Another week, another chance to connect with a great writer from inside the intertrons, and to talk about football as well as some “off the field” stuff.  We’re thankful that Chris from allCanesBlog.com agreed to chat with us, and that he hasn’t added us to the “do not call” list as of yet. Be sure to check out our responses to his inquisition over at allCanesBlog today.

Wardrobe Malfunction

As a lifelong Miami enthusiast, it’s been a long three-plus decades of media bias and hatred, as well as outside commentary from jaded opposing fans. On one hand, you accept that it comes with the turf as a despised, non-traditional program and “microwave dynasty”, based on what UM accomplished between 1983 and 1992. Private school. Big city. Pro sports town. Still, the bias gets old. Especially from uninformed, big-mouthed folks who don’t understand the South Florida culture or don’t realize that UM is a small school with under 10K undergrads. The majority of fans aren’t alum, which means less true diehards who bleed for the program.

Tags: 'Da U, Al Golden, Jacory Harris, Miami Hurricanes, NCAA Investigations, Seantrel Henderson
Categories: College Football, Ohio State Football

Your weekly update from the Ohio State press conference as well as notes from around the world of college sports- this week, we take a pointed look at the NCAA after the jump.

Usually we reserve soundtracks for TWTW, but someone emailed me a song today that I thought I’d share. They described it as “a warning to South Beach re: Mr. John Simon“… enjoy.

Buckeye News

• Injury Updates- At the presser today, Coach Fickell mentioned that one of the reasons Braxton didn’t play on Saturday was that his prep was impacted somewhat by being dinged up last week. Today, though, several Buckeyes reported that Brax seemed healthy and ready to go.  They also reported that Nathan Williams practiced healthy, so it would be difficult to imagine him missing out on Saturday.  Jamaal Berry is back on the kick off return team, which must mean that his hammy is better.  At this point, though, there’s no word on how “Philly” is after leaving the game with a leg injury- although Coach Fickell said that he “didn’t look good”.
• Captain, My Captain- Only two captains this week; Florida native Mike Brewster and sixth hear senior Tyler Moeller will serve as game day leaders.
• Read More

Tags: 'Da U, Akron, Boise State, Braxton Miller, Brian Kelly, Conference Expansion, Corey Linsley, Drew Basil, Economics, Evan Blankenship, Florida State, Luke Fickell, Miami Hurricanes, Mike Brewster, NCAA, Nike, Notre Ame, Oklahoma, SBP, Seantrel Henderson, Southern Idaho State, TBPU, Texas, Tyler Moeller
Categories: College Football, Ohio State Football

ESPN: So is there another team, another organization, another sport that should be nervous right now because you’re working on something comparable?
Robinson: Yeah [laughs], we’ve still got a couple more coming.[several moments of back-and-forth banter]
Robinson: I’ve got probably a six to a seven, maybe an eight depending on where you live coming in the next two weeks, and then by August, a ten.
ESPN: Well, what would you consider the Tressel story, on a one to ten?
Robinson: Probably an eight.
ESPN: So there’s something even bigger than that coming in the summertime?
Robinson: Yeah. Yeah. There’s one I’ve been working on since, I don’t know, I’m probably entering my fourth month on it, and we’ll probably get a good six, seven months more in on it before I’m done.

-Yahoo’s Charles Robinson, in an ESPN Chicago radio interview following the Jim Tressel story

Today, the “ten” fell- an eleven month investigation into alleged improprieties at the University of Miami, specifically at the hands a former booster and donor who is currently serving time for his involvement in a $930 mission Ponzi scheme.

Ten? Perhaps I undersold that a bit. This one is pretty big… from the article:

At a cost that Shapiro estimates in the millions of dollars, he said his benefits to athletes included but were not limited to cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and, on one occasion, an abortion.

Or, if you’re the type that prefers their news from audio/video sources, there’s this:

Read More

Tags: 'Da U, Jacory Harris, Miami Hurricanes, Seantrel Henderson, SEC, Yahoo Sports
Categories: College Football, NCAA Investigations

Here’s the soundtrack for this week’s journey through the recent past. It’s from one of my favorite artists, and the greatest Thanksgiving movie ever ANDIWILLFIGHTYOUIFYOUDISAGREE. Ahem.

Although I usually don’t take requests, I almost made an exception for Coach Rodriguez.

What a great week of football- three days worth of collegiate goodness, interspersed with some NFL stuff, lots of food, and the occasional neighborhood game. Although, this year things ended up being a little messy.

There, there... let it all out...

I guess you could say that the mess all started on Thursday, when our friends in burnt orange managed to lose their rivalry game against the Aggies.  As you can imagine, the good folks at Shaggy Bevo are taking this well, particularly given that most of the losses happened in Austin.

The Longhorn’s collapse is the first time in recent memory that a team has gone from the BCS championship game to not even being bowl eligible.  As a “fun fact”; this BCS season will be without the following names: Pete Carroll, Mack Brown, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Les Miles, with the jury still out on whether Bobby Stoops gets an invite.  You know who’s going to be at the BCS Ball?  Jim Tressel.  Again.

Fridays’ games were just as exciting, with Auburn performing the “Greatest Iron Bowl Comeback Ever To Be Vacated” against ‘Bama after being down 21-0 in the first quarter.  Granted, Alabama QB McElroy was injured in the second half, but the Tide followed their protocol and inserted the next person with the same haircut. Read More

Tags: 'Da U, Arizona, Arkansas, BCS, Bill Lynch, Bowls, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa, Justin Boren, Kentucky, Lane Kiffin, Les Miles, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Mike Leach, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Notre Dame, Officially Awful, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Randy Shannon, Rich Rodriguez, Ryan Mallett, Seantrel Henderson, Southern Cal, Southern Idaho State, TBPU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Urban Meyer, Utah, Vanderbilt, West Virginia
Categories: College Football, Humor

This is a follow up of the USC Sanctions reflections from yesterday.

Onward… and sticking with our theme:

Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with the lessons learned in Heritage Hall- we won’t know what, if any, changes will occur within the administration of Southern Cal’s athletic program for months. To be honest, based on the response of the fans and former coaches, I’m not sure we’re anywhere near the Kubler-Ross stages; there’s been so much denial, it’s difficult to separate “normal” from “grief processing”.

Nope, this is going to be my back to school essay: “Things I Learned by Staring at a Car Wreck“. Here goes:

• The NCAA Is Not Impotent. A lot of folks, your humble correspondent included, were certain that USC would get off with minimal sanctioning, given that they are the top TV revenue draw west of Denver (although that may be changing). Instead, they responded in a serious way to serious allegations of the rules that make college football a level playing field.  If Miles Brand wasn’t dead, I’d buy him a tasty beverage. We’ll just have to make due.
• The NCAA Is Not Perfect. Actually, I knew this already, but the SC investigation solidified it. Things that could be better:

1. No subpoena power meant that it had to beg and dig to find out what went down, especially challenging when certain student athletes buy off the people who are making accusations. I’m looking at you, number one.
2. There’s still stuff that this report didn’t cover- Joe McKnight’s ride, anyone?
3. “Swift justice” isn’t swift. Because of the above, stuff like this takes time… a lot of time. This situation lasted longer than the Civil War.
4. “Swift justice” isn’t exactly justice. Wait, this deserves it’s own bullet…

• I feel bad for Seantrel Henderson. (Ok, maybe Seantrel in particular should have known what was going on, but what about the other members of the 2010 class?) He and the rest of the current members of the Trojan team had nothing to do with this and are now reaping the whirlwind, while the persons responsible move on to other jobs.  I don’t disagree with the sanctions; “lack of institutional control” and “repeat offender” status means that the response should be significant. It’s just a pity that there’s no way to respond more directly to the good folks who got you into this mess.  Actually, I’d be really interested to see an institution file a civil suit in these matters- say, Southern Cal sues Reggie Bush or Tim Floyd for lost revenue from bowl appearances and such. Lawyer-type readers; is this possible?
• You can’t please everyone. Obviously, this was going to piss Trojan fans off. What’s been interesting for me is to see the response from other fans; calling for the SMU death penalty, a TV ban, Lane Kiffin to be publicly flogged, USC song-girls cell numbers released to the public, etc. Or, on the other side, Oklahoma fans clamoring for their national championship trophy now that the Orange Bowl win has been vacated. Sooners, be honest- if you did get a trophy, it’d only be the precursor to being on probation within a year or two. And Irish fans? No dice on the Bush Push game- as far as the record books and I are concerned, there were two losers on the field that night.
• Michigan is doing it right. It hurt to write that. As much as I’m enjoying the fiasco up north and looking forward to August’s meeting with the NCAA, I have to acknowledge that they are being as up front and forthright about this as they possibly can be. Represents the conference well, given the circumstances.
• This is not the end of the world. Everyone has been saying that these are the most significant sanctions since Alabama was punished in 2002. Alabama… where have I heard that name before? Oh yeah; they just won a national title, only eight years after “Armageddon”. Trojan fahs, as much as I hate to admit this- your team will be back.

OK, that’s about enough of that… We’ll keep you updated as things develop; I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a new AD at Southern Cal within the coming months.

But now I’ve got to go back to helping NorCal Buckeye look for a USC jersey with #1 on it so we can get “Student Athlete” across the nameplate.

Tomorrow- How are Los Angelenos responding?

Tags: Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush, Sanctions, Seantrel Henderson, USC
Categories: NCAA Investigations

Hang on… this one needs a soundtrack:

According to the good folks over at ESPN, Southern Cal’s football team has received a two year ban from postseason play, in addition to scholarship reductions and forfeiting wins from at least their 2004 season. According to the LA Times, the Trojans will lose 20 scholarships in football, more than likely over numerous years.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered:

• What are the specifics of the findings?
• How will the basketball team be impacted?
• Will the Heisman committee strip Reggie Bush of the trophy?
• Is there a finding of either “lack of institutional control” or “repeat violators”?
• How does Seantrel Henderson’s dad feel about these decisions?

Quick update on this last one- I’d forgotten about this:

Kiffin wanted to reassure the family once more. He spoke with Sean and then Seantrel, a 6-foot-8, 330-pound senior at Cretin-Derham Hall (St. Paul, Minn.), telling both that any upcoming penalties from the NCAA’s infractions committee would not make the Trojans ineligible for future bowl games. USC is expected to appear in front of the committee between Feb. 19 and 21 to answer charges of major rules violations.

Yeah.

In addition to being excited to live in Los Angeles while this is all coming down, I’m also looking forward to LSUfreek’s take on this matter.

LSUfreek = Sooper genius

Oh, and bonus BBC points to the best photoshop update of this thing:

As always,  we’ll keep you updated as this continues to develop.

Tags: Heisman Trophy, Reggie Bush, Seantrel Henderson
Categories: NCAA Investigations