 2005 happened, and the great run to the Orange Bowl. You couldn't help but get swept up in the magic of Penn State football and the love that that community had for the program and the coach in particular.

I saw the man quite often walking near campus. I never met him (although I did almost hit him with my car once). He had his good side and his bad side, and obviously he had his flaws. His flaws might have ultimately led to his undoing.

The word "legacy" is going to be utilized quite often over the next few days in discussions about Joe Paterno; it is unavoidable when you are one of the best of all time in your field. And while the end was ugly and ultimately tarnished his legacy, it did not erase all of the good that he did both on the field and in the community.

Rest in peace, Joe Paterno.

Sandusky Situation Could Lead to Paterno's Downfall

2011-11-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

I lived in State College, Pennsylvania for three years in the early to mid 2000s. It's hard to live near and work for Penn State without developing some level of affection for the communty, and for the Nittany Lions football team.

I lived about three miles or so from the stadium and drove past it on the way to work. For about a year, my route home took me near Joe Paterno's house, and I even saw him walking across campus on a couple of my drives home.

Centre County, which is where Penn State is located, is most definitely a small, close knit community. It is a special place.

Which is why the news that has come out of there over the last few days is beyond sickening.

There has been a complete and total failure of leadership at Penn State, if you read the grand jury indictment. Complete and total. If you read the full indictment, I advise you to do so on an empty stomach, because it is truly sickening.

Athletic Director Tim Curley has stepped down and is on administrative leave. He's gone, basically.

Vice President of Finance and Operations Gary Schultz has "retired." He's gone.

Curley and Schultz have also been indicted for perjury in lying about what they knew in regards to Sandusky's predilictions via information received in 2002 from (then) graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who allegedly caught Sandusky in the shower one night at Penn State's Lasch Football Building having sex with a ten year old boy.

McQueary (now an assistant coach) told Joe Paterno what he witnessed. Paterno then told Curley. Sandusky's reprimand? His keys to the facility were taken away and he was told not to bring boys into the lockerroom or on campus anymore.

Nobody called the police. And that ban on bringing boys on campus was, as Curley admits, unenforceable.

That pisses me off, especially because, after the 2002 shower incident, there was another document victim, from 2005-2008 when he finally cut off contact with Sandusky.

Someone else allegedly had part of their innocence stolen because of massive inaction by supposed leaders of men.

Curley and Schultz apparently covered for Sandusky and tried to protect the repuation of Penn State. President Graham Spanier was apparently okay with the lack of action taken by Schultz and Curley. And as far as I can tell, Paterno did the bare minimum that was legally obligated of him, as did McQueary.

That's not good enough as far as I am concerned. It simply isn't good enough. And it might, correctly, cost some other people their jobs. Including Joe Paterno, as the New York Times is reporting.

It would be an ignomious end to a great coaching career, and it is an ending that no one could have ever seen coming.

2011 Kickoff: Preseason Predictions

2011-09-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Each Labor Day weekend, we receive college football back.

Even with all of the off the field scandals (covered in summation here), and with the drama coming from the pending implosion (again!) of the Big 12, I can't wait to spend more attention to games on the field—like the 50-48 barnburner supplied by Baylor and TCU on Friday night.

But I wanted to go on the record with my divisional, conference and national title picks before the games begin in earnest on Saturday at 9am PDT.

ACC Atlantic: Maryland
ACC Coastal: Virginia Tech
ACC Overall: Virginia Tech
Big 12: Oklahoma
Big East: West Virginia
Big Ten Leaders: Wisconsin
Big Ten Legends: Nebraska
Big Ten Overall: Wisconsin
Conference USA East: Southern Mississippi
Conference USA West: Houston
Conference USA Overall: Southern Mississippi
Mid-American East: Ohio
Mid-American West: Toledo
Mid-American Overall: Toledo
Mountain West: Boise State
Pacific 12 North: Oregon
Pacific 12 South: Utah
Pacific 12 Overall: Oregon
SEC East: South Carolina
SEC West: LSU
SEC Overall: LSU
Sun Belt: Troy
WAC: Fresno State
Independent: Notre Dame

National Title: Alabama over Wisconsin

The 2011 College Football Season is Here. Thank Goodness

2011-08-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time.

The start of the 2011 college football season has taken forver to get here, and now that it is here, hopefully attention can be paid to the game on the field.

And this year more than ever, that has to be the case, because this was an offseason that we all should want to forget.

At first, it just seemed to be carryover from the end of last season, with the Ohio State "Tat Five" being allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl, and a little bit of hangover from Cam Newton as Auburn won the BCS Title.

But the drama never seemed to stop, as more and more information came out about Ohio State, ultimately costing Jim Tressel his job and forcing Terrelle Pryor to enter the NFL supplemental draft.

Meanwhile, Bill Stewart, who had a coach-in-waiting situation forced upon him by West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, tried to take down said coach, Dana Holgorsen, and failed. He was given the boot after trying to leak information about Holgorsen's wild partying ways to the media.

Over in Eugene, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly tried to parse the name "Will" versus "Willie," in discussing the fact that the Ducks must have been fleeced out of $25,000 by Willie Lyles, a Texas man who serves as some sort of recruiting svengali for LSU, Oregon and some other programs as well as top rated recruits. The recruit in question was running back Lache Seastrunk, who, thanks to a vision from God, has transferred from Oregon to Baylor.

Butch Davis was ousted from North Carolina literally a couple of days after returning from ACC media days because the leadership of North Carolina thought that the best time to get rid of a coach was two weeks before the start of fall training camp. Last summer, a lot of folks thought that North Carolina was poised for greatness. Now, they appear to have lost another season thanks to their NCAA issues.

Yet all of that drama was surpassed by the atomic bomb that Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Charles Robinson dropped on the University of Miami two weeks ago. If you haven't read it by now, you have to spend a couple of hours going through all of the player pages. It is fascinating reading.

Oh, and the expansion carousel may be spinning again thanks to the Big 12, the University of Texas, Texas A&M and ESPN. Good times, good times.

So now do you see why I am excited about kickoff?

Let the games begin.

A Letter to ESPN

2011-07-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Dear ESPN,

I'm probably long overdue in writing this missive, and for that I should apologize. Although I am sure that by now, you must have realized that this letter was coming. I know from my perspective, the writing has been on the wall for some time now, but events over the past few months have forced my hands to the keyboards.

I probably shouldn't beat around the bush anymore, so here it goes:

I think we should start seeing other people.

It's not you. It's me.

No, no. That isn't quite right; I would say that both of us are probably to blame for the change in this relationship. And sometimes that happens; people change. They drift apart. Interests that used to be shared just aren't there anymore. Quite frankly, I don't think that carrying on this long-term relationship is mutually beneficial anymore.

I know I've changed. I've discovered new outlets for accessing information, as SI.com and Yahoo! Sports have become much, much stronger voices in the sports media, with killer investigative reporting and feature writing. From a different perspective those lines, blog networks like Bloguin and SB Nation allow more fan voices to speak through, and the analysis that takes places on some of the fan sites on these networks outstrips a lot of the work that is done by ESPN.

(Disclosure: I am an author for a site on SB Nation's network of college blogs, Rock M Nation.)

My local sports radio station here in Las Vegas is one of the best sports radio stations in the country, and the mid-day shows Gridlock and DC and the Sunshine Man cover national sports with more edge than I could ever expect from Mike and Mike and with an intellectual honesty that is sorely lacking from the likes of Colin Cowherd.

My tastes have changed. The way I want to receive information has changed. The type of people I want to receive that information from has changed. But you have changed as well.

One of the things that made me realize exactly how far apart we had grown was when the book about ESPN by James Miller and Tom Shales came out in May and I had less than zero interst in the book. I mean, less than zero. Years ago I would have rushed right out to a bookstore and snatched up the first copy I could get my grubby little hands on. Now? I don't even want to look for it a the local libraries.

The second thing that made me realize how small a role ESPN plays in my life now is the fact that there are only three shows I watch on ESPN regularly that are not live sports: Pardon the Interruption, College Gameday (for football) and College Football Final. That's it, that's the list. I don't remember the last time I watched a whole SportsCenter from start to finish; it seriously might have been 2003. That was not the case years ago.

The third thing was when I logged onto ESPN.com and didn't realize that you had shifted some of the bloggers around to different beats and had actually added some new staffers. That blew me away.

The last thing that made me realize that we might have reached the end of the road was the situation with Bruce Feldman. I've never met Bruce Feldman, but I have been reading his writing since the nascent days of ESPN.com (back when it was still ESPN Sportszone). I've always found his reporting and writing to be solid; the essence of professional, quality sports journalism. Feldman is one of the few people that work for ESPN that, off the top of my head, I would love to meet and talk with.*

With that being said, the way that your organization treated him last week was unconscionable, and the bullshit spin that you put out after Twitter exploded with the #freebruce hashtag was abominable.

If Feldman was "never suspended" as your p.r. flacks and the terse, three sentence release stated, then a) why didn't you say so when contacted by other journalists Thursday night and, b) why did your statement mention Feldman was "resuming duties?" There is nothing to resume if there is nothing that was interrupted, which is what a suspension would have done.

Additionally, why was Bruce not allowed on his Twitter account and why was his chat skipped without explanation on Wednesday? Why did it take you a day to say he wasn't suspended if, he, in fact, wasn't suspended?

To an outsider, it looked petty. It looked small-minded. It looked wrong. It looked like it was badly mishandled by management.

Sadly, you've become a network that has little relevance in my life at this point, with few broadcast personalities that I care about or even pay attention to, and a management that (allegedly) treated one of their veteran writers harshly only to be rebuked publicly through blogs and social networks into (allegedly) reinstating him from a suspension that never happened. It's a tough pill to swallow, and quite frankly, I don't need that much drama in my life.

I'm moving on, although I hope that we can still be friends in the fall (for college football) and in the late spring/early summer (for the NBA Finals). Maybe you can put your money into reaching someone younger who is willing to overlook the flaws you have, and I'll find comfort in the arms of a wider variety of information sources.

Good luck, ESPN. I wish you the best.

Sincerely,
The Pigskin Pundit

(* The other ESPN folks I want to meet [in no particular order]: Kornheiser, Wilbon, Forde, John Anderson, Scott Van Pelt, Bob Valvano.)

Michigan needs victories, not mascots

2011-06-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Even though my background is in higher education administration, I have had the pleasure of spending time around business majors and business professors. In addition, I have plenty of friends who work in business, marketing, advertising.

As a communications major, and as a cynical person, I believe that nothing good can ever come from the words, "youth demographic." Especially as it relates to sports.

So imagine my surprise when I read a story in Michigan Today, which contained those ill fated words in connection to...a costumed mascot at the University of Michigan. From athletic director Dave Brandon:

"I'm struck by the fact that when opposing teams come to our stadium, and they bring a mascot, all of our young fans are lined up to see if they can get a picture taken with it, whether it's the Penn State Nittany Lion or Sparty," Brandon told Michigan Today. "That's a little annoying to me.

"You can't get your picture taken with a Block M. Mascots are really embraced by the youth demographic and we want to take advantage of that, for all the reasons that are obvious...Our history and our tradition is great for those of who were there to experience it, or remember it...but there's a generation coming up and you've got to connect with them and keep them excited."

I'm not like ESPN's Michael Wilbon, who detests most mascots and would rather see them banished from the sports landscape. My alma mater has a costumed mascot, Truman the Tiger. Named after President Harry Truman, who was from the state of Missouri. I've been down with Truman for about a decade and a half at this point.

Mascots can be fun, mascots can be entertaining for the kids. I know that when I take my son to events out here at UNLV, he likes seeing Hey Reb around and giving him a high five.

So I totally get what Brandon is talking about.

But I agree with Michigan alum and NFL Network broadcaster Rich Eisen. Michigan should be a mascot free zone.

Part of what makes Michigan, well, Michigan are the maize and blue colors, "The Victors" fight song, the winged helmet (which was not originated at Michigan but is a part of the iconography of the school) and the distinct lack of a mascot.

Nine of the twelve Big Ten schools have on field mascots. Hell, newcomer Nebraska has two with Lil Red and Herbie Husker. Illinois used to have one until the NCAA forced Chief Illiniwek into retirement (and that's a whole other story). So the clear lack of a mascot is a relatively unique position in the conference and on a national level as well.

You know what I think will make Michigan football exciting for the "youth demographic" that Dave Brandon is desperate to reach? It's not a mascot, or "retro-inspired uniforms" or finally playing a night game (although that may help a little bit more than anything else).

It's winning. (Duh!)

Win.

Win often and win big. Beat Ohio State. Beat Nebraska. Beat Michigan State and Penn State. Win your division, win the conference and compete not for Rose Bowl appearances, but for actual BCS Title game appearances.

Because not having a fuzzy mascot like Willy the Wolverine (an attempt that some enterprising Michigan students tried in the 1980s) isn't what will lose you traction with the almighty "youth demographic."

Not having won a national title since 1997 is a much, much bigger ailment.

Housekeeping: Guest spot this week

2011-06-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

I'll be doing a guest spot tomorrow over at Blatant Homerism, an Oklahoma blog with the Bloguin network. It's "Best of Week" and I highly recommend you check out the other stuff over there. The guys do good work on Oklahoma football and college football in general and is in my must read rotation of blogs.

Why Playing Spot The Violation is a Problem

2011-06-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Let's Take A Quiz - Phineas and Ferb Lyrics + HQ (MP3 Download) (via PhineasandFerbSongs)

Yes, let's take a quiz. Presented by Bill Lubinger of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and with a tip of the hat to Mizzou alumnus Graham Watson of Yahoo! Sports for linking to it originally. Let's look at four scenarios in this case study. For each one, I want you to determine if it is an NCAA violation or if it is something that is permissible.
Again, you only have the information laid out in each case; no additional information for the presented scenario is forthcoming:

1. A "super fan" of the local college or university team is having a dinner for one at the local sports bar. He notices that a couple of the guys from the basketball team are sitting a few tables over watching a game. The guy calls the waitress over and orders a pitcher of soda and a bucket of wings to be sent to the guys. This guy is just a "super fan"; he is not an official booster. Violation or permissible?

2. The star middle linebacker has been invited to speak at a local Pop Warner football league's year end banquet. He is not being paid for this speaking engagement. He attends and gives a rousing speech. The grateful parents who are organizing the dinner invite the linebacker to stick around for dinner. They are serving chicken, scalloped potatoes, salad and chocolate cake. Violation or permissible?

3. Before the linebacker headed off to the banquet, he stopped by the football offices to chat with his head coach. The coach suggests that the player wear a tie for this speaking engagement, reaches into his desk and pulls out a tie for the player to wear that evening. Violation or permissible?

4. The compliance office receives an anonymous call from a potential tipster. This person is calling the compliance office because they have learned that the university is paying for contact lenses and braces for student athletes. Violation or permissible?

I'll give you the answers, provided by the compliance officers at the University of Akron and at Kent State University at the end of this piece.

But let's look at the above scenarios for a second and think about this. In each of these four scenarios, something that most folks would perceive as relatively innocuous is occurring, right? Buying a round of drinks and some food for basketball players. Contact lenses and braces (while not cheap are not as expensive as a customized low rider). A catered meal as a way of saying thanks for speaking tonight. Loaning a tie to someone who forgot to put one on.
I'm not going to say that those who were in the Tat Five are blameless, or that they shouldn't have been suspended. Nor am I going to say that Jim Tressel shouldn't have "resigned." The circumstances surrounding what's going on there, or what went on at North Carolina with Marvin Austin and company last season are different, and each case should be examined in detail for what is available.
On the whole, though, I wonder if it isn't necessary to do a full examination of the rule book. It might be time for an overhaul, because, quite frankly, there's no way that the average student-athlete (or even coaches, for that matter) is going to be able to know everything that is in there.
This link will take you to the latest edition of the Division I manual. Go check it out. It's free to download (and I do every year). It's a 444 page PDF, and quite hefty if you have a paper copy (I have an old paper one from about 2005).
It is dense, it is verbose, it is not easy to read and interpret unless you spend a lot of quality time with it. I am increasingly finding it harder and harder to say that as a student-athlete you need to be familiar with the sections that apply to you and you need to know them forwards, backwards and sideways.
Yes, I know that compliance and life skills are there to help with the interpretation of rules and policy for them, and that they do educate student-athletes on the issues that are relevant to them at the beginning of the year.
But there also has to be a reason that lots of schools pile up secondary violations out the wazoo; it isn't easy to keep this crap straight.
I think that the retreat that Mark Emmert has called for August 9-10 is good on its surface, and I'll have more on it later this summer. Part of reforming intercollegiate athletics, to me, involves looking at the rule book and deciding how much of this is actually viable and realistic in the 21st century and what rules make sense.
Let's not focus solely on enforcement; let's look at holistic reform from the ground up. It's time for a new model.
Answer key:

1. Violation. The student-athletes should say "No, thank you" to the soda and wings. It would constitute an extra benefit because they would be receiving it because of their athletics status and because free wings and soda are not generally available to the public. Also, you could argue the person may not have been a booster before, but is one now. Per an NCAA bylaw, he "provided benefits to enrolled student-athletes." By triggering that status, he now retains it eternally.

2. Permissible. The student-athlete can accept actual and necessary expenses for participating. He is also allowed to receive a meal for his participation, so the cost of the meal is not an issue. Interacting with the banquet attendees would not be an issue, either, since they are not of prospect age and the player is not a coach. If the parents insist the player join them for dinner some other time outside of the banquet, he can accept an occasional meal in the parents' home. Institutional discretion sets the definition of "occasional." At Akron, for instance, the definition is once a month, on average.

3. Possible violation. A tie, or other dress clothes for that matter, could be bought by the student-athlete using the Student Athlete Fund -- a fund provided by the NCAA to help them cover the difference between their scholarship and the cost to attend school. However, institutions are not allowed to loan dress clothes. If a school requires a suit/jacket and tie, the items would have to be bought through the fund. Even if the linebacker returned the tie after the event, it could still be viewed as a violation.

4. Permissible. Those items could be considered necessary for participation. Since they are medically related, they would be permissible if the school's budget and policies allowed for them.

Jim Tressel and the Wise Monkeys: When Players Try to Get Paid, Who Should Be Blamed?

2011-06-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

(This piece originally was posted on Rock M Nation.)

My son turns four just after the first game of this coming season. Unless some weird recessive genes kick in, he probably won't be playing Division 1 FBS football when it's time for him to go to college. (And unless some other things about the game change, he won't be playing football at all. But that's another topic.)

If he does somehow manage to become a football star, though, my wife and I will have to be very careful in the vetting process. We'd want him to go someplace where he can be successful, a place where he'd enjoy the campus life (but not too much), a place where he can get a good education in a field he wants to study. And selfishly, it would need to be somewhere his mother and I would enjoy visiting a few time a year.

I'd want him to play for a good coaching staff. I want his position coach to be someone we really connect with and that he connects with as well; a coach that we'd trust our son with.

I'd want his head coach to be someone we could connect with as well; he should also be someone we would feel comfortable entrusting our son with.

Oh, and that coach should also be brilliant during game days and have a little of the three wise monkeys in him the rest of the week.

Yeah, the three wise monkeys. Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

I mean, what program doesn't want a head coach that sees nothing going on that's wrong, hears no malfeasance and doesn't say a word about wrongdoing because, well, there's nothing wrong.

Isn't that how this is supposed to work? Aren't head coaches supposed to be kept out of the loop when players are driving fancy cars or showing up with a lot of tattoos when you know that said players isn't from a background that can afford new cars or (literally) thousands of dollars of tattoos.

I have one tattoo. It's not small, and it's on my right bicep. I live in a not that cheap part of the country, and my simple tattoo cost $100. Even allowing for things to be cheaper in Columbus, Ohio than they are in Las Vegas, there's no way that somebody on the Ohio State coaching staff shouldn't have caught on to the fact that their players—many of whom are from disadvantaged or highly disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds—suddenly had half or full sleeves of ink.

It's not like they were saving up refund checks from their scholarships.

Yes, Ohio State is an easy target because they are in the news right now. But look around at any of the FBS programs. Don't tell me that athletes aren't trading on their name recognition. Given the way that the system is setup for some of them now, it's the only thing that they have to use.

Does that make it right? No. Even if the rules that are in place are crappy, that doesn't mean you have the right to go around breaking them and flaunt the fact that you're breaking the rules.

But for a coach to act like the three wise monkeys, or even worse, act shocked that there is gambling going on in here, is even more worrisome to me. Does all of the detail work that goes into film study and game planning, the work of hiring a staff and working on recruiting, helping to gladhand alumni and do media appearances...does all of that detail work and micromanagement leave one blind to the fact that players are accepting graft from a variety of sources?

The question, I guess, is this: Who should ultimately be held responsible when players get in trouble for selling memorabilia and merchandise? Does it strictly depend on who is doing it? Or, if it's been going on for almost a decade and the coach(es) either actively or inactively turned a blind eye to what was going on, do people higher up the chain need to be held accountable?

Lost Soul, Empty Vest

2011-06-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

(This column originally appeared on Southern Pigskin)

He was the Senator. The Sweater Vest. The Righteous One who did things “the right way.”

In the end, though, he turned out to be a lost soul in an empty vest.

Jim Tressel “resigned” Monday. Walked away. Or maybe he ran. Perhaps he was pushed as more and more details from this sordid affair continue to dribble out of the holes from sources along the Olentangy River in Columbus.

He might hate this characterization, but Tressel was somewhat deified. That is something that is to be expected of a coach’s fanbase to be sure, especially when that coach does what the previous coach never seemed to do—in this case, beat Michigan.

To a certain extent, though, Tressel was also godded up by a complicit coterie of media and analysts eager to find what I would call the “anti-Saban.” A coach who wasn’t unnecessarily bristly with the media, with a certain amount of charm and charisma who could field a national title contender just about every season with something resembling balance in his life. It wasn’t just football 24-7-365.

Wow. Looks like a lot of folks were fooled.

It’s hard not to be cynical in this day and age when covering or following college football. It’s not like scandals are something new that popped up today; one of the most famous cases (the SMU “Death Penalty”) happened 25 years ago. Every few years, there seems to be some kind of tale.

Hell, during last season we had the North Carolina Agent-gate situation, with several overlapping suspensions derailing what should have been an ACC-title for the Tarheels.

Oh, and there was that little situation with the preacher’s son and a transfer of schools and $180,000. I wonder what the resolution of that case was?

But this time it is different. This is Ohio State, members of the illustrious Big Ten Conference—a conference that would never have one of its members stoop so low as to besmirch themselves with even the hint of a scandal. Let alone a scandal of this proportion.

Things like this don’t happen with Big Ten teams, where players are getting tattoos in exchange for trinkets or game-used gear. The Big Ten doesn’t have players and their families getting access to nice cars under questionable circumstances.

Quarterbacks of Big Ten teams don’t get caught driving multiple cars over a three year period because their car is “in the shop” or because they want “to get the opinion of their family” about a car and yet they never seem to commit to a new ride.

Maybe we all should have listened when Maurice Clarett spoke up in 2003.

Turns out that much like Jose Canseco, even whistleblowers with checkered pasts can be right.

B-U-S-T-E-D!

2011-06-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

(This column originally appeared on Southern Pigskin)

Legacy is an interesting word. For Ohio State's Jim Tressel, his legacy involves Marurice Clarett, Troy Smith and now Tatgate. But hey, he beats Michigan.

If there is one maxim that web 2.0 has taught us here in the 21st century it is this:

You can’t take anyone being a “good guy” on faith anymore.

Sure, there may be people that do good things, but it is becoming harder and harder to find a good guy.Don’t believe me?

Look at what is happening right now in Columbus, Ohio.

Oh sure, Jim Tressel has had a bit of a reputation outside of Ohio as a shady figure, a “Teflon coach” to a certain degree.

Maurice Clarett’s situation. Troy Smith being suspended for a bowl game for improper benefits. Tatgate.

But Tressel has managed to escape having anything stick to him until this week, when Ohio State was forced to admit that Tressel knew about the situation with the Ohio State players (including star quarterback Terrell Pryor) receiving improper benefits in the form of tattoos by trading or selling various awards and trinkets.
Ohio State reported the violations in December 2010 and the players were still allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl this past January before serving out suspensions at the start of the 2011 season.

Apparently, Jim Tressel found out about the situation and what the players were doing…in April of 2010.

April 2010?

Yes, April 2010. That means that Tressel knowingly played players that should have been suspended pending investigation. Hell, use the catch-all “suspended for violating team rules” line until the investigation is complete and call it a day.

How would that have been any less damning that what has happened over the past three months?

Did I mention that on September 13, Tressel signed an NCAA Certificate of Compliance that stated that he had reported any known violations to the NCAA?

Whoops. That means that not only did Tressel lie to his own athletic director and compliance department, he also lied to the NCAA.

When Bruce Pearl was caught in lies regarding improper recruiting, he was suspended by Mike Slive for half of conference play and fined $1 million by Tennessee.

Ohio State suspended Tressel for two games and fined him $250,000.

I’m sorry, but that’s not enough.

Ohio State had a chance to make a stand and didn’t. If some of the players involved in this situation got suspended for five games, Tressel needed to be gone for at least as long – if not longer.

He is the head coach. Ostensibly, he is the man in charge (and if Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee is to be believed, he is truly the man in charge at Ohio State – even above him) and he should be held to a higher standard.

If you write books about leadership, and talk and preach about instilling integrity in the men that you are leading and then don’t walk the talk, you should be punished accordingly.

Let’s see if Jim Delany or the NCAA will do what Ohio State’s leadership was too spineless to do.

I don’t have a whole lot of faith, though.

Where I spent my spring hiatus: Looking for paid work and getting a wonderful unpaid offer

2011-06-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

This hiatus was not fueled by wanderlust, or boredom as much as it was fueled by a need to focus on finding gainful employment for myself in my current field.

As the end of my contract arrives in two weeks, I have to date been unsuccessful in securing a new position, so a major transition is on the horizon unless a deus ex machina arrives by Thursday, June 30 at 5pm PDT.

So there hasn't been too much writing going on for me at all. At least, not until a couple of weeks ago.

A long time friend of mine, Bill Connelly of Football Outsiders and Football Study Hall, co-manages an SBNation site called Rock M Nation. It's a blog for Mizzou fans (my alma mater). He asked me to come aboard as an author for the site, covering national college football issues. I eagerly accepted without hesitation (once I got the emails and Twitter DMs).

Um...wait. Isn't this already a national college football blog? And don't you do something similar for Southern Pigskin already? Don't the call you their "National Football Columnist" when you go on The Fan Sports Radio in Coastal Georgia?

Yes, yes this is already a national college football blog, and yes, I do write a national column for Southern Pigskin. And I plan to continue this blog, and that column for Southern Pigskin in addition to the work I do for Rock M Nation.

I've still got to figure out the rhythm of things, but once the season starts, Tuesdays will probably be my day at Rock M Nation (it's floating right now), Thursdays will typically be my day at Southern Pigskin, and the rest of the time I will be here.

It'll take me a little time to get reorganized here; I was away a lot longer than I initially planned. But once I shake the cobwebs out we should be back in business for a good while.

In the meantime, I will post the work I did for Southern Pigskin and for Rock M Nation. Those will roll out later today.

A brief blog hiatus

2011-01-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty sparse here for the last couple of months, but I am formally taking a break from the blog and from college football until May.

I'm not a big college recruiting guy anyway, so it's not going to cut into anything I wouldn't have been covering anyway. But I have some work and family issues to deal with, and another writing project that I haven't been able to focus on, and desperately needs to get done.

So I will turn off the lights for now, and may show up for an occasional bit of dusting during this break.

Instant Feedback: Auburn 22, Oregon 19

2011-01-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

I'm not one to be hyperbolic about calling the most recent thing I've seen "the greatest."

Oregon and Auburn staged a decent game in the desert of Arizona Monday evening. I won't call it great.
There was the requisite drama, with Oregon scoring a touchdown with less than three minutes remaining in the game to force a tie.

There was a game winning kick by Wes Byrum with no time left on the clock, giving the Southeast Conference claim to the fifth straight Bowl Championship Series title (the fourth school to win during this streak) and running the SEC's record in BCS title games to 7-0.

There was Chip Kelly, playing the role usually reserved for Les Miles with a two-point conversion try completed on an option toss from the holder to the kicker, and there was a fake punt in Oregon territory to extend a drive late.

But there were also mistakes by both teams. Oregon had an interception in the red zone early, got stopped on fourth and goal from the one, and also gave up a safety after holding Auburn out of the end zone.
Auburn appeared to have the game in hand before a Cam Newton fumble (forced by Oregon linebacker Casey Matthews) gave the Ducks the ball late in the fourth quarter leading to the game tying drive.

But there was still some magic left for Auburn, with stud freshman Michael Dyer being reminded by an alert Auburn sideline to keep running after he appeared to be stopped for a modest gain. Dyer’s knee never went down on the play, and his 37 yard run put the Tigers deep into Oregon territory, eventually setting up Byrum’s chip shot.

The story of the game, though, was the Auburn defensive front. The Tiger’s front seven, led by stud defensive tackle Nick Fairley, held the Oregon Ducks, who averaged over 300 yards per game on the ground during the regular season, to 81 yards rushing for the game.

Auburn made Oregon look tentative on offense at times, forcing quarterback Darron Thomas to make some incorrect reads in the option game and picking him off twice. Thomas did pass for 363 yards, but the tempo and rhythm of the Ducks’ attack never seemed to be there.

Over the last five years, challengers from the Big 12 (Oklahoma/Texas), the Big Ten (Ohio State) and the Pac-10 (Oregon) have faced the SEC in title games. None have come out victors.

There have been offensive explosions and slugfests. It is becoming harder and harder to deny this: the SEC, right now, is king.

Bowl Season Priorities? Not watching too many games

2010-12-16T16:48:00.001-08:00

Okay, so let’s start today by mocking, I mean, discussing the new names for the division of the Big Ten, and why they are nonsensical. “Leaders” and “Legends?” Was that focus group tested? And the new logo looks like something that was sketched up in MS Paint in about fifteen minutes.

Excuse me?

Yes?

You’re not going to talk about bowl games?

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to answer this question. No, no I am not.

May I ask why? It is after all, the most wonderful time of the year. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of games featuring teams that wouldn’t normally schedule each other any other way. It’s a bevy of riches.

Well, since you asked, I’ll be blunt: There are only two bowl games that I directly care about: my alma mater’s game in late December and the BCS Championship game on January 10. Oh, and the Sugar Bowl, but that’s because I’m married to an Ohio native. So I guess it’s three that I care about.

What? You only care about three bowl games? Isn’t that un-American? Why aren’t you dedicating more of your life the next three weeks to watching games, damnit?

Well, I have family visiting, and there’s Christmas coming up and I have to work the week after Christmas. Look, it’s not like I don’t want to watch the games; I am something of a college football addict and will acknowledge that. But circumstances don’t allow for me to fill time with 35 bowl games. So I’m picking and choosing.

But don’t you love the bowl system. As Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel told you on Twitter, “[T]hey're fun… they distinguish college from NFL, because thousands make an annual vacation out of it.”

Yes, they do distinguish college from the NFL. But given that intercollegiate athletics are a multi-billion dollar industry in its own right, and the arms races in certain conferences where it is rumored that a guy who was a high school coach six years ago is being offered head jobs for $3 million a year, that wall is crumbling just a bit, no?

I also can’t argue that they aren’t fun. Some games are thrilling, to be sure. Hell, one of the most exciting games from last season was an early bowl game between Idaho and Bowling Green.

But this idea that thousands make an annual vacation out of it? I don’t know how much water that actually holds. Some do; no question about that.

It’s not that easy, though, to get a flight at the last minute that isn’t going to run you hundreds of dollars – even with carriers like Southwest. And travel during the holiday season is always going to be a cost prohibitive measure because everyone wants to fly hither and yon, so room rates will go up in warmer climates (which is where most of these bowl games are).

Oh, and if you want to buy your ticket through your school, there is a chance you’ll be gouged on the price of the ticket, paying more than the value than you could get on a site like Stubhub.

Why would you want to buy your ticket through your school? Well, you want to do that so that you school won’t be forced to eat the cost of the unsold tickets and have those unsold tickets count against the bowl payout.

So you’d rather deny those hardworking student athletes a reward for a good season?

Nope. Not saying that at all. However, if we are going to keep this bowl system in the name of almighty tradition, we need to shore some things up, and mainly keep it as a reward of sorts. If you have a mediocre season, I don’t see that as being a reason to get sent to a bowl game – especially since it’s not like all of the bowls are in warm weather destinations. I grew up in New York City; it was never warm in December. Granted, it might be warmer than Syracuse that time of year, but I have feeling that Manhattan, Kansas and the Bronx are probably about a draw.

We’re not rewarding success with 70 bowl games; we’re accepting mediocrity and it’s getting close to the point of having participatory trophies for simply showing up for 12 games a season. I would rather see the number of bowls cut down, only 8-4 teams or better being allowed to go, and an adjustment to how the payouts are done so as not to hold an institution hostage and force them into the red for a glorified exhibition game.

Anyway, that’s why I’ve only got three bowl games that are appointment viewing. I might check in on the others, but like I said earlier, I’ve got plans. If you want to watch them all, feel free. But I won’t be glued to my television set.

The Woodchipper

2010-12-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

With the breaking news of Urban Meyer's second resignation from the Florida Gators dropping today (courtesy of Brett McMurphy of AOL Fanhouse), and due to a discussion on Twitter with BCSChick and Lonely Tailgater, I decided to run through the coaching database and come up with who has been coaching at their current institution for at least ten seasons, so the line of demarcation is 2001.

There are a few special circumstances, where coaches left programs and returned. But in that case, if their total years add up to 10 or more, they were included.

Without further ado, listed in alphabetical order by institution (Coaching years in parentheses):
Randy Edsall - UConn (1999)
Howard Schnellenberger - Florida Atlantic (2001)
Pat Hill - Fresno State (1997)
Mark Richt - Georgia (2001)
Kirk Ferentz - Iowa (1999)
Bill Snyder - Kansas State (1989-2005; 2009-present)
Ralph Friedgen - Maryland (2001)
Gary Pinkel - Missouri (2001)
Chris Ault - Nevada (1976-1992; 1994-1995; 2004-present)
Jim Tressel - Ohio State (2001)
Bob Stoops - Oklahoma (1999)
Mike Riley - Oregon State (1997-1998; 2003-present)
Joe Paterno - Penn State (1966)
Greg Schiano - Rutgers (2001)
Mack Brown - Texas (1998)
Gary Patterson - TCU (2000)
Larry Blakeney - Troy (1991)
Frank Beamer - Virginia Tech (1987)
Jim Grobe - Wake Forest (2001)

NCAA Cam Newton Ruling Puzzling

2010-12-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

So Cam Newton's father Cecil Newton, Sr. did request money for Cam Newton to play at Mississippi State. But allegedly, Cam knew nothing about that request. So he eligible to play in this weekend's SEC Championship Game against South Carolina with a trip to the BCS Championship and the Heisman Trophy on the line.

Newton's father will have limited access to the Auburn program, according to the NCAA. This basically means he can hang with his son and watch Auburn games, but that's probably about it from what I can gather.

Nothing will happen to Auburn.

Now, there's one other thing: All of that is based on the evidence that was before the NCAA at this time. The NCAA doesn't comment on potential or on-going investigations. And from what I can see, they haven't completely closed the book on this case yet.

If it turns out that the Newtons received extra benefits from Auburn, trust me: Auburn will feel the hammer from the NCAA. But as of right now, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that links Auburn to a payment to Cecil Newton.

Yes, yes, I know: there was a report from ESPN.com's Joe Schad that stated that Cam Newton told someone he wanted to go to Mississippi State, but the money from Auburn was "too much."

However, don't you think that if there was any validity to that report, that Newton would have been held out at some point prior? Or that the NCAA would have declared him ineligible?

Yes, Cecil Newton solicited for money from Mississippi State. But what some people are missing is that: a) no money changed hands and; b) Cam isn't at MSU.

So while what Cecil Newton did was appalling, it is hard to prove that Cam knew what his father was doing. These meetings being discussed were clandestine and I have yet to see that Cam was along for the ride to any of them.

How, then, can you punish the son for the sins of the father if the sin was merely asking for cash?

Do I think that this opens a loophole for parents or other relatives acting on behalf of players to ask for money from teams? No, I don't. Because receiving extra benefits is still a major violation (see Bush, Reggie for proof of that). And no, the Bush case, to me, is not relevant here at all. In that case, extra benefits were provided and received by both family and student-athlete in that scenario. The student-athlete in question received benefits of his own and even if he hadn't, there is no way that he could not have known about the house.

It's like people trying to compare Cam Newton's situation to the one involving University of Kentucky basketball player Enes Kanter and the fact that his family received benefits from a team over in his native Turkey. Again, notice the distinction: Benefits received vs. benefits asked for.

I can understand how some folks might think it is wrong. But in this case, as far as I am concerned, the NCAA got things right. Until further evidence is presented, Cam Newton should be allowed to play.

Black Friday to be Great for College Football

2010-11-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

The term “Black Friday,” when associated with the day after Thanksgiving, is a day when the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest. If you’re willing to get up early enough (or now, willing to stay up late enough) and brave the crowds, you can find some great deals and steals.

College football fans will experience their own Black Friday this week, as a bevy of wonderful football action can be had simply for the cost of time spent away from the family and the crazy shoppers and plopped in front of the TV, at a sports bar or in a man cave somewhere.

Now that I think about it, the Black Friday analogy may not be the best descriptor for the bounty we can expect on Friday. Perhaps it would make more sense to refer to this Friday’s slate as “Thanksgiving 2: Cornucopia’s Revenge.”

There’s the crudités platter of MAC action, with division titles on the line if Northern Illinois can beat Eastern Michigan and Ohio can take out Kent State. Much like the celery/bell pepper/carrot platter, they will largely be ignored. Louisville/Rutgers and West Virginia/Pitt serve as the pre-dinner cocktails (because you will need some semblance of alcohol to get through those games).

Of course, all roads lead to the main event of Friday, the Iron Bowl. This is the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy of the day. Full of drama, intrigue and the chance of something crazy happening—just like the archetypal meal taking place on Thursday afternoon for most families. Last year, it was Auburn taking the Tide down to the wire; this year, Alabama gets to try and derail a championship run for the Tigers. Add in Cam Newton playing on the road against a hated rival while still under investigation, and it will be a wild scene in Tuscaloosa.

Filling in for the sweet potato/pumpkin pie in our football games as meal analogy, we have Arizona traveling to the Autzen Zoo to face Oregon. And for those who need a late night snack after gorging on food most of the day, we have the late kickoff of Boise State at Nevada.

When the light dawns on Saturday, there could be complete and utter chaos in the BCS, or the status quo could be set in relatively firm stone. I will say this though: it should be a helluva Black Friday.

Northwestern/Illinois Game Takes A Turn

2010-11-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

On Monday, when I first saw pictures of the field for the Northwestern-Illinois game this coming weekend at Wrigley Field, my first reaction was, "Really?"

The end zone at the east end of the field, near the right field wall, wasn't even a full end zone. The bleachers cut off part of it, and the brick wall (while padded) essentially jutted out into the field of play. Good luck running any deep posts into the end zone or running anything other than shallow crosses from inside the five yard line.

It seemed like a recipe for disaster. As Matt Zemek of College Football News put it on Twitter: "If you're a parent of an Illinois or Northwestern WR / TE / RB / DB / CB / SS / FS-- any perimeter player--U should want this field re-drawn."

The layout was apparently approved by representatives of both Illinois and Northwestern. But today, the Big Ten stepped in and pulled a Lee Corso. Not so fast, my friends from the Land of Lincoln:

"The Big Ten Conference announced a series of adjustments to football playing rules in order to enhance student-athlete safety for the Illinois-Northwestern game to be played on Saturday, Nov. 20, at Wrigley Field in Chicago."

It would have been nice if the league had stepped in earlier during the surveying process for laying down the grid, but whatever. It's 24 hours to kickoff. Maybe they'll cut down the end zone at the west side and make it only 8 yards, or cut both back to be equitable, but I'm sure it'll be something simple.

Um:

The following rule changes were determined to be the best of all options and will be in effect for this game only based on the unique layout of the field.
1) All offensive plays will head toward the West end zone, including all extra points and all overtime possessions.
2) All kickoffs will be kicked toward the East end zone.
3) After every change of possession, the ball will be repositioned for the offense to head toward the West end zone.
4) As a result of a coin toss held by the conference office Friday morning, Illinois will occupy the West team bench in the first half and Northwestern will occupy the West team bench in the second half and for all overtime periods.

If you bought tickets for the East End Zone, how upset are you today that outside of kickoffs and turnovers returned for touchdowns, you aren't going to see any game action? I would be livid, personally.

I appreciate the fact that someone finally decided, after seeing the field, that enough was enough and that you really couldn't play a game in that configuration. Like I said upstream, it would have been better if this had occurred before the grid was actually laid down to find a better orientation for the field, but whatever.

Here's a thought, though: If you wanted to play a football game in the city of Chicago this weekend, wouldn't it have been nice to have scheduled the game in a venue that is actually designed for football? A novel concept, I know. If only the city of Chicago had such a facility.

Oh, wait. It does. It's called Soldier Field. And from what I can see, it's available this weekend.

Is it as iconic as Wrigley Field? Probably not, especially since the rebuild in 2003. But it wouldn't have allowed the game to become a mockery, either.

Unpacking The Current World of Cameron Newton

2010-11-10T15:04:00.000-08:00

So let me see if I've got some of this straight.

In the last two weeks, Cam Newton has gone from potential Heisman frontrunner and a positive, happy redemption story in college football to an academic fraud at the University of Florida and (in conjunction with his father) pure chattel to be sold to the highest bidder for his on-field talents and skill set. Oh, and Cam Newton also may or may not be part of the New World Order, threw the ballots from some counties in Florida in 2000 out the window and may or may not have been behind the break up of the Beatles.

Does that sound about right?

I mean, it can't be any crazier than what is currently being reported on by various media outlets. The final straw happened on Twitter today, when it was tweeted and retweeted that a reporter from ESPN Radio in Dallas was alleging that the NCAA was going to suspend Cam Newton later this afternoon. When he was contacted, the reporter in question said that he never said that.

Oops. A false alarm.Misinformation gets out, gets retweeted and then when disproven just vanishes in a cloud of smoke as if it never happened.

Meanwhile, the Newton's are either being mocked for neither confirming nor denying the reports or for emphatically denying wrong doing—possibly because there are so many things that are being thrown their way that they cannot keep up.

There are reports. At this time, there is no concrete evidence suggesting that Newton or his father, Cecil Sr., received any monetary benefits for his enrolling at Auburn. There is no direct paper trail that has come to light that I've seen reported anywhere.

Until that can be proven, he should be eligible at Auburn unless Auburn decides to pull him off the field until the investigation is resolved or the NCAA states that he is ineligible and cannot play.

With regards to his academics, that is simply a red herring to me. Academic issues at the school he attended two (two!) instituions ago should, to me, have nothing to do with his ability to play at Auburn—again, unless Auburn decides it is relevant.

I'm not naive enough to think that players don't get sold to the highest bidder, or that players don't cheat. College students cheat. College students like money. That's a fact of life.

I'm also not naive enough to think that Cam Newton can't be judged because of allegations. In the court of public opinion, you can be convicted on the flimsiest bits of evidence. Hell, you can be convicted without any evidence; rampant speculation can be enough until you demonstrate concretely that you are innocent.

What I want, and will continue to cry out for, though, is patience. Let the investigation run its course. Let the evidence come to light and breathe. Then we will decide if Cam Newton and/or his family broke the rules. If he or his family are guilty, then convict them and run them into the ground if you so choose.

Just don't put the cart before the horse.

Pac-12 needs a conference title game site. It's right under their nose

2010-09-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

With Colorado now being granted clearance to leave the Big 12 after this season to join Utah in the Pac-12 conference, there are two issues that will hopefully be resolved for the conference after a couple of meetings this month.

One issue is how to split the conference into divisions.

The other is to determine where to play the conference championship game.

The current line of thought on issue number one is that the conference is going to go with a North/South split and have a rotational pod system to ensure that the other schools will have access to California at least twice a year. You can't let that fertile recruiting ground go.

I personally, am in favor of more of a "zipper" process which would still allow for the multiple visits to California every season.

What I want to focus on, though, is the second issue. Where should the Pac-12 play their newly minted title game?

Glendale, Arizona, San Francisco, Seattle and Oakland have all been mentioned as possible sites for the game. Additionally, having the higher ranked school host the game at their home field has been brought up as an option to consider as well.

One other location has been mentioned as a possibility. It's the location that I am willing to get behind, as are others.

Las Vegas.

Sam Boyd Stadium, home of the UNLV Rebels. Okay technically, Sam Boyd is in Henderson, NV (about five miles or so from my house actually), but it is part of the greater Las Vegas Valley.

Sam Boyd Stadium, in its current configuration, seats about 36,000 although it can hold around 45,000 as it has for Las Vegas Bowls in recent years.

Now, this might seem small in comparison to some of the other stadiums that house the neutral site conference championship games in football.

However, there is no way that the Pac-12 would want to go to a large stadium and have shots of empty seats. There's a picture that you can find on the internet if you Google "ACC Championship Game Empty Seats."

Do that and look at that picture. See all of the empty seats? There is no way, given the risk that Larry Scott took this summer with the wacky Pac-16 plan, that he can sell a half-empty stadium to his constituents.

Sam Boyd Stadium makes sense because of venue size. It makes sense as a destination city with hotels galore. The weather, while it can be dicey in early December, still has a chance of being good.

Sounds like a win to me. Go ahead, Larry Scott and Pac-10 officials: roll the dice on Vegas.

Questioning Paying FBS Football Players

2010-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Reading the Associated Press article about Reggie Bush returning his Heisman Trophy and how that's not an admission of guilt (Um, sure), I was struck by the closing graphs (emphasis mine):

Bush said he also wants to start a program to help high school and college athletes deal with the pressures and temptations that come when their ability provides them celebrity and fame before they've turned pro.
"You're still a kid, but you're still asked to make adult decisions," Bush said, alluding to a handful of college teams -- including North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina -- dealing with probes into whether their players had improper contact with agents.
"Whatever the NCAA has, whatever programs they have, aren't working and it needs to be changed. If it's not changed, it's going to continue and it hasn't stopped yet," Bush said. "It's going to continue year after year after year and you're going to see kids be ineligible. You're going to see great athletes missing their junior and senior year and seasons because the system doesn't work.
"Obviously something has to be changed. You've got universities making millions of dollars off these kids and they don't get paid. The majority of college athletes who come in on scholarship come in [with] nothing. That's where you have a problem. You're making all this money off these kids and you're giving them crumbs and then you're surrounding these kids with money and telling them not to touch it," he said.

They don't get paid?

According to USC's own website, a student who attends USC for the 2010-2011 school year should expect to pay, in tuition and fees, room and board and for books about $54,100—not including personal expenses.

Now, when Reggie was there, it was a little bit lower—around the $40,000 to $45,000 range for the cost of attendance. Even so, let's say that you're there three years as a potential first round draft pick. You have received (tax free) something in the neighborhood of $120,000 to $140,000 if you attend a private school.

Is that money directly in your pocket? Well, no. But as an educator, it irks me when people who call for athletes to be "paid" discount the fact that a post-secondary education is a very expensive proposition. There are plenty of bright students who would kill for a chance to have a free ride to Southern Cal and wouldn't view it as "not being paid."

Additionally, even if you are receiving an athletic scholarship, there is nothing to stop you from getting a paying job during the summer. You are not obligated to take courses during the summer, so you can work if you need walk around money. Would it be enough to buy a tricked-out Impala with rims? No, probably not.

But I find the line that college football players are not receiving anything for their hard work to be laughable at best and downright sad at worst.

Additionally, name me a university that is making millions of dollars off of athletics. Hell, only 14 FBS athletic departments reported positive net generated revenues in 2009, which is a decline from 25 in 2008. Many public colleges and universities have had to resort to furloughs or layoffs for faculty and staff and are cutting programs, services and departments because of the sorry state of their budgets. So where could all of this money that the colleges and universities are allegedly making be going?

Here is a larger question I have for those, though, with the sentiment that football players should be paid: How are you going to do it?

Title IX doesn't appear to come into play here, as the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Education (which oversees Title IX) states that:

Unequal aggregate expenditures for members of each sex or unequal expenditures for male and female teams if a recipient operates or sponsors separate teams will not constitute noncompliance with this section, but the Assistant Secretary may consider the failure to provide necessary funds for teams for one sex in assessing equality of opportunity for members of each sex."(34 C.F.R. §106.41(c))

So that isn't an issue at this point, unless pay for play gets implemented and a lawsuit generates because of it.

The questions I have:

1) Where is the money coming from? Who is actually going to create the fund that will pay the football players? Obviously, revenue is not coming directly from football itself; those funds are usually used to help prop up the so-called olympic, or non-revenue sports. Which, if paying football players forced those sports to be cut or reduced, then you could find yourself careening towards a potential Title IX conflict.

2) Who is going to determine how much a football player gets paid? Would that be expected to come from the NCAA to ensure some kind of fairness and level playing field? Or would it be left to the conferences or even the schools to set their own pay scale?

3) Scholarship athletes only, or are walk-ons eligible for a check?

4) In addition, do starters get more than third stringers? What happens if a player is a starter one year and gets beaten out the next?

5) Is this year round payment, or only during the fall semester/quarter?

If someone from the pay-for-play side can provide a well-thought out response to these questions, it would be greatly appreciated. But you have to be convincing.

Poll Position: It's Too Early To Matter

2010-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know Scott Wolf, USC Trojans beat writer for the Los Angeles Daily News, personally.

His bio reads: "Scott Wolf has covered USC for the Daily News since 1996. A USC graduate, he covered his first Trojan game in 1984 for the Daily Trojan. Scott is known as the "scourge of the Internet message boards," according to radio host Petros Papadakis. Despite this moniker, there's no truth to the rumor he takes pleasure in antagonizing the "Internet geeks."

Well, it's not the internet geeks per se that he has been antagonizing lately.

It's the Big Ten Conference.

According to Pollspeak's Pollstalker function, Wolf had Ohio State ranked #6 in the preseason, Iowa #14 and Wisconsin #25. Ohio State and Iowa were near extreme lows and his vote for Wisconsin was the lowest ranking the Badgers received.

Ohio State was ranked #2, Iowa was #9 and Wisconsin was #12.

After week one, Wolf had Ohio State still at #6, Iowa at #13 and Wisconsin up at #23. These were the lowest rankings for these three teams.

After week two, Wolf dropped Ohio State to #7 (after being Miami (FL)), Iowa moved up to #10 and Wisconsin stayed at #23. While the ranking for Iowa was not extreme, the rankings for Ohio State and Wisconsin were once again the lowest ranking for these squads.

Three thoughts immediately come to mind after looking at this information. One, is that the ballot for a particular voter is simply their opinion about who they view as the best 25 teams in the country in any given week. The exercise I just performed could be done to tear apart anyone's ballot if you are a partisan of a particular team or conference.

The second thought is that this is the Associated Press poll. In the long run, while it is interesting to get the opinion of a writer like Scott Wolf or a talking head like Kirk Herbstreit, the relevance of the AP poll is inconsequential.

It is a topic of conversation and consternation to be sure, but it has no tangible impact on who is crowned the mythical national champion in Division 1-FBS football. Remember, the BCS is made up of the coaches poll and the Harris Interactive Poll. Harris came aboard after the AP, who used to be part of the formula, pulled out after the 2004 season.

The third thought I have is this: It's week two, people. Two games have been played by teams at most. Things need time to settle down before you can truly see who deserves to be ranked where.

So uptight Big Ten people, relax. Badgers and Buckeyes and Wolverines, come in from the ledge.

There is still plenty of time for all of this to shake out.

2010 Sunday Brunch: Week Two

2010-09-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Let's pass out some food and drinks and look at some performances from yesterday's action.

Raise a glass of champagne or send a mimosa to:

Mickey Matthews, James Madison University and Ed Meierkort, University of South Dakota: For the second week in a row, we cheer for Division 1-FCS teams knocking off BCS opponents.

The Coyotes of the University of South Dakota knocked off Minnesota 41-38, spoiling the home opener for the Golden Gophers and making things just a bit more uncomfortable for Tim Brewster.

The Dukes of James Madison, ranked number 11 in the FCS poll, outscoring Virginia Tech 14-3 in the second half to come from behind against the Hokies in their home opener on the short turnaround from Labor Day.

A big pot of coffee and a bottle of Advil for:

Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer: Because the Hokies (0-2) must have been dealing with a hangover from the Labor Day tilt against Boise State. Yes, James Madison is not a pushover. But the short turnaround had to have impacted the preparation for the Hokies, and could explain why they ran out of steam in the second half.

Once again, it appears that the Hokies might not live up to expectations. Beamer has to try and right this ship quickly

A big platter of biscuits and gravy for:

Jimbo Fisher, Florida State; Randy Shannon, Miami (FL); Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech:

I was trying to think of an ultimate comfort food to comfort these coaches for bad losses this week.

Georgia Tech traveled to Lawrence, Kansas and lost to a Jayhawks team that lost to North Dakota State last week 6-3.

Miami traveled to Ohio State and self-destructed, with quarterback Jacory Harris throwing four interceptions in a 36-24 loss at the Horseshoe.

Florida State was never in the game against Oklahoma, getting dusted 47-17.

Combined with the loss by the Hokies, and it was a bad day for the top of the ACC.

An elegant and simple crab quiche for one goes to:

Denard Robinson, quarterback, Michigan: It's way too early to talk about the Heisman Trophy. Only two games have been played. But if he keeps up on this pace, Robinson will pass for about 2600 yards (12 games) at a 70 percent clip and rush for about 2700 yards on 28 carries a game (also in 12 games). Which would be unreal and is totally unrealistic at this point.

But the kid has been a star so far, and his confidence is soaring. With UMass, Bowling Green and Indiana looming, the sky truly is the limit.

Of course, the true tests for Robinson are in mid October and mid November. If he's still putting up ridiculous numbers by then, we'll talk.

Friday's Quick Slant: Picking some big Saturday Games

2010-09-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Four games of interest nationally on Saturday, so let's take a quick peek and offer some uninformed prognostications:

Michigan @ Notre Dame: Yeah, yeah, Brian Kelly's trying to wake up the echoes and Rich Rodriguez might have found a quarterback. The Irish fought off a rally by Purdue and the Wolverines christened the newly expanded Big House by demolishing UConn.

There is a significant chance of rain in the forecast, and with that in mind, I think Michigan might be better suited to win a game in sloppy weather. Even so, it has the makings of a shootout, and I like the Wolverines to win 38-35.

Flordia State @ Oklahoma: A rematch of the title game for the 2000 season, which Oklahoma won 13-2. Bob Stoops is still there, but Bobby Bowden is gone from the Florida State sidelines. Oklahoma survived a bit of a scare from Utah State (!) 31-24 last week while Florida State blasted Samford.

Oklahoma needs to get more out of Landry Jones, who looked like he was a first time starter against the Aggies from Logan, Utah. Jones needs to step up to keep Florida State from trying to stack the box. Also needing to step up is the Oklahoma secondary, who got three interceptions off of Diondre Borel but still gave up 341 yards passing. Christian Ponder is a very good quarterback, so the Sooners might have their work cut out for them.

But while it has been hard to call Stoops "Big Game Bob" any more, I don't see the Sooners losing this game at home. Even with trying to put 8 in the box to slow down the OU running game, I think DeMarco Murray has his way with the Seminoles. Ponder will make it interesting on his side, but I see at 30-27 type game won by OU.

Penn State @ Alabama: For the history, of course. (This game is a rematch of the 1979 Sugar Bowl, which decided the 1978 National Championship.) Because even though Mark Ingram is out for this game, Alabama won't need him. Penn State true freshman Robert Bolden looked good in his first game, but he was playing Youngstown State, and it still took the Nittany Lions a long time to get going in that game. There won't be a miraculous comeback against the Alabama defense in Tuscaloosa. Defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and Nick Saban will dial up lots of different looks to confuse young mister Bolden. If he can get out of there in one piece it will be a small miracle.

The Lions will go down hard, 31-14.

Miami (FL) @ Ohio State: Yet another championship game rematch (this time the 2002 regular season title), although the players involved in that controversial game are long gone. Since that game, Miami has been through some dark times but appears to have turned a corner under Randy Shannon, and expectations are high for this group. Led by flamboyant quarterback Jacory Harris, the swagger appears to have returned to "the U."

Meanwhile, business has continued as usual for the Buckeyes under Jim Tressel, as Ohio State has dominated the Big Ten but came up short in a couple of national title games and other big games until last year's run. Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State's potential Heisman candidate quarterback, still has a lot to prove, but if he can have a big game against the 'Canes, it would help elevate him.

Harris is the better pure quarterback, but Pryor is a dual-threat who is becoming better as a pocket passer. Both quarterbacks have talented backs and receivers around them. It's going to come down to the defenses and who winds up making a mistake. Even though Ohio State has lost the last two big non-conference games at home (USC, Texas), I think that the run from late last season will carry over here and the Buckeyes win a close one late, 24-21

Wednesday Quick Slant: Reggie Bush's Heisman

2010-09-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Back in May I wrote about the (at the time) seemingly endless wait for the decision of the NCAA regarding the Reggie Bush investigation. A decision hadn't been rendered, but I thought that it would be a lot of waiting for a slap on the wrist.

Well, it turned out to not be a slap on the wrist, and the NCAA threw a midsized book at USC, forcing the Trojans to essentially disavow any knowledge of Reggie Bush. This included removing his trophies and memorabilia from display at Heritage Hall and also led new athletic director Pat Haden to return the copy of the Heisman Trophy back to the Heisman Trust.

Earlier this week Yahoo! Sports (who initially broke the Reggie Bush story) reported that the Heisman Trust was going to revoke the award from Bush and ask for the trophy back. The Heisman Trust has since denied the veracity of the report.

There are quite a few folks who think that if the Heisman Trust does revoke the trophy that they are making a grave mistake. It's another case of hypocrisy against the trodden-on revenue generating athlete, and all Bush did was take a car and a rent free, six figure house for his parents. It's not like he ran a counterfiting operation (Billy Cannon) or committed a convoluted armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel/casino (O.J. Simpson) or was a deadbeat dad (Billy Sims).

We can address whether intercollegiate athletes should be paid or not at another time, but for me, it's a simple issue:

Reggie Bush was ruled ineligible for the 2005 season by the NCAA. Which means, to me, that he shouldn't have been on the field. If he was not supposed to be on the field, then he shouldn't be allowed to retain a trophy that was acquired during a time of ineligibility.

Because while there are plenty of Heisman winners that performed questionably after their playing days were over, and while there are past Heisman winners who have received extra benefits, only one was caught and declared ineligible, from what I can gather.

That was Reggie Bush.

Is it piling on? Perhaps.

But taking back the Heisman, to me, is the only move.

The Boise State Conundrum

2010-09-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

I am willing to admit when I am wrong.

I was wrong about last night on a variety of levels. I was wrong about it being a low scoring game, and I was wrong about Bosie State losing.

It's not because I don't like Boise State; I actually root for the Broncos because I think it might create the chaos necessary to get the ball rolling towards a playoff.

Yes, I am a playoff proponent, in part because it's nonsensical that in this day and age, when every other NCAA sport has a playoff that decides the champion, the participants in the national title game of the lead sport in college are picked by coaches, people formerly associated with the game, and a byzantine computer algorithm.

I am the kind of person who looks to the past to try and understand the present. How did we get here, etc. What I wanted to look at with regards to Boise State is how did we get here.

We all know about Boise State's impressive run through the WAC; they have won or shared tthe league title all but two years since joining it in 2001 (2001 and 2007 when Louisiana Tech and Hawai'i won it, respectively). Not only that, but outside of 2005' split title with Nevada, Boise State has gone undefeated every year it's won the WAC.

The WAC has been in a state of flux all of that time due to the comings and goings of teams and the reshuffling that took place due to the ACC expansion in 2004. What I wanted to focus on today was how Boise State has done in the part of the schedule that they have been able to control historically (to some degree). I wanted to see how the Broncos have fared in the non-conference portion of their schedule since joining the WAC in 2001.

So to the history books and the dusty parts of the interwebs where such data resides. I'd like to thank College Football Data Warehouse for providing me with the schedules for Boise State.

For this, I'll list the home games in blue and road games in red. Bowl games and neutral site games are listed in black. This includes the games through last night. (And yes, last night was considered a neutral site, even if it was a de facto home game for Virginia Tech. )

Rankings for opponents are from the coaches poll and reflect the team's rankings at the time of the game. Opponent's home conference in parentheses.

2001 (non-conference record: 2-2)
@ #21 South Carolina: L 13-32 (SEC)
Washington State: L 20-41 (Pac-10)
@ Idaho: W 45-13 (Sunbelt)
Central Michigan: W 26-10 (MAC)

2002 (4-1)
Idaho: W 38-21 (Sunbelt)
@Arkansas: L 14-41 (SEC)
@ Wyoming: W 35-13 (MWC)
Utah State: W 63-38 (Sunbelt)
Iowa State: W 34-16 in Humanitarian Bowl (Big 12)

2003 (4-1)
Idaho State: W 63-0 (I-AA)
@Idaho: W 24-10 (Sunbelt)
@Oregon State: L 24-26 (Pac-1o)
Wyoming: W 33-17 (MWC)
#19 TCU: W 34-31 in Fort Worth Bowl (C-USA)

2004 (3-1)
Idaho: W 65-7 (Sunbelt)
Oregon State: W 30-27 (Pac-10)
BYU: W 28-27 (MWC)
#8 Louisville: L 41-44 in Liberty Bowl (C-USA)

2005 (2-3)
@ #13 Georgia: L 13-48 (SEC)
@Oregon State: L 27-30 (Pac-10)
Bowling Green: W 48-20 (MAC)
Portland State: W 21-14 (I-AA)
#19 Boston College: L 21-27 in MPC Computers Bowl (ACC)

2006 (5-0)
Sacramento State: W 45-0 (I-AA)
Oregon State: W 42-14 (Pac-10)
@Wyoming: W 17-10 (MWC)
@Utah: W 36-3 (MWC)
#10 Oklahoma: W 43-42 in OT in Fiesta Bowl (Big 12)

2007 (3-2)
Weber State: W 56-7 (I-AA)
@Washington: L 10-24 (Pac-10)
Wyoming: W 24-14 (MWC)
Southern Mississippi: W 38-16 (C-USA)
East Carolina: L 38-41 in Hawai'i Bowl (C-USA)

2008 (4-1)
Idaho State: W 49-7 (I-AA)
Bowling Green: W 20-7 (MAC)
@ #12 Oregon: W 37-32 (Pac-10)
@Southern Mississippi: W 24-7 (C-USA)
#11 TCU: L 16-17 in SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl (MWC)

2009 (6-0)
#14 Oregon: W 19-8 (Pac-10)
Miami (OH): W 48-0 (MAC)
@Bowling Green: W 49-14 (MAC)
UC Davis: W 34-16 (I-AA)
@ Tulsa: W 28-21 (C-USA)
#3 TCU: W 17-10 in Fiesta Bowl (MWC)

2010 (1-0)
#6 Virginia Tech: W 33-30 in neutral site in Landover, MD (ACC)

So, for the record, since 2001:
Non-conference: 34-11 (including bowl games)
Bowl games: 4-4
BCS bowl games: 2-0
Vs. BCS conference schools: 7-8
vs. TCU: 2-1
vs. BYU: 1-0
vs. Utah: 1-0
vs. SEC: 0-3 (all on the road)
vs. Top-25 opponents: 6-5 (but on a 5-1 streak since playing Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl)

It's not like this program is a flash in the pan. The Broncos have been steadily building themselves for the better part of a decade. Dan Hawkins started the job, but the program has hit another gear since Chris Petersen took over before the 2006 season, when the Broncos really started to become a national name.

What has some hands wringing already, though, is now that the Broncos have cleared the early season hurdle (although Oregon State still comes to the blue turf in two weeks) of a top-10 opponent, how far/how high will Boise State rise. They were moved up from number five to number three in the coaches poll released today, but we won't get the Harris Poll results for another couple of weeks, and the BCS standings sometime in late October.

When some more games get played and some things shake out, I don't see the Broncos being higher than number three in the BCS standings if Ohio State and Alabama handle their business. The albatross that is the weekly WAC power rating (and I think a couple of losses) will keep Boise State from Glendale.

Then again, stranger seasons have occurred recently....

Tuesday's Quick Slant: Get on the bus?

2010-09-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

Apparently Pat Forde is going to drive the bus from Boise, Idaho to Glendale, Arizona, declaring last night that it's time to "Get. On. The. Bus." and leading the Forde Yard Dash this week with the same declaration.

I'm still going to wait to see if the Broncos can navigate some late season traps. Even though I was wrong about last night, I don't think it's a cakewalk for the Broncos at this point to head to the BCS title game.

Let's see when the Harris Poll comes out in October and how much they get penalized for the WAC strength of schedule - unless the WAC is miraculously going to beat up on all of their non-conference opponents.

Monday's Quick Slant: A glance at Virginia Tech-Boise State

2010-09-05T22:51:00.001-07:00

It's the final game of opening weekend, and a fitting way to end the unofficial final day of summer.

Boise State playing a "neutral site" game against Virginia Tech in Landover, MD. (Washington, D.C.)

The number 3 ranked Broncos are the favorite and return 21 of 22 starters. Virginia Tech is among the favorites to win their division in the ACC.

While Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore is the more heralded of the signal callers, it would be foolish to overlook Tyrod Taylor of Virginia Tech. Taylor is a senior and has a huge arm, although his accuracy could be better. Taylor also can make plays with his legs, although he was not called on to do so that much last season.

Virginia Tech also has a talented backfield, with sophomore Ryan Williams being joined by returning junior Darren Evans to form a formidable one-two punch. Also, look for Taylor to utilize the big play with his arm by throwing to Jarret Boykin and Danny Coale.

Boise State will use some gadget plays and a healthy dose of screens and draws to take advantage of a normally aggressive Virginia Tech defense early on to set up some more conventional offense a bit later in the game. But look for diversified playcalling from the get-go, with multiple looks and formations and motions within the first 15-20 plays from the Broncos.

I said last week I see the Broncos losing two games this season: one game to Idaho. I think the other game is tonight. It will be close and a defensive struggle, but I think that the Hokies will make one more play than the Broncos (a blocked kick, perhaps) and that one play will make the difference. And then we'll see how the voters respond.

Virginia Tech 16, Boise State 14

2010 Sunday Brunch: Week One

2010-09-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a new feature this year here at Pigskin Punditry: The Sunday Brunch, where we try to look at a few odds and ends from the Saturday games. This week's brunch will be brief because of my travel schedule, but we will have a fuller menu next week:

Coach(es) who deserve mimosas and bloody marys:

Craig Bohl, North Dakota State Bisons and Jack Crowe, Jacksonville State Gamecocks—these guys deserve a toast and a nice beverage for leading their teams to victory over Division 1-FBS competition. Yes, I know: they beat a rebuilding Kansas and a schizophrenic Ole Miss respectively.

But they still went on the road into hostile territory and beat teams from BCS automatic qualifying conferences.

The Bison upset the Jayhawks in a defensive struggle 6-3.

The Gamecocks won a shootout in Oxford with a bold gamble for a two point conversion in double overtime to seal a 49-48 win.

A huge platter of eggs Benedict for:

Coty Blanchard, quarterback, Jacksonville State: a big 30 yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-15 and then a game clinching two-point conversion. Not bad for a true freshman playing in his first game.

Denard Robinson, quarterback, Michigan: 383 yards of total offense. 19-22 passing. A school record for a quarterback with 197 yards rushing. Not a bad first start for the sophomore. Rich Rodriguez may have found his quarterback. Although I think we shall reserve judgment, because Tate Forcier looked impressive starting the year last year and we all know where things went as the season went on.

Coach who must be feeling nauseous:

Mike Riley, Oregon State: On the road (yes, it was technically a neutral site, but it was a road game on multiple levels) against one of the top mid major teams. A chance to drive down the field to tie the game (or even win it with a two-point conversion).

And the snap goes through the hands of your sophomore starting quarterback and he is forced to kick it out the back of the end zone.

Safety. Ball game. And with a trip to Boise State still looming later this month, it looks like yet another slow start for the Oregon State Beavers might be on the horizon.

Wednesday's Quick Slant: It's All About the "Y"

2010-09-01T11:09:00.001-07:00

As I write this, BYU is holding the news conference to discuss the move to independence in football and to the WCC in some of their olympic sports.

Further proof that the mtn., a television network for the Mountain West Conference, was a big mistake.

Let me clarify that: It wasn't a mistake to create a television network for the conference, as the Big Ten has proved that a television network dedicated to one conference can be successful.

The debacle with regards to the mtn. is that it was poorly thought out and executed, and the inflexibility of either Comcast/CBS Sports or MWC commissioner Craig Thompson to renegotiate the deal or try to change parameters of coverage and exposure has led Utah to the Pac-10 (12) and BYU out the door as well.

Not that the people who actually broadcast game aren't good or don't work hard; this has nothing to do with on-camera or off-camera talent.

This is focused on the management, plain and simple.

It took well over a year for the mtn. to become available here in the Las Vegas Valley and in parts of San Diego (because the mtn. was not available on Cox). Hell, if you are in a place that carries Time Warner Cable (parts of San Diego County, for example), you still can't get the mtn.

TCU has emerged as a crown jewel of the conference in football, receiving a BCS bowl bid last season, but it's hard to find them in Dallas-Fort Worth on Versus and CBS College Sports. the mtn. also isn't available in Dallas-Forth Worth and it doesn't look like it will be anytime soon.

Heck, in 2007 BYU and Utah even went so far as to retain lawyers to look at the contract to see what could be done because they were not getting the exposure promised.

So is it any wonder that those two school and their rabid fan bases decided to leave for greener pastures?

Utah found a suitor in the Pac-10.

BYU is going it alone for football, although they found a partner in ESPN, who agreed to an eight year deal to broadcast BYU home games and also is allowing BYU-TV to rebroadcast the games on the same day as the initial airing.

That is a significant deal.

And while the WAC is crippled by the machinations of the Mountain West a couple of weeks ago when this story first started to evolve, WAC schools are giving BYU five games in 2011 and four games in 2012.

Is it a gamble? It sure is. Do I think it's going to fail? I don't think it will fail. But it's also too soon to call it a success for sure.

Pencil it in as a win, and let's reexamine it in four years.

Tuesday's Quick Slant: Wild Rebel on Hold

2010-08-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Pending a successful appeal, Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli will not be eligible to play in 2010.

Masoli, who transferred from Oregon after being booted off of the team by Chip Kelly, transferred to Ole Miss in the hopes of playing this season. Masoli still has a redshirt year that he can use, so he could be eligible in 2011.

The NCAA refused to waive the one year residency requirement for transfers. Masoli was appealing the requirement since he transferred to Ole Miss and enrolled in Parks and Recreation for his master's degree. Masoli received his bachelor's in sociology this summer from Oregon.

From the outside, and I'm just speculating and paraphrasing here, it appears that this is the message that the NCAA is delivering to Masoli:

"Congratulations on getting your bachelor's degree and enrolling in a master's program. But given your off the field transgressions of recent past and farther back (documented here in detail), it might be in your best interests to sit for a year and see if you can keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. We are not going to allow you to game the system this year by utilizing this transfer exemption.

Because let's be frank, Jeremiah: If you hadn't been kicked off the Oregon team, you would not have gone to Ole Miss."

In other words: Child, please.

UPDATE: Here is a statement from the NCAA regarding Masoli:

NCAA issues waiver decision for Ole Miss student-athlete

The NCAA staff has granted a graduate student transfer waiver for University of Mississippi football student-athlete Jeremiah Masoli, but he must wait until the 2011-12 academic year to compete. Mr. Masoli can continue to pursue his academic career, is eligible to receive athletics aid, and may practice with the team.

In its decision, the staff noted the student-athlete was unable to participate at the University of Oregon based on his dismissal from the team, which is contrary to the intent of the waiver. The waiver exists to provide relief to student-athletes who transfer for academic reasons to pursue graduate studies, not to avoid disciplinary measures at the previous university.

According to NCAA rules, created by member schools, football graduate student-athletes must receive a waiver in order to compete if they enroll in a university other than where they received their undergraduate degree.

After receiving information from both universities and the student-athlete, the NCAA staff obtained the final piece of information yesterday evening from the University of Mississippi and issued its decision today. The university may appeal this staff decision to the Subcommittee for Legislative Relief, an independent group comprised of representatives from NCAA member colleges, universities and athletic conferences.

Monday's Quick Slant: Preseason Prognostications 2010

2010-08-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's almost here.

After months of talking about realignment and arrests and agents and investigations into shady living arrangements, the 2010 season kicks off on Thursday with a slate of games highlighted by a rematch of the 2005 Fiesta Bowl: Pittsburgh at Utah.

All I can say is: Thank goodness.

But, in advance of the start of the regular season, it's time to offer up some preseason prognostications for the division winners and the BCS title game:

ACC-Atlantic: Florida State
ACC-Coastal: Virginia Tech
ACC Champ: Virginia Tech
Big 12-South: Oklahoma
Big 12-North: Nebraska
Big 12 Champ: Oklahoma
Big East: Pittsburgh
Big Ten: Ohio State
C-USA-East: UCF
C-USA-West: Houston
C-USA Champ: Houston
MAC-East: Temple
MAC-West: Central Michigan
MAC Champ: Temple
MWC: TCU
Pac-10: Oregon State
SEC-East: Florida
SEC-West: Alabama
SEC Champ: Alabama
Sunbelt: Middle Tennessee
WAC: Boise State

BCS title game: Oklahoma wins over Ohio State

I also think Navy will finish with the best record of the three independent squads, but Army will make a bowl game at 6-6.

Additionally, I think Boise State loses two games this year. One of those losses will be to Idaho as a going away present from the Vandals.

Maybe Superconferences weren't the wave of the future

2010-08-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

With the recent announcement that Texas and BYU are going to play a home and home series in 2013 and 2014, the rumor mill has started to churn. Again.

But the noise this time isn't relating to the still undecided positioning of BYU vis-a-vis its desire to be independent.

The noise this time is quite intriguing, though.

When all of the sturm und drang of the potential Pac-16 came down this spring and earlier this summer, and Texas decided to come back to the Big 12 minus two and "save it," everyone was focused on the idea of superconferences and whether they were going to be the future of Division 1-FBS football.

But as Texas has stepped up its non-conference schedule lately, adding the BYU series to a future series with Southern Cal and a four game deal with Notre Dame, some are wondering if this means a move to independence for the Longhorns is in the works.

After all, this marriage with the rest of the Big 12 is shotgun, at best, unless Dan Beebe can show the schools the money.

Notre Dame might wind up being vindicated in all of this. As BYU continues to decide its football future, and Hawai'i has mentioned that given the state of the WAC that they might go independent as well.

Maybe we were all wrong. Perhaps the future isn't in 16 team leagues like the old Western Athletic Conference or the proposed Pac-16.

Maybe the future is a return to independence.

Michigan, Ohio State, and the Tradition Paradox

2010-08-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

tra·di·tion\trə-ˈdi-shən\ noun

1 a : an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom) b : a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable

: the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction

: cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions

: characteristic manner, method, or style tradition>

Tradition. It's a loaded word when it comes to life at colleges and universities. I've joked with some of my colleagues in higher education that if something happens two years in a row, it's considered a tradition by the students.

But the reason I'm bringing up the word tradition is the debate surrounding the Big Ten and what to do with Michigan and Ohio State's annual late November tilt.

It's not very often that one can find something that will bring Buckeyes and Wolverines together, but apparently the controversy surrounding splitting Ohio State and Michigan into separate divisions and possibly moving the rivalry game is galling enough to both sides to forge an almost unholy alliance against such a thing.

I'm a fan of a Somerset Maughm quote when it comes to thinking about the power of tradition. The quote is, "Tradition is a guide and not a jailer."

I'm not saying that traditions aren't important; they serve as cross-generational touchstones. They do have a significance in imparting a shared experience and concept.

But one should never become slaves to tradition, because then you are trapped.

Back when the season really did end with Michigan and Ohio State playing the last week of the season, it made sense.

But the sport has evolved and the culture of sport has evolved. With the addition of the 12th regular season game, and the creation of conference title games, the end of November has not been the end of the regular season in a long, long time.

Yes, "The Game" had the attention of the entire nation in 2006, and it was memorable. But that was a perfect storm situation because of the number one versus number two element (a first for the series, if I recall).

Does The Game really lose its luster if it moves to October 22 or November 8? Do Wolverines hate Buckeyes less or more because they're playing a month earlier? Do Buckeyes not want to beat the tar out of the Wolverines because there are still regular season games left?

Of course not. To me, and this is my own inherent bias, the vitriol for your most hated rival exists no matter when that game is played. It could be first game, it could be the last game on the schedule, it could be game seven of the season—I don't find the calendar to be that important.

Vince Lombardi and I have a question...

2010-08-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Couldn't have said it better myself, Vince.

I've been swamped at my day job, which is par for the course when you work in higher education. Tuesday night, as I was winding down for the evening, I saw something flash across the ESPN bottom line that caught my attention. To paraphrase, "BYU considering going independent in football."

My first reaction was, "Huh?"

My second reaction is noted above.

Come Wednesday morning, it seemed that the Cougars were close to forgoing the Mountain West and joining the WAC with their Olympic sports and basketball, and playing as an independent in football. In a deal with the WAC, they would be able to schedule somewhere between four and six WAC opponents to help fill out their schedule.

This would allow BYU to increase its profile by coming up with a television contract with ESPN to carry some games and would allow BYU to expand their own broadcasting network (which is transitioning to HD). BYU would get to keep revenue from all television appearances and any bowl games—especially if they made a BCS game as an at-large.

Wednesday afternoon, the Mountain West announced it had invited Fresno State and Nevada to join the conference, and both institutions quickly accepted.

As of last night, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson was saying that BYU is still a member of the conference, which is true.

A couple of questions come to mind:

1) BYU has looked at being independent before, but it was with the risk of being independent in all of their sports. Joining the WAC was supposed to offer stability to those other teams. But with the Mountain West crippling the WAC by taking (arguably) three of the top programs this decade in Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada, there is not much left of the WAC. Does this move force BYU into check and bring them back into the fold for now?

2) If BYU returns to the fold, the Mountain West will sit at 11 teams, one team short of the tantalizing figure of 12 required to have a conference championship game. Does the league bite the bullet and try to get someone from the West Division of Conference USA (UTEP, Tulsa, Houston) to round out the league?

3) Does this move, with or without BYU, force ESPN and the Mountain West to come back to the table and negotiate some kind of a partial television contract? Or is such a plan already in the works?

4) Karl Benson needs to decide on a plan of action. Does he try and recruit schools from Conference USA or the Sun Belt to join? Do you look at adding Division 1-FCS schools Montana, Northern Arizona, Weber State or Eastern Washington (to name a few)? Because while you can still be a Division 1 school in some other sports with a reduced conference, it's not going to work for football to remain a FBS conference with only six members. The rumor yesterday about trying to poach UNLV and San Diego State is a total non-starter at this point; neither school is going to leave the Mountain West at this juncture.

So it looks like we are back to being in the midst of Expansionpalooza™ once again, and the ground is shifting. It's just smaller tremors than anticipated.

Why College Football Matters to Me

2010-08-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

I've had this blog for about a year now, but I don't think that I formally introduced myself and explained the love I have for college football. I wanted to take some time this week and tell a story about the importance of college football in my life.

I went to the University of Missouri for my bachelor's degree and went on to study for a master's degree at Illinois State University. We aren't talking about college football powerhouses here. While in graduate school, I met someone and things got pretty serious – to the point where we were living together.

I received my master's degree in higher education and I was anxious to start my career. But employment opportunities in my field simply were not happening locally. An opportunity presented itself in southeast Michigan in a town called Ypsilanti (right next to Ann Arbor) at Eastern Michigan University. I jumped at the opportunity, packed up a U-Haul and moved away.

It was a rough time for us. Things were not going well. There were lots of long, late night phone calls and tears being shed. A lot of heartache. But a salve would soon appear unexpectedly that at least temporarily healed some of the wounds.

It was college football. My girlfriend and I would spend time talking on the phone and watching the games. It was a way for us to stay connected on those weekends we couldn't be together during that fall. Plug in the cell phone, turn on the tube and spend the day watching the games.

At a rough time in our relationship, it was college football that saw us through.

So this time of year reminds me of that dark place, and as each passing day brings us closer to kickoff, I can't help but feel excited for the sport that brought be back closer to my girlfriend (and now wife).

It ties into one of the greater things I think about sports. Do we care about what happens on the field too much? Of course. But there are times that the outcome on the field is not nearly as important as the ability to simply share the experience with someone you love.

So that's where my love of college football comes from, in part. It is a reminder of the love of my wife.

(A version of this piece appears on Southern Pigskin.)

Three Grudge Matches To Watch in 2010

2010-07-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about college football is the rivalry games—those clashes between fanbases and teams that plain old don’t like each other. The intensity on the field (and occasionally in the stands or the parking lot) can get ugly from time to time, but if the two teams are evenly matched, they can provide great theater and some instant classics.

Heading into this season, with the realignment mess that took place in May and June, three rivalry games coming up in 2010 are going to be worth taking a look at. Because depending on how things shake out, outside of a bowl game, this might be the last time these three matchups will be scheduled.

Texas at Nebraska (October 16): As the Big 12 teetered on the brink of collapse, Nebraska was able to find a lifeline and will be departing for the Big Ten starting next season. Texas (depending on your perspective) either saved the Big 12 or used their position as a potential cash cow to elevate themselves over their peers.

Tom Osborne, Nebraska Athletic Director and Icon, would take the second position, methinks. And all of this conference maneuvering came on the heels of what might go down in Nebraska lore as “:01,” referring to the second that was added back to the clock at the end of the Big 12 title game last December.

Of course, there is a chance that the October 16 meeting in Lincoln won’t be the only matchup between the two. If things play out as both fan bases would like them to, they would rematch for the conference title in December.

But that October 16 meeting will be a doozy.

BYU at Utah (November 27): One of the issues that was brought up time and time again during the realignment fiasco was BYU and their Mormon heritage, and how that would have potentially been an impediment to the Cougars finding a home in a new conference if the massive dominoes had fallen.

When the dust settled, though, it was Utah that was moving on up to the Pac-10 (soon to be 12) and BYU is left behind in the Mountain West Conference. Since these two have been battling for supremacy (along with TCU) in the Mountain West for the last few years, the questions about the continuation of this series when Utah leaves has yet to be resolved. It would be a shame if the “Holy War” ended after this season, but you have to believe that BYU would love nothing more than to ruin Utah’s chances at a third undefeated season in six years.

Boise State at Idaho (November 12): This one is going to be a barnburner. I thought a few weeks ago that it was one of the trap games that Boise State was going to have to avoid if they were to run the table yet again. That was before Boise State president Bob Kustra called Vandals fans, for lack of a better term, classless. According to the Idaho Statesman, Kustra was referencing an article in the Idaho student newspaper that was titled “Who do we hate?”:

“This is a great example of why my wife and I no longer travel to Moscow
games,'' Kustra said. "It's a culture that is nasty, inebriated and civilly
doesn't give our fans the respect that any fan should expect when visiting an
away team. ... I don't think at Boise State you're going to find that, so for me
personally, when I read what Pete said I knew, I knew.

"For me, this is not about football. For me, this is a cultural issue. It's
about fans having to learn how to treat other fans and universities. What
bothers me more than anything else, is that the fans are not about denigrating
our athletic program. ... What bothers me personally is the denigration of our
academic programming. That's what I simply can't tolerate.

"I've seen rivalries all over America…but I've never seen the nastiness
aimed at the quality of our academic program that I find here in Idaho from the
University of Idaho Vandals and as long as that goes on, why would I want to
encourage a game where people don't know how to act like grownups?”

Well, okay then. Kustra has not backed down from the comments, but I can guarantee you that the game at the Kibbie Dome will be an extremely difficult ticket to acquire, and that it will be a raucous atmosphere at kickoff. And if the Broncos are still undefeated and in position to make a run at a BCS title game appearance, I think the Vandals would cherish a win in that game more than any other.

I will watch a lot of college football, but these games will be must see television for me.

Running the numbers: Big 12 since 1996

2010-07-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Lately, as I've been driving around town, I've heard a promo for Colin Cowherd's radio show. I'm not the biggest fan of Cowherd (I find him to be condescending, pompous and arrogant) but the premise of the promo is interesting.

Cowherd was asking, based on the fact that Colorado and Nebraska are soon departing the Big 12, who the third best football program in the conference will be.

It got me to thinking: Based on record, who actually has been the best in the league over the last fifteen years.

So I went to the record book (i.e. College Football Data Warehouse) and took a look at the records for everyone in the conference from the inaugural season (1996) through last year (2009).

Note that in my analysis, I did not count title games as conference games, but I did color code the winner to clarify who is the recognized champion.

Some thoughts:

1. Texas is number one both in overall record and in conference wins/losses during this time period, posting a .785 record in conference games and .782 overall.

2. Nebraska and Oklahoma are tied for second in overall winning percentage (.716) but Oklahoma leads in conference winning percentage (.714 to .669).

3. Texas has almost as many losses (39) as Baylor does wins (43) in the same time period.

4. Three teams have won the South Division title outright (Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma) with one getting a partial share in 2008 (Texas Tech).

5. Four teams have won or shared the North title (Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado)

6. Oklahoma has won the conference title game six times. Second is Texas with three.

7. Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas have each won one BCS title.

Now, here's the funny thing about the initial question as posed by Cowherd, and maybe it's the dirty little secret that some folks don't realize:

Colorado hasn't really been a player in the Big 12 since 2002. Sure, they won two North Division titles in 2004 and 2005, but 4-4 and 5-3 conference records don't exactly mean that you were a superpower. The North Division was going through, for lack of a better term, a malaise.

Okay, malaise isn't quite right. The North was putrid in 2004 and 2005. Someone had to win it, and Colorado was the best of a sad, sorry bunch of teams.

And yes, while Nebraska has name recognition and a great, glorious history, they haven't really been setting the world alight since Dr. Tom retired as head coach and Frank Solich was forced into exile in Athens, Ohio.

Bo Pelini has done a great job so far, and maybe he will be able to resurrect the program wholly and make the 'Huskers a national power again. Hell, if they can get a half decent, consistent offense that might do it. The defensive talent is definitely there.

Yes, losing Nebraska will deal a blow to the name recognition of the conference, and also may be the loss of a great program. I don't think the loss of Colorado hurts the Big 12 all that much.

But who will fill the void?

If one is to go by the numbers historically, it would be Texas A&M, Texas Tech or Kansas State. They are the only other programs (besides the aforementioned) that are over .500 in conference for the history of the league.

But Texas Tech is going through a coaching (and philosophy) transition, and I don't know if Tommy Tuberville will stay in Lubbock for that long if he can win and win big.

Texas A&M might be ascendant, but as long as defensive inconsistency continues to plague this team, they will spin their wheels under Mike Sherman.

And while Bill Snyder was called in to fix the mess of Ron Prince, Snyder's age, and the change in the college football universe since his first reclamation of the Wildcats don't seem to be in his favor.

Baylor and Iowa State don't have much of a track record at all.

Kansas is also going through a coaching change right now, and I wonder about Turner Gill and if he might be overrated for one winning season at Buffalo.

Missouri and Oklahoma State have had their moments lately, but are still viewed as nouveau riche programs that have to establish more of a work history (again, consistency) than the last four or five years.

Quite frankly, maybe there isn't anyone that will fill the "void" (if you want to view it that way) being left by Colorado and Nebraska. It could be that, really, since about 2002, there hasn't been a void anyway. There's been a glut of teams that go anywhere from 6-6 to 8-4 in the regular season, with maybe a program or two bubbling up to give Oklahoma and Texas a run for their money.

But from looking at things, it seems that the future of the Big 12 will be the same as its present a recent past:

Texas, Oklahoma and everyone else.

Brain Trauma and Football: Reform Of Some Kind Is Needed

2010-06-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

My son was born on September 8, 2007, which I remember not just for his birth, but also because it was the day that Dennis Dixon ran wild against Michigan in the Big House on the heels of Appalachian State stunning the Wolverines a week earlier.

Now, in 2007 most of us football fans hadn’t yet heard of the term chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. We might have heard of punch-drunk syndrome, which CTE is a variant of, but CTE itself was not really on the radar screen.

Well, over the last couple of years, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh, this condition is now known and public. CTE recently re-entered the news in football as Chris Henry, the former West Virginia Mountaineer and Cincinnati Bengal, was diagnosed as having the condition. Henry died last December when he fell from the back of a pickup truck during an argument with his fiancée.

One of the thoughts about what causes CTE is repeated blows to the head. They don’t have to be full on, diagnosed concussions, though; rather, a person can have lots of smaller blows to the head that cumulatively damage the brain.

Remember, the brain is not right up against the skull. There is a space between where the brain is located in the skull and the edge of the skull. Brain injury results from the brain hitting the skull with force.

According to Dr. Omalu in an article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Chris Henry’s brain “didn’t look like the brain of a 26 year old.”

(Picture from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

And keep in mind, Chris Henry was a young wide receiver. Not a retired offensive lineman like Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Webster or Justin Strzelzcyk. Not a retired safety like Philadelphia Eagle Andre Waters. Henry was an active player who had less than 60 NFL games played. Also, Chris Henry, for all of his issues, never missed a game with a diagnosed concussion.

That makes this an issue that should cut across all levels of the sport. Do I think that football should be outlawed? Not at this time. Obviously, a lot more research needs to be done, but some changes do need to be made in the short term with regards to equipment and the (sometimes) false sense of security it can provide. Also, changes probably need to be made to how the game is administered on game day and also during practices and the teaching of the game at the high school and lower levels.

Change is going to need to come and be driven by individuals within the game. It is one thing to play a high risk sport. But with lives potentially on the line, I know in good consciousness I couldn’t allow my boy to play the game as it is right now.

Only One Winner in the Expansion Game

2010-06-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

The 2010 expansion race ended not with the cataclysmic change that was expected, but instead with a small whimper.

The expected galvanization of the college athletics landscape never materialized in the manner many thought it would.

Instead of mega conferences, we had:

1) Colorado bolting to the Pac-10, where they seem to be quite happy with each other so far.
2) Nebraska bolting to the Big Ten, torching their peers and feeling like they were forced out. Stay classy, Nebraska administration.
3) Boise State moving up another weight class by joining the Mountain West Conference.

There are still a couple of smaller dominoes that need to fall, as it appears that the Pac-10 might invite Utah to join the conference as a 12th member and, it is assumed, that the Mountain West would then invite someone to replace Utah.

But the Big Ten going to 16 teams, plundering the Big East and the Big 12? Didn't happen.

The mega Pac-10, which would have encompassed three time zones and a large geographic footprint? Didn't happen.

The long desired marriage of the Big Ten and Notre Dame? Yeah, right. That didn't happen either.

Instead what we wound up with was a Big 12 with ten teams, a Big Ten with 12 teams, and a Pac-10 with 11 teams.

Larry Scott, Pac-10 commissioner, tried to hit a home run and instead appears to have hit a ground rule double.

Jim Delany, Big Ten commissioner, tried to swing for the fences as well as and came up short, too.

The Mountain West tried to get on base, but may have just hit a foul ball if they lose Utah.

As far as I can see, only one institution has emerged from this dust up as a winner.

It's Texas.

Texas has played the role of Verbal Kint/Keyser Söze brilliantly in all of this. Texas has controlled the narrative over the last week or so and played the media game with an amazing level of skill.

In fact, Texas has been so good at controlling the spin surrounding this conference expansion game that they have somehow managed to be painted as the savior of the Big 12 — even though they were talking with not one, not two but THREE different conferences. In addition to having the Pac-10 on the hook, Texas was chatty with the Big Ten (and there were emails that said as much) and met with the SEC.

No matter what anyone else says, this came down money. As Randy Moss would say:

Texas wins because:
1) They controlled the narrative from start (on June 9) to finish.
2) They will, if Dan Bebee's deus ex machina is working properly, a significantly larger amount of revenue from the Big 12 minus 2 television deal.
3) They have been given the go-ahead to create their own Longhorn Sports Network, which will reap them additional cash
4) Assuming most things in the conference play out like they have, it will truly come down to Texas and Oklahoma for the Big 12 title most years in the new round-robin format for the league. Considering that poll inertia occurs most years, Texas remains in the BCS hunt without having to play that pesky conference title game.
5) They have asserted their will and flexed their muscles, cementing their hold on a conference they already dominated to some extent. Hell, there is even a chance that the five lost souls (Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and Iowa State) have decided to vote the income that will be withheld from Colorado and Nebraska to be redirected towards Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

Gangsta.

Nothing about this situation suggests largesse on the part of the Longhorns; they held the power in this situation and used some well timed and placed media leaks to get information out there, and kept feeding that source to serve their own purposes.

Of course, again, I think it's prudent to remind folks that this is all dependent on a new Fox Sports Net television deal that is not exactly, um, real or finalized at this point; this whole thing is hanging by a handshake.

Plus, considering the enmity that this has brought out, I don't buy that this game is over.

So once again, congrats Texas. Check and mate. Job well done.

The Bell Starts Tolling for Big 12: A Rare Fan's eye view post

2010-06-11T12:09:00.001-07:00

It’s a muggy, typical late summer night in Missouri.

It’s August 31, 1996. I’m about a week or two into the start of my undergraduate career at the University of Missouri. I’m sitting in the lounge in the basement of my residence hall because I didn’t have a television in my room.

I’m watching history as the University of Texas kicks off against Mizzou to signal the start of a new era.

I was able to watch the on-field birth of the Big 12 conference, an amalgamation of the old Big 8 and four survivors from the wreckage of the old Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor).

Now, from my office and home 14 years later, I find myself watching its death throes.

Colorado has tipped the first domino, bolting for the Pac-10, where they actually are a better cultural fit (although geographically it’s a haul).

Nebraska announced their intentions to apply to the Big Ten Friday afternoon.

Texas will wait until Tuesday to announce that they are moving to the Pac-10 with Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, according to Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com.

Texas A&M is apparently talking to the SEC about membership over there. We will see what comes after the Texas State Board of Regents meets on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Missouri’s chancellor came out and affirmed Missouri’s commitment to the Big 12—for now.

It’s a time of upheaval right now; an uncertain future lay ahead for some of the schools in the conference.

And as a fan of one of the schools with an uncertain future, it leaves me nervous.

“Stop being so sensitive about your alma mater. If you want to write about this stuff, you can’t be so sensitive.”

I was chided on Twitter today by SI.com’s Andy Staples for being oversensitive about the characterization of my alma mater as crawling back to the Big 12 after being snubbed by the Big Ten.

It was a moment of weakness, to be sure. I consider myself to be fair and honest in assessing all teams in college football; I don’t think it’s fair to any of my readers to do otherwise when it comes to on field performance and off-field behavior.

But at the same time, there is a lot at stake here. Expansion is a big deal, both in the classroom and on the athletic fields and courts. It’s hard to sit by and see your school mocked as weak or whining; as having to crawl back home because you were played by someone else.

And make no mistake about it: It will be a blow to the ego for fans of all of the left behind schools — especially if it means merging with a Conference USA or coming up with some other kind of zombie league.

So pardon me for having pride in my school, but know that this Tiger is worried about what the future holds for him and his school.

After all, central theme of this whole expansions debate has been looking out for number one.

NCAA sanctions USC Football

2010-06-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Read the entire report here.

One word:

Damning.

An Ultimatum? That's the best you can do?

2010-06-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

(Update: 12:08pm PDT) According to the Austin American Statesman, it was the Big 12 presidents who delievered this ultimatum to Nebraska and Missouri. My original sentiment still stands, though, that the conference commissioner has to have something to do with this ultimatum. Oh, and I still think the ultimatum is bullshit.)
I rarely use this space to beat the drums for my own school or to vent about the goings on affecting my alma mater.

But with the expansion rumors flying fast and furious over the last few days (while I've been fighting sickness, naturally), I feel that I need to take a stand.

I've yet to say anything about the spineless, feckless leadership of Dan Beebe, current commissioner of the Big 12 conference.

Well, I think it is time for that to end.

Dan Beebe took over as commissioner of the conference in 2007.

In three years, he might be overseeing its death, and he has no one to blame but himself for this.

Of course, instead of owning up to the responsibility, he is trying to force the responsibility for the demise of the league on two schools from the North division.

At least, that is how it appears to me with the rumor that Nebraska and Missouri have been given until either this coming Friday or next Friday to pledge their loyalty to the Big 12.

Excuse me?

This is all Missouri and Nebraska's fault for wanting to move to the Big Ten?

The timeline for Big Ten expansion still has about six months (minimum) before it will probably be resolved.

And having worked at a Big Ten institution, I can tell you that the glacial timeline is appropriate for that league. Tradition demands that one be deliberate, after all.

Meanwhile, the Pac-10 appears to already be set on offering the entire south division except for Baylor an invitation, and yet there is no mention of an ultimatum for those schools — who are a helluva lot closer to being given an shot at a new league.

Let's say you run a multi-million dollar corporation. You have two fellow corporations looking to steal away some of your twelve employees. You know that one company may be coming by within the next six to twelve months to poach two solid employees, and that another company is planning on trying to poach six employees tomorrow. Those six include your top two producers.

So why would be willing to let those six employees talk with the rocket fast corporation while telling the two employees who might be interested in the opportunity six to twelve months away that "We need to know your future plans now?"

It logically makes no sense to shame Missouri and Nebraska into staying, telling them, "You'd better stay or else." while letting Oklahoma and Texas et. al do whatever the hell they want.

You've already acknowledged, by refusing to discuss changes to the revenue-sharing model, that you consider the conference's bread to be buttered by Texas and Oklahoma.

If that be the case, then why let them walk with a smile and a hearty wave and instead try to lower the hammer on Missouri and Nebraska?

The perception is already out there that Missouri isn't worth the trouble; they're too busy trying to run away from the league because it's been too hard for them and hell, even if they leave, it won't matter because the league will thrive. Heck, they might even get an exemption to play a championship game because it's Division 1 football. It's the Big 12. It ain't intramurals.

Never mind if perception is reality or not in this instance, because in Dan Beebe's world, you don't try and get loyalty oaths from the schools that are bringing in the most revenue. That, apparently, is too logical.

Would a Big 12 network have been a panacea in this instance? Who knows? If the revenue from that network was distributed inequitably, it probably wouldn't have been.

But why have the talks about a Big 12 network seemingly been ongoing for three years with no movement towards actually establishing a network, while the Big Ten and the Mountain West both have television networks? (Granted, the Mountain West Network has issues of its own, but that's a conversation for another time.)

Can someone tell me what Dan Beebe's greatest accomplishment has been in three years running this league? Because as hard as I try, I can't seem to find anything that he has done that has helped move the Big 12 forward.

As far as I can tell, the death of the conference might wind up being his greatest accomplishment.

But if the conference goes down in flames next week, well, he can always say he stuck it to the Huskers and the Tigers.

Way to go, Dan.

Even with context, Ireland in the Wrong

2010-04-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

The question du semaine as the fallout from the 2010 NFL Draft settles on the landscape deals with the scandal of why Dez Bryant, the talented wide receiver formerly of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, fell as precipitously as he did from a top-10 talent to the Dallas Cowboys late in the first round.

Bryant, who was suspended for 10 games by the NCAA this past season for lying to an investigator about his relationship with Deion Sanders, came from a troubled background, but appears to have overcome it to put up prodigious numbers while in uniform in Stillwater.

Apparently, though, his background came up during his visit with the Miami Dolphins. According to a story by Yahoo! Sports Michael Silver, Bryant was upset about being asked this question by Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland:

"Last Wednesday, the night before he was selected 24th overall by the Cowboys, former Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant(notes) told me that during one of his predraft visits, a high-level executive of one NFL franchise had asked him if his mother, Angela, was a prostitute.

“No, my mom is not a prostitute,” said Bryant, whose background – including his mother’s lifestyle and past legal troubles – was under great scrutiny prior to the draft. “I got mad – really mad – but I didn’t show it.”

Ireland, after being outed as the executive in question, later apologized for asking the question.

Well, naturally, a firestorm broke out and debate ensued. People were on both sides of the issue, including former players, some who thought the question was inappropriate and unnecessary and others who thought it was within bounds for the team to ask the question.

Now, here comes full context from SI.com's Jim Trotter:

"Two sources familiar with the situation contend that Ireland's question was nothing more than the logical follow-up to comments Bryant had made about his family. According to the sources, Ireland began the meeting by asking Bryant about his upbringing and his relationship with his siblings. Then he asked what Bryant's father did for a living when Bryant was growing up. The following exchange allegedly ensued:

"My dad was a pimp."

"What did your mom do [for a living]?"

"She worked for my dad."

"Your mom was a prostitute?"

"No, she wasn't a prostitute."

Dan Levy of Sporting News is also reporting that this is how the exchange went, with an assist from The Dan LeBatard's Show Twitter feed.

Trotter goes on to say that Bryant should apologize for characterizing the exchange, and believes that it was a logical follow up question to ask:

"[W]hat if Bryant took them there? I would have connected the dots in the same way that Ireland did based on what Bryant allegedly said. Bottom line: There's a major difference between asking a logical follow-up and knowingly wrapping an insensitive and incendiary accusation in the form of a question. Ireland, I believe, asked a logical follow-up question that was coated with neither malice nor prejudice."

Here is where I diverge.

It might be a logical follow up.

But you still don't have to ask it.

This idea that you have to gauge how a player is going to react to an incendiary comment or question is something that continues to baffle me.

Yes, I understand that I didn't play the game, so I can't understand what goes on in the huddle, blah, blah, blah.

But at some point, what becomes out of bounds?

I thought that the all-powerful NFL had crack security and law enforcement folks on speed dial?

Wouldn't they have already smoked this out in the background check?

So why ask?

Yes, I know: He lied to NCAA investigators because he was nervous, and he comes from a "shaky" background that was the talk of the league at the combine.

Fine. Then hook him up to a polygraph. Hell, hook all of the prospects up to polygraphs and then we'll know for sure if they're lying or not.

I also wonder, as does Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, why Ireland or the Dolphins didn't talk to Silver before the story ran to give their side of events.

And, if their version of events is "true," why did Ireland apologize after he was identified as asking the question.

Don't tell me he apologized to save face; clearly if he wanted to save any face, he wouldn't have gone there in the first place.

Furthermore, we still actually don't know how the exchange went down. Tone means more than just viewing a written transcript of how the exchange allegedly went. Even if the interview was being transcribed by a stenographer, I would rather have a video tape to hear tone of voice, body language, etc.

Otherwise, it still remains a he said, he said where I am inclined to side with the young, nervous 22 year old than with the professional football executive who should know how to ask a question.

NCAA Tournament Expansion: 68 is a magic number (For Now)

2010-04-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

And up with the puff of white smoke, there is expansion news in college sports.

But it's the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament expansion that is the news of the day before the NFL Draft consumes all sports news like Galactus.

The men's tournament will expand to 68 teams next year, getting to a number that is at least divisible by four unlike the awkward 65 that has been in place since 2001.

That gigantic whooshing noise you heard was from many college basketball fans who were petrified that the tournament was going to swell to 96 teams for 2011 and ruin the perfect balance of an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper that has lines for 64 teams.

If you are one of those people, I've got news for you:

68 is just the starting point.

Look back in history to when the tournament first started to evolve to the allegedly perfect 64/65 and you will see an interesting metamorphosis:

1978 - 32 teams
1979 - 40 teams
1980 - 48 teams
1983 - 52 teams
1984 - 53 teams
1985 - 64 teams
2001 - 65 teams

Let's disregard 1984 and 2001, since those expansions led to only one extra bid.

Between 1978 and 1985, in a span of 7 years, the tournament doubled in size.

Now, going from 65 to 96 would not be a doubling in size, but adding 33 percent more teams.

Can't you see that happening by 2017? I know I can. And, quite frankly, it probably will — especially because we could see some radical realigning of conferences on the horizon that will reshape the college athletics landscape.

If the shuffling of deck chairs happens on the football side, it will definitely affect the NCAA tournament. If the Big Six BCS leagues consolidate as some of us think they will, the men's tournament will have no choice but to expand because of the imbalance of power and the almighty dollar.

So sleep well tonight, those of you who are against tourney expansion.

Your nightmare may not begin for another 12-18 months.

NCAA Tempting Fate With New Taunting Rule

2010-04-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

The good thing about writing a weekly column is that I have time to review the news of the week and reflect on it before commenting.

The worst feeling, though, is when you’ve written what you think is a solid piece, and then news happens after you’ve hit “send.”

Because the NCAA decided last week that college football players weren’t being good enough sports and that starting in 2011, if a team taunts the opposition on the way to the end zone, the taunting team will lose the touchdown and be penalized from the spot of the foul.

Yep. It doesn’t even have to be the player that is about to score; it could be a teammate up field who taunts.

No touchdown.

Seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?

Considering some of the recent instances of overzealous officiating (especially last season in the SEC), are we really sure that we want to give the officials even more latitude in exercising subjective judgment?

Do we really want to give these guys that kind of control?

I know I don’t.

Hell, at this point I barely want to give most college football officials the power to call holding.

While I am a believer in instant replay because it can help make sure that the right calls are made most of the time, I think on some level it has contributed to the declining nature of officiating. Calls are not made with confidence anymore, and I think that some officials are either relying on replay to bail them out or trying not to make an embarrassing call.

But I don’t solely want to rag on officials. I think the NCAA itself shouldn’t even have considered this rule.

To me, it’s too subjective as far as what can be considered taunting in some circumstances. ESPN’s Bruce Feldman drew attention to a play by Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate last season. To most eyes, it looks like a tame touchdown catch.

But to Dave Parry, the coordinator of officials, it would have been taunting. No TD.

Again, are you kidding me with this?

I can understand wanting to encourage sportsmanship; the academic in me can see that.

But this is sports we’re talking about. And some of these acts are really celebrations. Sure, they might cross the line a little bit, but the penalty on the ensuing kickoff was enough.

Taking points off the board because of an emotional outburst by young men with adrenaline pumping through their systems is borderline ridiculous.

And if it costs someone a BCS bid in 2011, you can bet that this rule will go away just like that.

Big Ten and Pac-10 Expansion: Mechagodzilla wonders what else he can shoot

2010-04-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

I've had to go underground from the sports blogging scene because work/home life/blogging balance wasn't happening. Having my allergies flare up wasn't happening, either.

So naturally, when I head off for my mini-sabbatical, all hell decides to break loose. Of note to me:

1) The NCAA's new celebration rule, which I will get to tomorrow. Suffice to say, it won't be pretty.
2) The Big Ten conversation regarding expansion? Yeah, the time line ~~may be accelerating a bit~~ won't be accelerating after all, contrary to media reports.

Although ~~no word came out of yesterday's meeting of the conference commissioners~~ the time line isn't accelerating, that hasn't stopped, well, everyone who has access to a blog from chiming in. Check out this post from Rock M Nation (thanks, Bill C.!) for a list of what people have written over the last 24 hours or so.

As usual, I am fashionably late to the party, but let's take a look at what might happen if the Big Ten does decide to expand and idiotically chooses to go with a 16 team model.

Why do I think a 16 team model idiotic? Well, when you're trying to divide something up, it's much easier to swallow having to share with 11 other people than with 15 other people. Be it food or cash, no one really likes to share. Why else would ND be so adamant about touting their independence in football?

Oh, and a 16 team conference in football was tried once. It was just about 20 years ago that the Western Athletic Conference was 16 teams large. (Note that I said "large" and not "strong.") After three years of this super-conference, eight schools said screw it and split off to form the Mountain West. It was too unwieldy.

Granted, geography played a role in that, as the old Super WAC stretched from Oklahoma to Hawai'i. That kind of travel wouldn't exist for the super-conferences of this era, but I find it hard to believe that tension wouldn't eventually rip these leagues apart

I don't know many marriages that exist as a form of gold digging lasting that long, do you?

Let's being by getting the ball rolling by projecting who the Big Ten would take to raise their number to 16. They would need to add five teams, and while Notre Dame insists (for now) that they have no desire to join a conference unless their hand was forced, we will honor their wishes and leave them out of this little reindeer game.

The Big Ten would then look westward to the Big 12 North and pluck two teams: Missouri and Nebraska. Missouri brings the St. Louis TV market, decent academics and also a slice of Kansas City. Nebraska brings a lot of football tradition and the entire Sea of Red plus the state of Nebraska.

From the Big East, the Big Ten would offer Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Syracuse bids.

Meanwhile, on the west coast, the Pac-10, who is also looking to expand, might decide to go all in as well and jump from ten teams to sixteen. For the Pac-10, as they try to negotiate a new television contract, I think that what will matter most is trying to get the league recognized outside of the Pacific time zone.

The easiest way to do that might be to expand beyond the Rocky Mountains. Rumor has it that if the Pac-10 goes to twelve teams, that Utah and Colorado are the preferred targets.

However, if you're going to add more teams, why not shoot for the moon and invite four rivals from the now staggering Big 12? Forget about adding Boise State and TCU or BYU if you're the Pac-10; if you want to be relevant, go after the big fish and invite Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State? That would increase the profile of the league on the fields and courts and increase the visibility by now having a conference with brand names that spans across three time zones.

(Let me be clear here if you haven't already figured it out: I am completely guessing here. I have no inside information; this is all a product of an extremely fertile imagination trying to guess at what would be the most catastrophic scenario for some conferences.)

Now let us turn our attention to the south. I don't think that there is any way that the Big Ten and Pac-10 would expand and the SEC would stand pat. I just can't see that happening.

This is an arms race, and you'd better believe that the SEC will keep up. But I don't see them having to reach far to poach teams.

Dear ACC:
We would like Florida State, Clemson, The U and Georgia Tech. K, thanks, buh bye.
Love,
The SEC

Which would leave us with this Big Ten:
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Purdue
Rutgers
Syracuse
Wisconsin

somehow trying to fit a "6" into their logo

the Pacific-16:
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Colorado
Oregon
Oregon State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Stanford
Texas
Texas A&M
Utah
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

and the new SEC (no name change necessary):
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Clemson
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
LSU
Miami (FL)
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

These three conferences would be at the top, and a decimated Big 12, an almost dead Big East, the three independent schools, a damaged ACC and the Mountain West minus the team that broke through the BCS glass ceiling.

In Part II, we will look at what the options are for the rest of the BCS leagues and the Mountain West, and wonder what Notre Dame will do?

Rich Rodriguez Is A Marked Man

2010-04-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

I would hazard a guess that as far as coaching positions go, no job in sports has as hot a seat as the college football coach at a traditional power program.

No one today, though, probably has a hotter seat right now than Rich Rodriguez up at Michigan.

Coming in on the heels of Lloyd Carr’s retirement and after a catastrophic collapse against Pittsburgh in December 2007 (costing West Virginia the chance to play for the mythical national championship), Rich Rodriguez was brought in to bring his spread option style offense to Michigan, pulling the staid (and some would say stale) program into the modern era of college football.

Because Rodriguez was not from the coaching tree of the legendary Bo Schembechler (a “Michigan Man”), Rodriguez was viewed with suspicion by some Michigan fans and backers.

But he was hired by former athletic director Bill Martin to shake up the program.

And shake it he did, forcing some players to transfer. One such player, center Justin Boren, transferred to Ohio State and said that under Rodriguez, “family values [of the program] had eroded.”

Rodriguez has also been criticized by some former players now in the NFL such as New York Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones.

The 8-16 record over two seasons hasn’t helped things for Rodriguez.

Nor has the fact that Michigan was stuck footing some of the bill for Rodriguez’s West Virginia buyout.

Did I mention that Rodriguez is being sued for being in default for a loan to build condominiums near Alabama’s football stadium?

And lest we forget the NCAA violations of practice time at Michigan.

Or the fact that it was announced earlier this week that the NCAA visited with West Virginia officials about possible rules violations for the football program. According to an ESPN.com report, a source close to the program said the allegations are related to Rodriguez.

Michigan recently hired a new athletic director. The new AD, Dave Brandon, is a former player under Bo Schembechler.

In other words, he is a “Michigan Man.”

And while Brandon has stated in interviews that he would be proud to play for Rich Rodriguez and has stated that Rodriguez will be the coach for the 2010 season, let’s say that Rodriguez’s tenure is tenuous at best.

If the NCAA sanctions are damning (which they probably won’t be) and the team continues to be a train wreck on the field, I would thoroughly expect Michigan to cut ties as soon as possible.

Sometimes, when things are a bad fit, you need to move on as soon as possible.

No one would fault Michigan if that’s what they did.

(A version of this piece appeared on Southern Pigskin.)

Mini Blog-cation

2010-04-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

We will be taking a short break here for the next month or so because of the day job and an actual vacation in May.

We will be back in late May starting our run-up to the regular season with conference look aheads and some other previews.

I will still be writing on Thursdays over at Southern Pigskin, but that's all that you'll hear from me.

What Expansion Could Mean to the Big Ten, Notre Dame and the SEC

2010-04-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Although I wonder who is who in this scenario:

I think it's obvious that Starscream = SEC
But is Megatron/Galvatron the Big Ten and Unicron is Notre Dame?

My thought is that Unicron is the Big Ten, and Notre Dame is Megatron/Galvatron.

Either way, I needed to justify the clip:

I Doubt An Eagle Would Ever Do It With A Lion, But...

2010-04-08T10:11:00.001-07:00

Located in Williamsburg, Virginia, the College of William & Mary is the second oldest institution of higher education in this country (after Harvard). Its undergraduate program is consistently ranked in the top ten nationally.

Until 1977, the athletics teams were known as the Indians. In 1978, the school changed the name to the less offensive Tribe, although they retained two feathers in the logo, harkening back to the school’s former nickname.

Then the NCAA stepped in and said that the feathers in the logo could be considered offensive to Native Americans, and the school’s appeal was denied. So the feathers went away and a new logo was revealed in December 2007.

In 2009, the current William & Mary president, Taylor Reveley convened a committee of current students, alumni, faculty and staff to spearhead the efforts to create a mascot for the campus. It was supposed to be a “unifying, fun figure on campus.”

The selection, which was unveiled on Tuesday: Griffin, a griffin.

A griffin, for those who don’t know their mythology, is a beast with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion.

According to Reveley, “With its arrival, we now have a mascot that unites strength with intelligence, recalls our royal origins, and speaks to our deep roots in American history.”

That sounds nice.

But it looks like a cartoony mess.

Personally, I don’t know if I would have gone in this direction, although I guess it beats the other finalists: A pug (!), a phoenix, a wren, and a king and queen.

I understand wanting to keep the nickname Tribe. It’s unique to William & Mary and fosters a sense of community for the campus.

But the mascot and accompanying logo are a serious fail.

As usual, the decision comes down to money. Just having the W&M on t-shirts was not moving enough product for the school, so they went ahead a created a mascot.

(Yes, I am aware that there was a costumed figure for W&M prior to Griffin called Colonel Ebirt that was running around campus during the early 2000s. He has been retired and he was unofficial anyway.)

Not every school is meant to have a logo and mascot. I think a school can survive without one.

But at the very least, if you’re going to go with a griffin, then I think you should go all in and change the nickname as well.

And the nickname I’m thinking of, while not wholly original, is fitting for a team in Williamsburg, Virginia:

The Colonials.

96 Team Tournament? Eh. I'm not bothered...

2010-04-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

As we march inevitably closer to a 96 team field in the NCAA tournament, more and more bloggers, sports writers and fans are coming out against the expanded field.

I'm not as bothered by the expansion of the tourney. I'll have more thoughts on it later.

But what I wanted to share right now is how some of these folks are feeling right now. Based on how Twitter blew up this afternoon after the NCAA press conference at the Final Four, you would have thought R. Kelly was in the house:

Chappelle's Show

R. Kelly's "Piss on You" Music Videos

www.comedycentral.com

Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs

Black Comedy

True Hollywood Story

Of course, I can't share the first video without sharing this:

Arne Duncan's Heart Is In Right Place, But....

2010-03-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

Arne Duncan, the U.S. Department of Education Secretary, wrote a very persuasive piece today for ESPN.com.

Duncan, who played basketball at Harvard, believes that it is imperative that colleges and universities should have to graduate 40 percent of their student athletes to be eligible for postseason participation.

This is in the wake of the report that came out around the start of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament that indicated that there were some schools participating in this tournament that have not graduated any players recently.

The way that the NCAA calculates graduation rates is by giving student athletes a six year window to complete their bachelor's degree. Transfer out of a program and departures for early entry into professional leagues do not count against a team provided that the student athlete was in good academic standing at the time.

Look, I think Duncan's heart is in the right place.

But I fail to see how it is fair to ban current players for the sins of past players.

It's like when the NCAA implements a postseason ban to a current team for transgressions of previous administrations. What did the current players have to do with someone who was on the team over a cycle ago?

If, for example, I am a freshman on the Cal Bears right now, why should I have been banned because no one from the 2005 team has received their degree under former coach Ben Braun?

I guess that's a life lesson that Duncan and the NCAA can teach these athletes. As Scar from the Lion King said, "Life's not fair, is it?"

Look, I do think that reform is necessary in intercollegiate athletics. On many levels in the revenue sports, the dollar signs have taken over and that romantic, quaint notion of the student athlete in his varsity jacket, carrying a stack of textbooks under one arm has faded into that Norman Rockwell past.

The problem I have, though, is with the fact that some of these student athletes come to college not prepared to be there at all. That is the broken part of the system.

Just because you (or someone you pay) can take the S.A.T. and you receive your diploma from high school doesn't mean that you're prepared for college. It just doesn't.

There are countless tales of illiteracy among student athletes in college courses. Guys who can't read or write in English composition classes or in need of education in rudimentary math skills like addition and subtraction.

The system is set up to provide them with a means to an end: They go to college because they have to, not because they want to.

It's a miracle to keep some of the student athletes eligible, let alone on a path to graduation.

The emphasis on reform the intercollegiate athletic process needs to filter down to the middle and high schools. That's where the system, from my perspective, breaks down.

I would even go as far as to say that the AAU should require academic standards for participation.

No grades? No travel teams. No showcase games during the summer.

No grades? You don't get to go to the skills camps.

Make education matter long before they get to college.

Because you aren't necessarily going to flip the switch for motivation once they arrive.

I've come up with an apt description of Tim Tebow

2010-03-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

So I don't write a whole lot about Tim Tebow for a variety of reasons. The main one being that I don't want my email box blowing up.

But as I thought about the latest controversies involving Tebow this week, plus the added rumor that Tebow might grace one of the covers of NCAA Football 2011 by EA Sports, my mind kept coming back to one thing: What product represent Tim Tebow the best?

Tim Tebow is Happy Fun Ball. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball:

It's hard out here for a beat writer

2010-03-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

I think I may have figured out what the toughest job in the SEC might be.

The toughest job in the SEC is beat writer for the Florida Gators.

At least if you work for the Orlando Sentinel.

That’s what Jeremy Fowler found out on Wednesday when he was confronted after practice by head coach Urban Meyer.

Meyer was upset about a piece Fowler wrote in which he quoted junior wide receiver Deonte Thompson saying that new Florida quarterback John Brantley was, “a real quarterback.”

You know what? That’s not being fair to Thompson. Here’s his full quote from Fowler’s story on Tuesday:

“You never know with Tim,” Thompson said. “You can bolt, you think he’s running but he’ll come up and pass it to you. You just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. You know what I mean, a real quarterback.”

Now, when I first heard the quote and read it, my initial reaction was to say, “Okay, then.”

I didn’t think he was ripping Tebow. I saw it as a way to praise Brantley. Brantley is a more traditional quarterback, and I don’t think that anyone who saw Tebow play the last four years would even deign to think of him as a traditional quarterback.

He just wasn’t. That wasn’t his game.

So Thompson’s comments seemed innocuous enough, and several of the pieces I read from blogs and columnists said the same thing. No harm, no foul.

Unless you’re Urban Meyer, who yelled at Fowler after Wednesday’s practice for having the audacity to…quote Thompson?

Fowler wrote, “’If that was my son, we’d be going at it right now,’ said Urban Meyer, pointing his finger and singling me out in front of about 15 or 20 reporters gathered after Wednesday’s practice.”

According to Fowler, Meyer continued:

“You’ll be out of practice — you understand that? — if you do that again,” said Meyer, while a couple of spectators still sat in the stands. “I told you five years ago: Don’t mess with our players. Don’t do it. You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel’s not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? It’s yes or no.” (finger pointing toward the face)
“Urban, come on. Don’t make any threats,” I said. “That’s fine. I’ll play by rules. But all I was doing is quoting the guy. I don’t think I was the only one.”
“You’re a bad guy, man,” Meyer said. “You’re a bad guy.”

Look, I don’t know the full extent of the issues that Meyer has had with Fowler or other reporters from the Orlando Sentinel.

But it seems to me that Meyer is making a much bigger deal out of this than needed to be.

Defending a player is one thing. Mike Gundy was made famous (or infamous, as the case may be) for his rant defending Bobby Reid from big, bad Daily Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson.

But Gundy yelling in a press conference is one thing.

Meyer pointing a finger in a reporter’s face seems to be a bit much to me.

It’s great that Meyer defends his players (although I don’t know if he was defending Thompson or Tebow).

This act, though, seemed like a bit much.

Video of confrontation available here

UPDATE: Now embedded for your enjoyment:

Books that have influenced me

2010-03-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

This idea came from a reader of Tyler Cowen's site Marginal Revolution. This is a list based more on my gut and what came to my mind stream of consciousness rather than trying to think too deeply about this list.

I admit that it was not instantaneous; I still had to think about books that mattered to me. While I've been a voracious reader in my lifetime, I still had to think about what books really touched me on some level or made a difference in how I viewed things.

Also, this list is in no particular order.

1) Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell — Not the first Orwell I read (that honor belongs to Animal House) but this was the book that stuck with me. I was in high school when I read it, and it is the kind of book I wish I was talented enough to write. On some level, that applies to all of these books, but this one in particular was an enthralling memoir about being poor in two of the most famous cities in the world in the early 20th century.

2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — Chris over at Smart Football said this best: Fitzgerald is best read when you're young. The charming and mysterious Gatsby is truly a seductive character.

3) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger — While probably not the best Salinger you can read (Nine Stories holds that honor), I think that most teenaged males feel like Holden Caufield on our best days — especially those of us at prep schools.

4) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes — Tilting at windmills. Dulcinea. The concept of how madness can consume us when we're at our weakest. To me, on some level, this is the first modern novel. A classic work of art. I was introduced to it in Spanish class and then read it in translation.

5) Bald As I Wanna Be by Tony Kornheiser — Mr. Tony? Really? Yes, really. I could have put Dave Barry in here as well, but I was nearing the end of my college career when I came across Tony Kornheiser's radio show. While this is his second collection of Style section columns, I maintain that it's his strongest. I can have it on my bookshelf for two years without reading it, pull it down and laugh out loud.

6) I'm Just Here For the Food by Alton Brown — My patron saint of the kitchen, I fell in love with Good Eats while unemployed and living in Pennsylvania. Alton inspired me to do something with my downtime, and that was learn to cook better and more. This book helped diversify my skills and also taught me many things.

7) On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee — And Mr. McGee helped explain the science and some of the history behind what Alton was teaching me. A reference book that I can read again and again.

8) The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — "It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all of the evidence. It biases the judgment." Something that every journalist or researcher should keep at the forefront of their mind. I know I do whenever I am writing longer pieces for this blog.

9) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka — Seventh grade. Starting to go through puberty. So naturally, this book about a major physical change resonated with me as I went through my own personal physical metamorphosis.

10) Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare — Not to be a contrarian, but I think Marc Antony's eulogy for Caesar might be even better than Hamlet's, "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Although really, the story is centered on Brutus's conflict of the good of the state versus his own friendship and what should matter.

Big Ten Expansion Speculation: Realignment into divisions

2010-03-22T23:07:00.001-07:00

Because I love doing these speculative expansion posts in pairs, here's my thoughts on Big Ten realignment. Again, I see four possible scenarios, but unlike the Pac-10, where there appears to be two distinct rumored favorites, there are at least five contenders. I tried to incorporate all five into the different scenarios. Alignment one assumes that Missouri is selected and is based on an East/West split. Alignment two assumes that one of the other schools (Pitt, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Syracuse) is selected, but is still based on an East/West geographic split):

Alignment 1:
East
Indiana
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Penn State
Ohio State

West
Missouri
Illinois
Northwestern
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minnesota

Alignment 2:
East
Michigan
Michigan State
Penn State
Ohio State
Indiana
Pittsburgh (or Syracuse, ND or Rutgers)

West
Illinois
Northwestern
Iowa
Purdue
Wisconsin
Minnesota

Alignments three and four as based on North/South divisions:

Alignment 3:
North
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State

South
Missouri (or Rutgers or Pittsburgh)
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Penn State
Ohio State

Alignment 4:
North
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Syracuse (or Notre Dame)
Northwestern
Michigan State
Michigan

South
Iowa
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Penn State
Ohio State

I don't see the Big Ten taking the radical step of just placing the teams into a hat and pulling names out and slotting them into divisions. The Big Ten is too traditional to do something like "Mountain" and "Plains" divisions; after all, this is a league that was still known as the Western Conference officially until sometime around 1987—even though they had had ten teams since the mid 1950s.

Progressivism is not their style.

Pac-10 Expansion Speculation: Realignment into divisons

2010-03-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

As a strictly mental exercise, I wanted to think about how the Pac-10 would realign if they did expand. There are a couple of possible alignments to think about. There is the traditional East/West Alignment, where a line is drawn among the cities that make up the conference and voila!

Now, all of these alignment assume that the Pac-10 takes the two most viable candidates, which are Utah and Colorado.

Alignment 1:
East
Colorado
Utah
Arizona
Arizona State
Washington State
USC

West
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Stanford
Cal
UCLA

Of course, this would break up the Washington/Washington State and the USC/UCLA rivalries. So why not go East/West, but with a twist: Take each of the pairings and split them up not based on pure geographical location, but based on their location within the pairing:

Alignment 2:
East
Colorado
Arizona
USC
Cal
Washington State
Oregon

West
Utah
Arizona State
UCLA
Stanford
Washington
Oregon State

Of course, you can always go with the typical North/South geographic realignment:

Alignment 3:
North
Colorado
Utah
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State

South
Cal
Stanford
USC
UCLA
Arizona
Arizona State

Of course, there is another option, which makes no regard for the actual geographical location. It's more about trying to balance out the divisions with regards to the perceived relative strengths and weaknesses of the football programs while trying to do some preservation of rivalries.

The rivalries for those who wind up cross-divisional can be handled within the scheduling structures that the conference would create. I believe that this is sort of what happened with the ACC, and why they call their divisions "Atlantic" and "Coastal"

Alignment 4:
Division 1
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State
Cal
UCLA

Division 2
Colorado
Utah
Arizona
Arizona State
USC
Stanford

Again, this is all supreme speculation, as Pac-10 expansion is still a long, long way away for being a done deal. But it does make for some fun mental gymnastics.

Dear Seth Greenberg,

2010-03-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

Really?

You're still asking questions about why your team got left out of the NCAA Tournament, huh?

You've even gone so far as to hire a statistician to crunch some numbers about last four in and last four out over the past decade to see what you can do to schedule better.

I can admire that on some level.

But if you want to know why you were left out this year, here's what you need to look at:

Brown 11-20
UNC Greensboro 8-23
@ Campbell 19-11
Temple 29-5 (loss)
Delaware 7-24
@ Iowa 10-22
Georgia 14-17
VMI 10-19
@ Penn State 11-20
Charleston Southern 13-17
UMBC 4-26
Longwood 12-19
(N) Seton Hall 19-12
North Carolina Central 7-22

Look at that list of teams. You played three sorry BCS programs, two Division 1 independents and a whole lot of subpar low major squads. Your best non-conference wins were Campbell and Seton Hall. You played one tournament team (Temple) and lost by 11 at home.

That's not going to get it done, Seth. That's how you wind up with a non-conference strength of schedule of 339 out of 347.

Now, let's look at Wake Forest. Wake got in. You beat Wake head to head in your one meeting this season on your home court by 4 points. Wake finished one game back of you in fifth place in the ACC and had 4 less wins than you overall.

Wake played:
Oral Roberts 20-13
East Carolina 10-21
High Point 15-15
Winston-Salem 12-17
William & Mary 22-10 (loss)
@ Purdue 27-5 (loss)
@ Gonzaga 26-6
Elon 9-23
@ North Carolina-Wilmington 9-22
@ UNC Greensboro 8-23
Richmond 26-8
Xavier 24-8

Wake played better opponents and actually beat teams that are in the NCAA tournament (Richmond, Xavier, Gonzaga).

I don't want to hear anymore about why you didn't get into the tournament. It seems simple to me, and I think that the research will bear it out:

You need to play better teams than you did this year. The schedule you crafted will not cut it. Maybe a Syracuse or a Duke could pull off that kind of schedule and be given the benefit of the doubt.

But if you're a Virginia Tech, you need to go out and play people. They don't all have to be power conference schools.

They can't be transitional D-1 members and the dregs of single bid conferences, either.

The cynicism of some folks is why I don't read comments

2010-03-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

There is a very nice story by ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss about New England Patriots defensive end Ty Warren forgoing a $250,000 bonus by skipping out on the voluntary offseason workout program so he can stay home in Bryan, Texas.

He's staying home so that he can finish is degree from Texas A&M University in agriculture leadership and development.

One of the reasons Warren wants the degree?

"I try to put the kids in the best educational system possible and I think there is something to be said for their father, who has been blessed to play in the NFL and do something he's loved to do, going back and finishing what he started," Warren said from the campus of Texas A&M. "In the big picture, I think it's important for me to do what I'm doing. I can sacrifice that bonus for that."

Yep. He feels it is important to be a role model for his kids, and it is important to him to have his degree and finish what he started.

I found it refreshing. It's a great story, and he is scheduled to walk this spring. Congratulations to Mr. Warren.

What happened, though, is that I clicked on the comments for this story. I normally don't read comments on articles because usually they add absolutely nothing to the debate.

But for a heartwarming story such as this, I figured why not? I assumed that people would respond positively to this story.

Boy, was I wrong.

Sure, there were people who were encouraging to Warren for going back to school and working towards bettering himself and getting ready for life after his playing days are over.

However, I was stunned by the negative comments I read as well.

The very first comment that was posted:

You have a job and a commitment to the team to be there. Get to work.

Um, it's the voluntary offseason program. That's V-O-L-U-N-T-A-R-Y. It means not required. Which is why Warren would have gotten the bonus if he had decided to show up. It was incentive to go, but he declined the financial incentive to focus on his degree.

Other negative comments, to me:

he should workout, collect his 250,000 and then go back to school if there actually is a lockout.

Haha..maybe he can take a class in finance and know that this is a bad financial decision. You can always take classes online or structure them around the offseason program. He could have his degree and get the bonus.

Maybe someone needs to tell this mental midget that its no longer 1990 and degrees aren't worth the paper they are written on. MBA's are barely worth anything these days b/c of the scores and score of people with them that are out of work. This is a fact.

Life after football requires money, not a Bachelor's degree. he can wait on his degree, and if he gets cut, then he has an additional $250,000 to take care of bills while he gets his degree.

If he wanted to teach his kids the value of education, that is fine and extremely important, but he should also teach his kids about reality, the economy, and the value of good and logical decision making.

Passing up $250,000, regardless of how big your signing bonus is, to put working on your degree off a year is ridiculous and the furthest thing from a smart choice.

Sad that we live in a world like this, but it is what it is. Just look at how many athletes are bankrupt within 10 years of their last professional play. Look at how many lose their fortunes on failed investments or chasing the rush of being an athlete through business. The story has been written countless times.

I would say the guy who is giving up $250,000 and who is one hit away from not being able to spell 'degree' let alone earning one is probably the mental midget.

I think that's enough.

When did we become this cynical?

How can anyone view an education as something that should be scoffed at?

How can anyone say that there is no value in better oneself and fulfilling a personal goal?

That he should take the $250,000 bonus (which will be eviscerated by taxes anyway) instead of pursuing his degree so that he can do community work?

Ty Warren received a healthy signing bonus with his last contract, and I have a feeling that he's not the type that is blowing it on parties and buying liquor for the entire club on a regular basis. Not if he's living in Bryan, Texas in the offseason.

From the quotes in Reiss's story, Warren seems to have a plan for his life after football, and he thinks a degree is the best route to get him there.

Kudos to him.

And shame on those cynical observers who think that this is a dumb move.

Hey, Look At Me! I'm A National Columnist

2010-03-12T16:23:00.000-08:00

No, really. See the link?

Big Ten Expansion A Matter Of Pride

That's me ragging on the Big Ten in my first post over at SouthernPigskin.com

Okay, so I'm not really ragging on the Big Ten as much as I'm wondering about the motivation for the league with regards to their expansion plans.

I'll have more on the piece over here in the next couple of days.

Straight from the dickish coach behavior files: Guy Morris, TAMU-Commerce

2010-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

Texas A&M Commerce is a commuter school in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex.

Their head coach, Guy Morriss, had a career record with Baylor and Kentucky of 27-54. He was 5-5 last season, which is a big deal for him, I guess.

Anyway, a couple of his players were busted last month on drug charges. Since this was actually campus news, the student newspaper wrote a story about the situation.

Morriss's players, unhappy that the media would have the audacity to report any news about their team that didn't involve their sterling 5-5 record, apparently took it upon themselves to steal every copy of the newspaper from campus.

Now, student newspapers tend to be free. But if you read the fine print in the staff box, there is usually a disclaimer that the first copy is free and each additional copy is worth, say, 25 or 50 cents.

So, these players stole every copy of the paper so that no one would know about the crime.

Well, it turns out that because of the ignorance of the players, now more people know about it.

Upon finding out what his players did, Morriss said, "I’m proud of my players for doing that. This was the best team building exercise we have ever done."

Wow.

What does that say about you, Guy Morriss, that committing a crime is the best team builder you can think of?

Pac-10 Expansion Sidebar: The realistic choices

2010-03-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

After we highlighted Teddy Greenstein's Chicago Tribune piece about Big Ten expansion possibilities the other day, I came across this piece by the San Jose Mercury News' Jon Wilner looking at Pac-10 expansion.

Some interesting notes from Wilner's blog (which is a must read):

* Voting on expansion will have to be unanimous. All of the schools are going to have to agree to this or it's not going to work.
* Like most things in sports, this all comes down to money. The Pac-10 wants to increase their revenues, since they are outpaced significantly by the Big Ten and the SEC. They don't need to match those two conferences, but they need to get closer.
* An interesting point that Wilner highlights is that one of the ways to get more money is to, for lack of a better term, expose the conference more. That would mean playing games on off days and nights. More football games on Thursdays, for example, or basketball games on Monday.
* A television network could be formed, perhaps by partnering with the Big 12 or the ACC.

Of course, if the conference were to expand by potentially poaching Colorado (considered the best fit among western schools), I don't know how excited the Big 12 would be about partnering with the Pac-10.

However, we all know that expansion is the way to get new markets and new exposure. I'll let Wilner explain the field:

San Diego State, Fresno State, UNLV, Nevada and Boise State are not part of the equation, multiple sources told me. No way, no how. They don’t work academically and they don’t work in the TV homes/revenue equation.

Unless Missouri or Texas (presumably with Texas A&M) are available — and at this point there’s no substantive reason to believe they are — then only three options exist for the conference: Utah, BYU and Colorado.

And for all practical purposes, there are only two options: Colorado and BYU, or Colorado and Utah.

Utah and BYU together simply will not work.

As I speculated a few weeks ago (and have since gotten confirmation on), you cannot add two mouths and only one trough, especially when that trough is the Salt Lake City market, which is not exactly Dallas-Ft. Worth.

Well, Missouri would be available, but not for the Pac-10. Mizzou would rather join the Big Ten if they're going to jump ship.

And while BYU/Utah makes sense if you look at the rest of the Pac-10 and the natural pairings that occur because of geography, if your goal is to make more money, you need two distinct television markets to maximize eyeballs.

And in this scenario, with the finalists being BYU, Utah and Colorado, I would take Colorado and Utah as being the newest members of the Pac-10 (Pac-12? Pacific Coast Conference?).

Why not BYU? Well, that's another post.

Myron Rolle's a Grown Ass Man. He can make his own decisions

2010-03-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

I do have to say that I was completely flabbergasted when I read this Clark Judge piece from over the weekend.

In it, Judge argues that Myron Rolle, the former Florida State safety and Rhodes Scholar, should give up on football and go on to medical school because he has a better chance of making an impact in the medical profession than he ever will on the football field:

Myron Rolle is an extraordinary student. He is not an extraordinary safety. So use that head, Myron, and connect the dots.

[S]tep up. Go to medical school, do your residency and get on with your life. The mind shouldn't be wasted and I hate to think what repeated blows to the head of a strong safety can do.

In Rolle's case, I don't want to know. I'd rather see him use that head to save someone's life rather than saving a spot on a 53-man roster. The guy took a year off from football because he not only valued his education but because he wanted to further it.

So now he's putting it on hold by trying to make professional football a career? Sorry, but I must have missed something.

Excuse me, say what?

So let's see. Myron Rolle may not have been a ball hawking, big playmaking safety at Florida State, so he has no chance of ever being an NFL starter and therefore, he should just give up this silly charade and get on with the rest of his life.

I just think it would be better if Myron Rolle went where he was appreciated and valued most.

And that's not the NFL.

"Any guy who can do what he did shows his dedication and determination," said NFL Network analyst Michael Lombardi. "But safeties that don't play a lot of man-to-man in our league right now are going to struggle. Like I said on the air the other day, when the guys asking the question aren't as smart as the guy answering them you've got a problem."

And that quote, from Mike Lombardi, is the crux of the problem.

I've heard that tired line floated out there before, and as an educator, it makes me want to vomit.

Education isn't valued, and apparently being an academically high performing athlete is a net negative.

I wonder how much his decision to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to study at Oxford is being seriously held against him because of either ignorance or jealousy on the part of NFL men.

Seems to me Lombardi says as much—that the kid is just too damn smart and, for most teams, would be the smartest person in the organization as soon as he was drafted.

Hell, considering the highly inappropriate and rude question he was asked by the Tampa Bay coaching staff at the Senior Bowl (How did you feel deserting your team last year?), I am astounded that he even got invited to the combine at all.

All of us who write about, follow, work in or care about sports lament the lack of the true scholar athlete in the 21st century.

And then that once in a generation guy comes along, and he gets crap for caring about his education.

I know Myron Rolle is smart enough to know if he can cut it at the next level or not. If he didn't think he had a chance to make the NFL and contribute, I highly doubt that he would be putting himself through all of this.

If he wasn't committed to playing football, he wouldn't have flown to Maryland for a game after participating in the Rhodes Scholar interviews on the same day.

Besides, this young man (so far) appears to be someone that could be held up as an ideal member of any team or community he became a part of. Hell, football would be a vehicle that he could use to get the word out that it's possible to balance high level academics and high level football play. That it is possible to chase your dreams, set high goals and achieve them.

And considering the spate of arrests for DUI and weapons issues and drugs, doesn't the NFL need more Myron Rolles?

March Madness: The Jerome Picks

2010-03-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

The what?

The Jerome.

Okay, so I am not in an ~~official Jerome Pool~~. As of about 2:40 PST, I was entered into the official Jerome Pool.

As a matter of fact, to be frank, I didn't even know what the Jerome was until about half an hour ago.

Read these stories by Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel to see what the Jerome is.

To simplify, think of it as an extension of March Madness down to the conference Tourneys (which start tonight).

Choose the winner of the 30 conference tournaments. For those of you who don't know, the Ivy League does not play a conference tournament.

America East: Vermont
Atlantic Sun: Jacksonville
Big Sky: Weber State
Big South: Winthrop
Colonial: William and Mary
Horizon League: Butler
Metro Atlantic: Siena
Missouri Valley: Illinois State (total homer pick)
Northeast: Robert Morris
Ohio Valley: Murray State
Patriot League: Lafayette
Southern: Davidson
Summit: Oral Roberts (homer pick because anything that might help Mizzou is a +)
Sun Belt: Middle Tennessee
West Coast: Gonzaga

Atlantic 10: Xavier
Atlantic Coast: Maryland
Big East: Syracuse
Big Ten: Wisconsin
Big West: Pacific
Big 12: Kansas State
Conference-USA: UAB
MAC: Kent State
MEAC: Morgan State
Mountain West: UNLV
Pac-10: California
SEC: Kentucky
Southland: Stephen F. Austin
SWAC: Jackson State
WAC: Utah State

As The Tebow Spins, Day 341: What is a college coaches job?

2010-03-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, it hasn't really been that long.

But it certainly feels like it.

I will come right out and admit I am somewhere between neutral and negative on Tim Tebow, and that's a visceral reaction more than anything else.

I have only been able to observe him through magazine articles and television interviews but my gut reaction is somewhere between indifference and mild dislike. Something about him rubs me the wrong way, much like Jimmy Clausen.

I can't put my finger on it.

But I'm not going to impugn him as a person. Instead I want to use him as a jumping off point.

On Sunday, I was watching in split screen the NFL combine QB/RB/WR day and the gold medal game.

As soon as I turned on the tv, there was Marshall Faulk, Mike Mayock and Charles Davis arguing over the merits of Tim Tebow and how Urban Meyer may (or may not) have failed him. Faulk thinks that Meyer needed to do more to prepare Tebow for the next level; Mayock and Davis think that Tebow has potential to be a next level talent.

Oh, and the name Alex Smith was invoked as a quarterback that Meyer had gotten to the NFL.

Yeah, and Danny Wuerffel, Shane Matthews, Jesse Palmer and Doug Johnson all got run with NFL teams. No one would ever say that Spurrier developed NFL talent at QB, right?

Tebow claims that Meyer has his charges NFL ready as far as preparation goes and being ready to work week in and week out.

But it's hard to look away from the throwing motion (aka "The Frittata", as the hilarious blog Every Day Should Be Saturday calls it).

Tebow unveils Tim Tebow throwing motion 3.0 at the Florida Pro Day on St. Patrick's Day.

It is a dilemma, though: What is a collegiate coaching staff's responsibility when it comes to their players?

Is it to develop and nurture the natural talent of these players and get them ready for potential pro careers?

Or is it to win games first and, if it fits within the program, develop players to get better?

My inclination is to say that college coaches need to focus on winning. That is what they are paid to do and that is what should come first.

Now, this doesn't mean that a coach can't get a player ready for moving on to the NFL.

I just don't think it should be the primary goal for a couple of reasons:

1) If the player needs to be radically rebuilt from a skills perspective, then it will be difficult to have that player not appear robotic as the new skills become second nature.
2) It could—could!—serve as a distraction because the focus can get taken off of the team goals for that current season.

Now, this doesn't preclude the player trying to get better on their own and seeking the input from their coaches.

But I think, given the practice limits (ahem) by the NCAA, it's difficult to smoothly work in concepts for next level improvements while installing the current week's game plan.

Urban Meyer's job is to win games for Florida.

Nick Saban's job is to win games for Alabama.

If they can improve on a player's skills, great.

But that should not be their sole focus.

Big Ten Expansion Sidebar: A preliminary list?

2010-03-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

The company that the Big Ten hired to help them determine whether or not to expand and who to look at has come back and said, "Yep. Expand."

Interesting piece by Teddy Greenstein in the Chicago Tribune today with his thoughts about who would be the best fit for the conference.

Teddy cites the following factors as being important in his view:

1) Revenue. Football stadium size, basketball arena and (most importantly) TV market
2) Geography to keep travel costs down
3) Academics
4) Recruiting (fertile recruiting area)

The winner, according to sources?

The consensus among Big Ten sources, officials from other conferences and TV executives is that Rutgers offers the best package. Missouri is second and Pittsburgh third.

Why Rutgers? It doesn't hurt that the New Brunswick, N.J., campus is less than 40 miles from midtown Manhattan. Or that the state of New Jersey alone would be the nation's fourth-largest television market -- after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The New York market has 7.5 million TV homes, and the Big Ten Network would love to get them on expanded basic cable rather than forcing subscribers to pay extra via a sports tier.

Rutgers just completed a $102 million renovation of its football stadium that added more than 12,000 seats, 1,000 club-level seats, a $5 million recruiting lounge -- and earned the ire of opposition groups. Capacity is up to 52,454 with an option for building a third deck.

Rutgers will play the first ever major-college football game (vs. Army) at the new Meadowlands Stadium, a $1.4 billion facility that will open for the Jets and Giants this fall. Think there's be any trouble selling out the 82,500-seat stadium for a Penn State-Rutgers game? Or when Ohio State or Michigan visits?

The Newark Star-Ledger reported in January that the school also plans to overhaul its outdated Rutgers Athletic Center, a 32-year-old facility that holds 8,000 for men's and women's basketball.

The New York/New Jersey area feeds the nation's top-rated basketball conference, the Big East, much of its talent.

Four other factors can't hurt Rutgers' cause:

• Newark Liberty International Airport is 23 miles from New Brunswick, making Rutgers more accessible than many Big Ten campuses.

• Rutgers calls itself "The Birthplace of College Football." It beat Princeton in what must have been a thrilling contest in 1869. Final score: 6-4.

• Delany hails from the Garden State -- South Orange, N.J.

• By leaving the Big East, Rutgers could quadruple its annual TV share to more than $20 million. Meaning that unlike with Texas and Notre Dame, an R.S.V.P would be a mere formality.

Yes, there are other schools that need to be considered that aren't being mentioned. Rutgers, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse are simply the obvious suspects.

But quite frankly I don't see too many other teams that fit the profile and would make the impact that these five would.

Frankly, I'm not 100 percent sold on the Rutgers angle just yet.

Yes, New Jersey has been a good solid recruiting area for football talent and some basketball as well.

But I still find that "New York market" argument to be weak.

Sure, the Big Ten would love to expand their footprint and get the Big Ten Network into those homes.

But I don't know if Rutgers has the pull make that happen.

College football is still a novelty in the NYC area for most folks who are NY natives.

And for college basketball, NYC is Big East country.

Yes, you might be able to capture the alums from Northwestern, Michigan and Penn State and have them reconnect with their teams.

But frankly I don't see Rutgers as drawing eyeballs to the screen on Saturday afternoons simply because they are on.

They have to win games to make that happen, and the step up in weight class would make that a daunting effort, I would say.

Guess What? Maybe Your Team Isn't That Good

2010-03-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

So March Madness is upon us with the flipping of the calendar page yesterday, and with the change of the month comes the annual rites of Spring:

1) Conference Tournaments
2) The CBS Selection Show
3) The Filling Out Of The Brackets and Entering Of The Pools
4) The Bitchfest Of Snubbing

Actually, the bitching usually starts well before the tournament, as bracketologists find their email boxes, their Facebook walls and their Twitter feeds bombarded by folks wondering how come "my team" isn't in the NCAA tournament.

(Although I would also hazard a guess that some of these folks that feel marginalized also are against tourney expansion, but I digress.)

Only slightly less annoying than these folks are the ones who complain each week about whether or not their basketball team is ranked.

I maintain that you shouldn't care about where your basketball team is ranked.

Unlike in college football, where the rankings play a huge role in which postseason game you may or may not play in (because of the BCS formula), in college basketball the weekly polls really don't matter.

Don't worry about being ranked in the Top 25 in February.

Just make sure your team is considered one of the 65 best come mid-March.

But I want to expand out to a larger point, and this point is about what people perceive to be media bias against your team:

Maybe, just maybe, your team is not as good as you think it is.

From a national perspective, on TV or Radio, not everyone is going to get equal time.

Sorry, that's just a fact of life.

It doesn't mean that your team hasn't done good things.

But the need to have the sports cognoscenti brand you as worthy is something that I find hard to swallow.

Look, ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports and CBS Sports are looking to drive the biggest amount of eyes and ears to the different platforms and products that they produce. That's a fact.

And like in most businesses, if you're a newcomer, it takes some time to make your way in the market and break down those barriers.

It seems that the time line in sports is about a decade (see: Boise State in CFB and Gonzaga in CBB; see the MWC in CFB AND CBB).

I think in CBB, though, it's even harder to get representation.

While we profess to love Cinderella, she's not worth talking about most of the rest of the season.

We are a society that prefers blue bloods, so those teams are naturally going to dominate the airwaves more.

But in this era, it's not like you can't find coverage of your team.

So if you think you're not getting a fair shake from the big boys, guess what?

Hit Google and find some favorable coverage.

It's not rocket science.

And as your team improves, and maintains that improvement, the accolades will fall your team's way.

As usual, patience is a virtue that gets rewarded in the end.

Celebrate good times...or not

2010-02-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

Canada loves hockey.

Okay, that actually might be a bit of an understatement.

Hockey is to Canada what football is to America.

That might be a better analogy.

Of course, American football is not in the Olympics. But hockey is.

Last night, the Canadian women's ice hockey team beat the United States, 2-0 to win the gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

So the Canadian women won the gold medal in what serves as the national pasttime of the country.

They went up on the podium, accepted their medals and smiled and waved to the crowd.

They went into the locker room.

And then, about a half hour later, they came back out (after the crowd had left!) and took some pictures on the ice. Full slideshow here:

As Col. Kurtz said, "The horror … the horror."

Okay, not really.

The building was empty except for media and arena staff.

Yes, there was underage drinking going on, since 18 year old phenom Marie-Philip Poulin won't be considered legal in B.C. until next month.

So, yes, she was a minor drinking. Like that's never happened in a celebratory locker room before.

The IOC is determined to investigate this horrific crime against all things good and decent.

Please. Simmer down, IOC.

Would the IOC have rather this occurred in the locker room with the door closed?

Or is the IOC upset that women in a western nation acted like men in celebrating a hard earned victory over a rival (and really, their only close competitor in this sport, but that's another issue).

Let me tell you this: if this was the Canadian men acting like this, I wouldn't expect to hear a peep out of the IOC.

Here's what should happen to the Canadian women's ice hockey team:

Not a damn thing.

Because if the IOC decides that they need to punish these athletes for a celebration, well, I'll let the duck explain:

Someone in the NBA offices in New York must have been bored

2010-02-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

With a lockout impending, it's good to see that the NBA front office is addressing the issues that are critical to on-court performance.

No, they're not looking at hiring better officials.

Apparently, they are too focused on Caron Butler's straw chewing habit.

The NBA has ordered Butler, now with the Dallas Mavericks, to stop chewing on straws during games.

I wish this was a joke. Or an Onion headline.

Sadly, it appears to be the real deal.

I am just baffled as to why this is a big deal.

It's not like he has a bong out (as former Maverick Josh Howard might have done if allowed).

Butler says that chewing the straws helps calm him down. I also remember a profile of him a couple of years ago that made reference to the fact that they had to be McDonald's straws—and that he could tell the difference between McDonald's and other fast food straws with his eyes closed.

It's a bit of a bad habit, to be sure, but to tell him he can't do it seems petty and unnecessary.

Big Ten Expansion Round 3: C.R.E.A.M.

2010-02-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

(For previous installments on Big Ten Expansion, visit here and here).

One thing that I found interesting about the Pac-10 analysis was how few of the athletic departments ran overall surpluses. Football made money and was in the black, but the departments were balanced.

In the Big Ten? Not so much.

Big Ten Financial Analysis

I would say that Texas and Notre Dame come out favorably in this examination based on overall revenue and how well their football programs have performed financially (and in Texas's case, on the field as well.)

Of course, I probably should mention that it appears that Texas will not be joining the party, if Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez is to be believed.

I believe that this is a fluid situation, so we will have to stay tuned.

Pac-10 Expansion Round 3: C.R.E.A.M.

2010-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

(For previous installments on Pac-10 Expansion, visit here and here.)

Round three of Pac-10 expansion talk has us looking at some financial information about the current membership of the conference and the contenders.

The information looked at in this exercise is taken from reports that the colleges and universities across this land submitted to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education. The site "Equity in Athletics Data Analysis" has all of the nasty bits about how much schools spend on athletics.

Time to make some more sausage.

The factors we are examining today for the schools are:
1) Number of players on the football team
2) Operating expenses per player
3) Expenses by the football program
4) Revenue brought in by the football program
5) Profit/loss by the football program
6) Athletic department revenue
7) Athletic department expenses
8) Profit/loss by the athletic department

The numbers are from the last fiscal year for higher education (July 1, 2008-June 30, 2009). Before we go any further, let me post the cautionary note from the OPE:

"Please note that valid comparisons of athletics data are possible only with study and analysis of the conditions affecting each institution"

Everyone got that? Okay?

Great. Here we go:

Pac-10 Financial Analysis

Once again, it appears that the best fit for the Pac-10 if it were to expand would include some combination of Colorado, BYU and Utah. While their spending habits (especially for BYU and Utah) are more in line fiscally with Washington State than with, say, USC, they are definitely ahead of Fresno State or Boise State with regards to the funds available and funds expended.

Big Ten Expansion Round 2: Television Market Share

2010-02-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

In the first round of Pac-10 expansion talks, I posted the reputational academic bonafides of the current Big Ten Schools and their potential new brethern.

In this round, we will look at the television markets that are currently being utilized and what a newcomer would have to offer.

Now, when talking markets, we are going to refer to the specific regional markets for these teams. The market sizes are done based off of data from Nielsen Media Research.

As with the Pac-10 television markets exercise, note that some markets may contain more than one city. With the Big Ten, the largest market may not necessarily be the city where the school is actually located (see Penn State):

Illinois (Champaign-Urbana/Springfield/Decatur): 84
Indiana (Indianapolis): 25
Iowa (Cedar Rapids): 88
Michigan (Detroit): 11
Michigan State (Lansing/Jackson): 115
Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul): 15
Northwestern (Chicago): 3
Ohio State (Columbus): 34
Penn State (Altoona/Johnstown): 101
Purdue (Lafayette): 191
Wisconsin (Madison): 85

Not a lot of large markets. At least, not as many as the Pac-10. But that's also because of the nature of where the campuses are located and how the conferences evolved.

So let's look at the schools that the Big Ten has an eye on (allegedly):

Missouri (Columbia/Jefferson City): 137

Notre Dame (South Bend/Elkhart): 91
Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh): 23
Rutgers (New York City): 1
Syracuse (Syracuse): 83
Texas (Austin): 48

Now it looks interesting, doesn't it?

If the Big Ten wants to pull in a new market, why not try and tap into the largest market that is still out there in New York City?

Michigan and Penn State have huge alumni bases in the city already, and New York is the unconquered final frontier as far as college football goes.

And if the NFL locks out its players for the 2011 season (and if Rutgers can find the magic of the 2006 season again....)

Pac-10 Expansion Round 2: Television Market Share

2010-02-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

In the first round of Pac-10 expansion talks, I posted the reputational academic bonafides of the current Pac-10 Schools and their potential new brethern.

In this round, we will look at the television markets that are currently being utilized and what a newcomer would have to offer.

Now, when talking markets, we are going to refer to the specific regional markets for these teams. The market sizes are done based off of data from Nielsen Media Research.

So, while Oregon games might be shown in Portland, the designated market for Oregon is Eugene.

It's important to note that the Pac-10 has six schools in the top fifteen markets, including two teams in the number two market of Los Angeles, CA. So, obviously, the Pac-10 would probably want to bring in a market with a pretty significant reach.

Also note that some markets encompass more than one city.

First, the Pac-10 schools. Home market in parentheses:
Arizona (Tucson): 66
Arizona State (Phoenix): 12
California (San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose): 6
Oregon (Eugene): 119
Oregon State (Eugene): 119
Stanford (San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose): 6
UCLA (Los Angeles): 2
USC (Los Angeles): 2
Washington (Seattle/Tacoma): 13
Washington State (Spokane): 75

And the potential contenders that I have identified for ascencion to the Pac-10:
Boise State (Boise): 112
Brigham Young (Salt Lake City): 31
Colorado (Denver): 16
Fresno State (Fresno/Visalia): 55
Utah (Salt Lake City): 31

As in round one, it looks like Colorado, Utah and BYU are the front runners after round two, as the Denver and Salt Lake City markets outpace Fresno and Boise.

Sports Aren't Perfect, but They Do Offer Escape

2010-02-22T10:10:00.001-08:00

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for providing the link to this Newsweek screed by Christopher Hitchens.
In his rant, Hitchens derides international sports for (apparently) breeding conflict and contempt around the world. Hitchens also rails against how sports dumbs down contemporary society and political discourse:

Our own political discourse, already emaciated enough, has been further degraded by the continuous importation of sports "metaphors": lame and vapid and cheery expressions like "bottom of the ninth," "goal line," and who knows what other tripe. Hard enough on the eyes and ears as this is—and there are some cartoonists who can't seem to draw without it—it also increases the deplorable tendency to look at the party system as a matter of team loyalty, which is the most trivial and parochial form that attachment can take.

Oh, and don't forget about how it affects newspapers (which we all know are a thriving institution):
I can't count the number of times that I have picked up the newspaper at a time of crisis and found whole swaths of the front page given over either to the already known result of some other dull game or to the moral or criminal depredations of some overpaid steroid swallower. Listen: the paper has a whole separate section devoted to people who want to degrade the act of reading by staring enthusiastically at the outcomes of sporting events that occurred the previous day. These avid consumers also have tons of dedicated channels and publications that are lovingly contoured to their special needs. All I ask is that they keep out of the grown-up parts of the paper.

Well. It's good to know that I am considered a boob and an imbecile because I enjoy watching sports.

Heaven forbid I do nothing but wring my hands about the events of the day.

Look, when I turn on the local news and hear about random murders taking place in my fair city, and that I could lose my job because the school I work for could be closed to try and help stave off a $1 billion deficit in the state, and that the mayor of the city is irrationally insulted because the president slighted our fair city by telling people to not blow their life savings here, guess what?

I want to watch a basketball game to take my mind off of things.

But the notion that sports fosters international conflicts? The absolutely ludicrous notion that it's sports metaphors that have fostered the dumbing down of political discourse in this country?

You, sir, have got to be kidding me.

Do some folks around the world care too much about sports? Absolutely. Look at the man who was killed after the 1994 World Cup for scoring an "own goal" (accidentally scoring a goal against his own team).

Look that the treatment of Steve Bartman, a Chicago Cubs fan who was basically sent to exile because of a mistake he made during the 2003 playoffs.

Look at the countless cases of hooliganism that have taken place in the U.K. because of soccer matches.

Look at the students at Mississippi State University and West Virginia University the last couple of weeks, as these college students have thrown things onto the court during the games.

I will not deny that these acts occur.

But look at the tale told by the recent Oscar nominated movie Invictus.

Look at what the run to the 2001 World Series by my baseball team, the New York Yankees, did to help my hometown forget about the terrible tragedy that occurred.

Heck, I would encourage Hitchens to look no further than New Orleans for an example of how sports can heal a community that has suffered a horrible tragedy.

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina stuck the Big Easy. The first professional franchise in the city, the New Orleans Saints, had to leave town and became a vagabond franchise. There was talk of the team permanently relocating to San Antonio because there was no way to know if New Orleans was ever going to be rebuilt.
But the NFL was committed to the Saints returning to New Orleans (and the NBA did the same with the Hornets).

The Saints returned to the Superdome on September 25, 2006. Less than 90 seconds into the game, this happened:

The game was essentially over at that point.

Four years later, the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Now, the citizens of New Orleans realize that things are not better just because the Saints are winners. Parts of the city still have not been rebuilt and may never be rebuilt.

But the Saints offer them a chance to spend some time not worrying about how things are. It's an escape, and the win also triggers some civic pride.

That's the power of what sports can do.

The games do sometimes need to be placed in their proper context, Mr. Hitchens, but don't dismiss sports as a simple opiate of the masses.

In order to keep life in balance, we need the not so serious stuff.

Figure Skating is not a sport.

2010-02-19T09:39:00.000-08:00

Another Winter Olympics.

Another skating controversy.

This year, it was recently unretired Yevgeny Plushenko complaining that American Evan Lysacek is not the true 2010 Olympic champion because Lysacek did not attempt the difficult "quad" jump during the free skate last night.

Plushenko lost the gold medal to Lysacek by 1.31 points in the labyrinthine figure skating judging formula.

Lysacek, who suffered a broken foot in 2009, didn't have a quad in his program most likely out of fear that his foot would not allow him to perform the maneuver.

Elvis Stojko agrees with Plushenko that Lysacek shouldn't have won last night. (Although calling it "The night they killed figure skating" is a bit much, no?)

However, my larger point is this:

I cannot consider figure skating to be a sport.

Now, I'm not saying that figure skaters aren't athletes. They are. What they do requires tremendous leg strength, endurance, agility, flexibility and balance. In pairs, even more so, because of the lifting that the male half has to perform. They are in excellent physical shape.

But they don't compete in a sport.

Now, before you get your sequins and makeup in an uproar, I feel the same way about any sport where judging plays a role in determining who wins.

I love diving in the Summer Olympics. Not a sport.

Gymnastics? Not a sport.

Snowboard halfpipe is usually a fun watch for a few minutes. Not a sport.

They are athletic competitions.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but to me, a sport is a competition where the winner and loser is decided by the outcome on the actual field/arena of play.

I do make an exception for things like boxing or mixed martial arts, which have judges. But the judging is only used as a last resort. If the match is not taken care of by knockout, submission, withdrawal or disqualification, then we go to the judges to see what they think.

In other words, they are the last line of decision, not the primary determining factor in who wins and who loses.

Appreciate the artistry and skill and talent of the gymnasts, snowboarders, figure skaters and divers who give up precious years of their lives physically and mentally training to be the best in the world in their given discipline. Be astonished by how physically gifted they are and by how athletic they are.

Just don't tell me they participate in sports.

What I learned from the Tiger Woods Event Today

2010-02-19T08:43:00.000-08:00

1) That Tiger is a buddhist.
2) That I am a bad person. As soon as he mentioned being a buddhist, my brain immediately started to try and formulate a Caddyshack-esque joke about Tiger and the Dalai Lama playing golf. "Hey, Lama!"
3) It wasn't Elin's fault that Tiger slept with all those women. Um, I don't think anyone blamed her in the first place.
4) "The media" should not stalk his wife and kids because of his infidelity and transgressions. Well, I think that this was a given. Also, we do need to stop treating the media as if it is some monolithic entity. I doubt that golf writers or any sports folks were stalking Elin and the kids. Now TMZ and the other tabloid whores on the other hand....
5) I understand giving a statement. As a MrFowler1282 on Twitter put it: "Tiger had to have a written statement because he had a lot to address. This is not a situation where you can just go out and wing it."
6) He plans to return to golf, but he doesn't know when. He will go back to rehab soon and he'll come back (maybe) later this year.
7) Now that that's over and done with, hopefully I won't hear about Tiger again until he comes back to play.

Why does Skip Bayless hate LeBron James?

2010-02-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

I'm posing a general question to the sports blogosphere and social networking communities:

Can someone please clue me in to why Skip Bayless seems to have an abiding hatred of LeBron James?

From what I have been able to gather, he has relentlessly mocked James's game, called him "Prince" (to belittle LeBron's 'King' moniker) and seems to have no regard for how talented James is.

The latest tweet from his account (at 8:14 PDT on 2/18/10), he wrote: "LeBron and Melo put on a terrific show. But one is still Prince, and the other deserves a puppet.

Yes, LeBron has not won a title and probably has been hyped up more than anyone else coming into the association.

But on some level, most guys who have come into the league have been over hyped somewhat.

But there is no question, in my mind, that James is one of the best things to have happened to the sad-sack Cavaliers franchise. If he leaves at the end of the season to sign a deal elsewhere, it very well could kill the heart of Northeast Ohio.

However, I still want to know what LeBron ever did to Skip to earn his eternal hire?

Or is Skip really a hack who takes extreme positions because they make for good theater on ESPN late morning?

Call me when Tiger wants to talk. For real.

2010-02-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning, at 8am PST, I'll get into my car to go to work and be subjected to the charade of Tiger Wood's comeback press conference.

Scratch that.

It won't be a press conference.

Because an actual press conference is not given to a small, intimate gathering of friends and colleagues that just so happens to have some friendly, cherry-picked press milling about.

At a real press conference, the media in attendance would be allowed to ask questions.

Instead, apparently, Tiger is going to have some people over to the PGA Tour headquarters, serve some tea and crumpets and maybe some Perkins pie and read a statement.

A press conference?

Hogwash.

Back in the aftermath of the accident, I wrote that Tiger should come clean and clarify the events that led to his accident. Set the record straight, tell the whole truth and we all could move on. I was referring simply to the car accident at that point.

The story kept growing and growing as details about his infidelity came out and the list of waitresses and other random assorted women kept cropping up. Crude jokes about Tiger Woods playing 18 holes off the course popped up on social networking sites.

Tiger became a recluse. He may or may not have had plastic surgery. He may or may not have been in Mississippi recently in sex rehab. Sponsors jumped ship. The PGA Tour season started.

Now, with the Accenture Match Play taking place (a former sponsor of Tiger and the first company to bail on him) Tiger decides it's time to come out of the rabbit hole and speak about what has happened to him over the last three months.

I'm sure that those lucky members of the press corps that will be there have to be ecstatic about being granted access to Tiger for this event.

But it's a hollow gesture at best.

I understand it can take some time to truly acknowledge bad things that happen to you.

By not holding a real press conference and staging this managed event instead, though, I don't think you are going to garner much, if any, sympathy.

I know, I know: If he comes back and wins the Masters in April, we will quickly forget all about his adventures of Thanksgiving weekend.

However, I find the need to hold a monologue tomorrow to be a colossal waste of time.

In the aftermath of the accident, he was perfectly okay with just issuing statements through his website.

So why the dog and pony show now?

What could possibly be gained by doing this event this way?

Just release the statement, indicate when you're coming back, and show up at that tournament.

Unless, of course, the statement he reads winds up coming off like this:

Big Ten Expansion Round 1: Academics

2010-02-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

Since I had so much fun doing it for the Pac-10, let's run the same drill with the Big Ten.

Parameters are the same as for the Pac-10. Only thing that's changed are the schools involved. For the Big Ten, while there have been a few names tossed about, let's focus in on the six likeliest candidates: Missouri, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Syracuse and Texas.

That's right; Texas.

On with the show. First, the current residents of the Big Ten (11):

Illinois:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 39 (highest ranking number assigned—128)
Enrollment: 40,687

Indiana:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 71
Enrollment: 37,821

Iowa:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 71
Enrollment: 28,442

Michigan:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 27
Enrollment: 39,533

Michigan State:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 71
Enrollment: 44,836

Minnesota:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 61
Enrollment: 50,954

Northwestern:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 12
Enrollment: 17,747

Ohio State:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 53
Enrollment: 50,995

Penn State:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 47
Enrollment: 41,289

Purdue:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 61
Enrollment: 40,108

Wisconsin:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 39
Enrollment: 40, 455

Average ranking for the Big Ten: 50.1
Average enrollment: 39, 352

And now, on to the contenders for that coveted one spot:

Missouri:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 102
Enrollment: 27,003

Pittsburgh:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 56
Enrollment: 26,731

Notre Dame:
AAU member: No
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 20
Enrollment: 11,479

Syracuse:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/High Research Activity (RU/H)
US News National Ranking: 58
Enrollment: 18, 247

Rutgers:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 66
Enrollment: 34,696

Texas:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 47
Enrollment: 50,377

Interesting, no?

It would seem that Texas is a good fit after all academically. Out of the group, Missouri would appear to be the weak link in the chain, as their US News ranking is significantly higher than anyone else on this list.

Academically, while not part of the AAU, Notre Dame has exemplary academics.

But as I've said before, there is more to this than just academics.

Pac-10 Expansion Round 1: Academics

2010-02-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

So now that the call has gone out from Pac-10 commish Larry Scott that the Pac-10 will be looking into expansion by two members over the next 12 months or so, I thought it would be fitting to jump on the bandwagon and see who the most likely candidates are.

Immediately, because this is football driven, the most likely candidates that came to mind for most folks were BYU and Utah. Boise State, Colorado and even Fresno State have been mentioned in some circles as potential targets as well.

Since the Big Ten is also mulling expansion (as I wrote about here), I thought it would be a good time to do some in-depth analysis of the situations.

We'll get to the Big Ten soon. Let's start with some Pac-10 comparisons.

Expansion at this point is being driven by the almighty dollar and by football; conference championship games are viewed as cash cows by the leagues, and as a way to stay relevant and potentially get two teams into the BCS.

Now, I have made no secret of my disdain for the BCS. I even advocated for radical realignment at one point, but that's another column.

The question, for me, that arises outside of the on-the-field impact has to be off-the-field as well. Namely, when the Pac-10 and Big Ten expand, I think that they are going to look for schools that are in the same neighborhood academically.

Remember, the conferences are not only who you play on the field; often, they are the people you collaborate with and compete with off the field and in the classroom, too.

The Pac-10 has a reputation as being one of the stronger conferences academically, so that part of the profile is what we will examine first for these schools.

While the metrics I am about to use are by no means perfect, they can provide us with a portrait of what candidates may fit best for the Pac-10.

I am keeping the list of potential members to the five schools mentioned at the top of this piece; while other schools may get floated out there for consideration, I think that the final applicant pool for these two open positions will come down to these five.

The four things we will look at as we compare the candidates to the current Pac-10 are:

Is the school a member of the Association of American Universities?
How is the school basically classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (aka "Carnegie Classification", or "What kind of school are you?")
What is the school's US News and World Report National University Ranking?
What is the overall enrollment of the institution? That includes all students, undergraduate and graduate.

I added enrollment because that gives us an idea of just how big (or small) an institution is with regards to its student body. The US News Rankings are reputational. AAU membership is a badge of some prestige, and the Carnegie Classification focuses on how you teach and research.

So, for the Pac-10:

Arizona:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 102 (highest ranking number assigned—128)
Enrollment: 36,932

Arizona State:
AAU member: No
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 121
Enrollment: 49,171

California (University of California-Berkeley):
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 21
Enrollment: 32803

Oregon:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/High Research Activity (RU/H)
US News National Ranking: 115
Enrollment: 20,296

Oregon State:
AAU member: NO
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: Tier 3
Enrollment: 19,193

Stanford:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 4
Enrollment: 18,836

UCLA (University of California-Los Angeles):
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 24
Enrollment: 35,966

USC (University of Southern California):
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 26
Enrollment: 32,160

Washington:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 42
Enrollment: 39,199

Washington State:
AAU member: No
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 106
Enrollment: 23,241

Average ranking for the Pac-10: 62.3 (for the 9 ranked schools)
Average enrollment: 30,780

And now, the contenders:

Boise State:
AAU member: No
Carnegie Classification: Master's Colleges and Universities: Larger Programs
US News National Ranking: n/a
Enrollment: 18,332

BYU (Brigham Young University):
AAU member: No
Carnegie Classification: Research University/High Research Activity (RU/H)
US News National Ranking: 71
Enrollment: 34,347

Colorado:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 77
Enrollment: 32,362

Fresno State (California State University-Fresno):
AAU member: No
Carnegie Classification: Master's Colleges and Universities: Larger Programs
US News National Ranking: n/a
Enrollment: 19,781

Utah:
AAU member: Yes
Carnegie Classification: Research University/Very High Research Activity (RU/VH)
US News National Ranking: 106
Enrollment: 28,933

So while AAU membership is not a total barrier to being a member of the Pac-10, I do think that it becomes clear, from looking at some of this information, that BYU, Colorado and Utah are the top three contenders for expansion from an academic standpoint.

But fear not, for we will also look at other factors in the coming days that may influences things in other directions.

A Thought on National Signing Day

2010-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

I can't be seduced by the coolness.

I refuse to get swept away in the hype and the drama.

Look, I love college football as much as the next person. Even though I didn't grow up watching the sport, I fell in love with it when I set foot on campus 14 years ago.

But this whole National Signing Day frenzy?

It makes absolutely no sense to me.

There are lots of writers that I admire that cover college football and I'm following on Twitter. Most of the action on my CFB Twitter feed today is about National Signing Day and the reports of where kids have faxed their letters of intent.

If someone gets off a good line I'll comment.

But I find it hard to get breathless about where someone is going to school.

I think I'm more of games person. I want to see them play before I have any man crushes develop.

Perhaps it is because my high school didn't have football that I find it hard to feel the excitement.

Maybe it's because I find it hard to get inside the heads of 17-19 year olds, some who flip flop more than a fish on a hot dock.

Or maybe I'm just cynical about the whole industrial complex that, again, is treating 17 to 19 year olds like the second coming for some of these colleges and universities, and continues to cocoon and coddle some (not all) of these kids, sheltering them from the realities of what they truly need to be successful in college and in life.

Okay, enough of my grumpy old man rant.

I'll go back to bitching about the BCS soon enough.

Random thoughts on Lane Kiffin to USC

2010-01-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

Every time I think that college football season is over, I find myself getting sucked back in by some major breaking news.

At first, it was the news that Pete Carroll was leaving USC (some would say ahead of the NCAA posse) to take the job as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

Okay, fine. It would leave a gaping hole for USC before next season, but that's life, right? Especially when a coach moves on to the NFL; since their season ends after college football, this is what occurs.

And so after the dust had started to clear and I was almost ready to write my reactions about how he would do in the NFL for this go-round. I think it's too easy to quickly dismiss his potential simply because he flamed out the first two times as coach. See Philips, Wade and Turner, Norval for more on retread coaches finally getting it together in the right circumstances.

But then, news broke last night that Lane Kiffin was bolting the Tennessee Volunteers after one year to head back to USC. He is bringing his dad, Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator, Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator and is apparently interested in hiring Norm Chow away from rival UCLA and bringing him back into Troy.

Which is funny, because I thought Norm Chow hated Lane.

Tennessee fans, obivously, are livid about Kiffin leaving. Unsavory things were written on the Rock, and there are pictures available detailing the scene last night in Knoxville over at Rocky Top Talk.

I can understand the rage that UT fans are feeling. And the students on campus, I feel for them as well.

Whoever gets the job will be the third full time head coach for the program in three years. That is a level of instability that no program wants to have ever—but especially not one that had two head coaches in 32 years.

And no matter what, we all have dream jobs. It sucks for Tennessee that Kiffin's just happened to open right now.

A Painful Way To End

2010-01-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

My heart ached for Texas last night.

Not necessarily because I wanted them to win (I did, though. I had them and the over last night in my picks pool), or because I think Nick Saban is a bit of an insufferable human being (I do), but because of the pain that their two quarterbacks went through.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports encapsulates their nights pretty well.

My heart hurt for the true freshman Garrett Gilbert, who at one point was 1-10 passing for -4 yards and two interceptions—one returned for a touchdown at the end of the half thanks to an absolutely boneheaded play call.

There is no way that kid went to bed on Wednesday night thinking he would play beyond handing the ball off to Tre Newton in garbage time in the fourth quarter of the game. Suddenly, he gets thrust upon the biggest stage in the world. Talk about an actor's nightmare.

The kid showed moxie last night in the second half. It looked like the game finally slowed down for him a bit and he almost led the Longhorns back. If he had done that, it would have been one of the most amazing performances I'd have ever seen.

My heart hurt more for Colt McCoy. He was a four year starter and in the program for five years. He got to see what Vince Young did in the 2006 title game and had a shot to do the same thing: lead his team to the national title against a media-crowned juggernaut.

He could have been the second NCAA quarterback to go 4-0 in bowl games, joining Pat White in that exclusive club.

The reason he returned this year, from what I could gather on my own, is to have been in a position to win the title after being a stupid tiebreaker away from having the chance last year.

And on the fifth play of the game, just like that, his game and career was over.

You never want to see someone's career end that way, and while McCoy will move on to bigger and better things, it still sucks to see him go out this way.

BCS Doomsday scenario

2010-01-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

So last night's Fiesta Bowl was a solid defensive struggle, and Boise State came out victorious over TCU 17-10.

For some folks, the game was an absolute snoozer, although if Texas and Alabama play the exact same game, it is hailed as a great defensive struggle for the ages.

I still believe that neither school was really served by playing each other and could have made a greater case for inclusion if both had played automatic qualifying opponents (Iowa and Georgia Tech).

But I've been doing some thinking about the whole BCS mess as I do on an annual basis, and I've reached this conclusion:

Boise State continuing to go undefeated and winning BCS bowl games is not going to be enough to trigger armageddon for the BCS.

I think the circumstances were in place for it to happen this year, with 5 undefeated teams heading into the bowls.

But the teams that were undefeated were not the proper schools.

Let's play the scenario out from December 5th, but we'll swap out a couple of teams.

Heading into play that morning, we had six undefeated teams:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Boise State
5. TCU
6. Cincinnati

Florida and Alabama were playing against each other in an elimination game, so obviously, we were left with five teams.

But what would have happened if we changed teams four, five and six so that the list of undefeated teams looked like this:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Iowa
5. Ohio State
6. USC

Yes, the above scenario could be plausible some years. Remember, the Big Ten does not play a total round robin schedule, so the potential for two undefeated 12-0 teams is in play.

(I know, I know; Iowa and Ohio State played this year. Let's assume that they didn't.)

Florida and Alabama still play their steel cage death match in Atlanta and someone gets eliminated. Texas comes through unscathed, and let's say USC beats whomever they are playing by about a touchdown in a low scoring affair.

So you have the Big Ten co-champs and the Pac-10 champ left out in the cold, hoping for a split title care of the Associated Press—assuming that they don't lay an egg in the Rose Bowl.

Yeah, let's have that happen and see if the agitation for a playoff doesn't begin.

New Year's Resolution and a (slightly) new direction

2010-01-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

A new year has dawned.

A new decade has arrived.

And it's time for a new direction here at Pigskin Punditry.

Ostensibly, I started this blog with the best of intentions and the hope that it would be a place where I would rant and rave about college football; the good, the bad and the in between.

Well, previously, that has not worked out the way I wanted it to. There have been obvious long gaps between posts (as the "Terrelle Pryor said what" post demonstrates) and the care and feeding of this blog has been wanting between my day job and other family commitments.

But it's time for a change, and the dawning of several new eras seems like the proper time to take advantage of those changes.

In this new year, I am still going to follow college football. I love the game, no matter how broken its post season is.

However, count on seeing more posts from other sports: We'll go basketball heavy in the winter and leading into the spring with March Madness and the NBA playoffs; baseball will dominate the summer with some golf and other big events taking over for a bit, too.

Late summer and early fall will be given over to college football with some NFL thrown in as well.
I also will try my hand at some video logs during the football season next year in a new segment that is tentatively titled "Inside the 20."

This site will continue to be a work in progress. I welcome any and all feedback either in comments here or by email at pigskinpundit@gmail.com, or by twitter @pigskinpundit.