Happy Leap Day!! Today’s the day our female readers can finally propose to that guy they’ve been chasin’ around.

Buckeye Bullet, Ready for Leap Day

Buckeye 411… Sort of

• Where’s There’s Bullets, there’s a gun… and where there was a gun, there was Ray Small. Oh, and some weed and herion (hillbilly and otherwise)… you know kids. Yup, the dog house denizen and vaunted Lantern source revealed yet another hiccup in the thought process; and yet we wouldn’t be surprised if the person he threw under the bus wasn’t also one of the first to reach out to him.  Ah well… Personally, I’m chalking this one up to Delayed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  
• Speaking of Bullets:  Certainly seems as if Ohio State dodged a couple in the persons of DaVonte Neal and Stefon Diggs.  First, the latter chose to weigh in on the state of racial and athletic endeavors regarding the most currently famous Harvard grad. He’s since recanted, but this situation makes be glad that I didn’t have thousands of people following my every stupid move when I was 17. Then, today, the Ivy Towers and Golden Dome of South Bend were excited to hear that the latest member of their class of 2012 has some academic issues and has withdrawn from his current school. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong, and that this transfer to another institution for the last semester of his senior year will straighten things right up… otherwise, we probably would have heard about it from another source.
• Not Sayin’, Just Sayin’-  This certainly doesn’t explain some of the Bucks-ketball issues as of late, but it certainly looks like a trend. “I never would have guessed…”- No one, ever.

B1G News

• Gerg’d- As if OSU’s staff wasn’t busy enough these days, now they’ll have to figure out how to defend the awesome Greg Davis offense, since he’s all up in the Iowa staff and whatnot. Rumors that he’s already been awarded the B1G Asst. Coach Of The Year for 2012 are premature… but just barely.

• Action? Not Affirmative- ESPN today pointed out what we’ve already started discussing here at tBBC, that the B1G ain’t exactly a rainbow coalition of head coaches these days. They did do a great job at pointing out that the conference has been a leader in this matter, but that the current state of affairs is pretty homogeneous. Personally, I believe it’s only a matter of time, as assistant coaches and other gain experience and are given more opportunities to excel. That being said, it does seem like there’s an awful lot of recycling going on in coaching circles, and not the good kind.
• Oh, Bucky- Wanna know why Wisconsin isn’t in favor of four year scholarship offers (other than the fact that they’re evil incarnate)? Because they’ve never done it that way.

“The one-year renewable scholarships have worked for decades, and our mentality is why change something that works so well for both parties.”

In other news,  the city of Madison is looking into this new-fangled “plumbing” that seems to be the rage, although “pooping into a hole in the ground worked alright for Pa”.

NCAA Notables

• ReDuckted-  Don’t think that just because everyone in the mainstream media overlooked Oregon’s announcement that something might have happened that weren’t all that kosher that this means that we’ve missed it. Heck, Eric’s got his Comparing and Contrasting pen all ready… but there’s a problem. At this point, all we’ve seen is NikeU’s response to a phone call about questions that the NCAA might have; there’s been no official Notice of Allegations as of yet, and the document released had more useless white space than a Plumlee Family Reunion. Citing FERPA, the AD at Duck U explained why there’s not much details in the details… but, given what was there (including “failure to monitor”) might make Oregon fans a bit apprehensive, particularly if the new NCAA guidelines are in play. Paragon points out that they may be in “repeat offender” waters, while Dennis Dodds seems to think that this is all going to go away quietly.  Way to go out on a limb there, broseph.
• Learning Moments- While Buckeye fans wait for the hammer to fall on the feathered ones (they way USC fans waited to see what would happen in Columbus), there are some pretty good takeaways here. First, if you redact something, REDACT something- don’t just cross out names, delete entire paragraphs and pages. Second, if you’re going to release something to the media, a 5:30 PM Friday release on Oscar/Daytona 500/ NBA All Star Weekend is a pretty good time to do it.  In other words; do exactly the opposite of whatever Gene Smith thinks is a good strategy.
• More In “Really, Wisconsin?”-  You know that thing we talked about earlier that the Badgers aren’t totally on board with? Well, the guy that it was designed to stop has said that he’s going to do it, which means two things: a) Wisconsin really is slow and b) Nick has already discovered a loophole or is planning his jump back to the NFL.
• This Week In Expansion: Temple (back) to Big East, BYU to Big 12? Boise out of cash? aTm and Mizzou now 12.4 mil lighter.
• This Week In Scandal: Today, everyone’s talking about the latest from SI “journalist” George Dohrmann, whose expose on drug usage on UCLA’s basketball team caused an immediate reaction of… “Wait, UCLA still has a basketball team?”  Oh, and some weed usage? In California? Yeah, Ray Small thinks that’s cute. No doubt Dohrmann’ll figure out a way to throw the Buckeyes in there as well.

And Finally

• Soccer Is The Future, Huh- With all the scandal around “major” sports, my soccer loving friends like to point to the purity of their sport. In response, I usually throw out this and also this, but news this week topped it all. Hash browns? I can understand tots… Ah well, it certainly reinforces my life’s philosophy…
• Make A Difference- Since today only comes around once every four years, might as well take the moment to start on your Oscar campaign. Step one, use this thing. Step two. Step three, trophy.  Here’s an early attempt by yours truly- don’t step in the awesome.

Tags: Alabama, Alabama Crimson Tide, B1G, DeVonte Neal, George Dorhmann, Iowa, NCAA Investigations, Oregon, Ray Small, SBP, Sports Illustrated, Stefon Diggs, UCLA, Will Lyles, Wisconsin
Categories: College Football, Conference Expansion, Humor, Miscellaneous, NCAA Investigations