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.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
2011 Kickoff: Preseason Predictions
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
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
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The 2011 College Football Season is Here. Thank Goodness
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.
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.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
A Letter to ESPN
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.)
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.)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Michigan needs victories, not mascots
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 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.
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.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Housekeeping: Guest spot this week
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.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Why Playing Spot The Violation is a Problem
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?
(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?
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
(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.
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!
(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.
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
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.
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.
Monday, January 24, 2011
A brief blog hiatus
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.
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.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Instant Feedback: Auburn 22, Oregon 19
There was the requisite drama, with
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
But there were also mistakes by both teams.
But there was still some magic left for
The story of the game, though, was the
Auburn made
Over the last five years, challengers from the Big 12 (Oklahoma/Texas), the Big Ten (
There have been offensive explosions and slugfests. It is becoming harder and harder to deny this: the SEC, right now, is king.
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