There is lots of stuff related to NCAA sports today; in fact, there's enough to fill up an entire rant! Remember that The Sporting News picked Auburn to be their #1 team in college football this year. That shows why TSN used to be known as “The Baseball Bible”. After being shut out at home in Week 1 by a strong USC team, Auburn had Georgia Tech in Week 2. Tech projected to be an ACC doormat but they beat Auburn 17-3 meaning that Auburn has not scored a TD in either of its first two games. Worse than that, Tech held Auburn to 40 yards rushing on 38 tries.
If you want to know why so few players in the NFL have good tackling fundamentals, all you had to do was to watch the Memphis/Mississippi game last Saturday. The victorious Memphis team was pretty bad; the Mississippi defense could not tackle a man on crutches. Chris Speilman – who does know a little bit about defense and tackling and stuff like that – was doing the color for the game. He made a few comments on this subject and you could hear him biting his tongue as the game went along. If you missed this game, you missed something that had all the beauty and grace of a root canal.
It is going to be a long season in Happy Valley for the Penn State fans. Even though they best Temple in the opening game, Temple gained 300 yards on the Penn State defense. Last Saturday, Temple lost a close game to Division 1-AA Villanova while Penn State was pounded by BC. The Eagles had 238 yards on the ground against the Penn State defense.
Florida A&M is defecting from the MEAC in a quest to go from Division 1-AA to Division 1-A. This has caused some consternation among some of the other HBCUs and it looks like Florida A&M may be in for a long season itself. In Week 1 they lost to Alabama State by 16 points. Alabama State is the place where there is a major NCAA investigation going on related to coaches providing special inducements to potential recruits. The coach was relieved of his duties and the players went to court to get him reinstated and the court told them to take a hike. Yes, Florida A&M rebounded this week against MEAC doormat, Morgan State; but I hope these folks realize that there is a huge difference between Alabama State and Alabama.
Stanford won its opener this weekend against San Jose State. That's a good thing because Stanford coach Buddy Teevens was asked what he had learned from his first year coaching at Stanford. Let's just say that in his first year, Stanford did not exactly – uh, how to say this? – excel on the gridiron. But Teevens showed why he was hired at Stanford with his astute and insightful response to the question about what he had learned:
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“It's preferable to win than not to win.”
Alan Milstein is the lawyer who represents Maurice Clarett. Aside, I'm still not sure why a scholar-athlete needs a lawyer to represent him nor where the money is coming from to pay the fees, but all that will become clear later, I guess. Anyhow, Milstein was quoted as saying, “It is absolutely unfair to treat any kid this way. It's just awful to put any kid up under this kind of microscope as if he is a professional athlete who is mature.” Think about that for a moment as you then realize that this is the guy who will represent Maurice in any possible quest to get the NFL to allow him into the pro league at an age that is younger than currently allowed. Does Mr. Milstein have a maturity pill he can give to Maurice to make him ready for the NFL? Or has he found the obverse of the Fountain of Youth; drink from it and you grow up overnight? Milstein can't possibly believe that the “microscope” will go away if Maurice goes to the NFL, can he?
Lots of sports writers and columnists have opined that the NFL would lose the case in court if Clarett challenged their exclusion rule. I didn't realize that in order to become a sportswriter you first had to have served a tour of duty on a Federal Appeals Court so I'm not sure that I believe that it is as easy as they say it would be. The moralizing cry from these folks is that this is a kid who wants to get a job and it is un-American to prevent the kid from making a living. I agree with that. Now I wonder why it is possible to prevent a kid from making a living as a bartender until he/she is 21 years old? I guess that's not un-American. Maybe the NFL should say that only people who qualify for bartenders' licenses – if there is such a thing – can play in their league. Why not?
Michigan football coach, Lloyd Carr, was commenting on his dealings with a talented but “difficult” football player named Braylon Edwards. Carr must have lost his coach-speak translator because he did not resort to comments on the need for Edwards to get his priorities straight or to make better decisions or to recognize the need to sacrifice for the good of the team. Rather, Coach Carr said:
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“We aren't on the same page. But he's a very good reader, so he needs to find what page I'm on and get there.”
Why are Final Four tickets so important to college basketball coaches? That is where lots of contacts are made and networks are built so that the coaches can get their next offer of a multi-year contract worth seven figures. And when they get their next offer, that allows them to leave behind all the scholar-athletes they recruited and promised to take care of while they go on to a bigger pay check. Somehow, I'm not sure that aspect of the ethical dimension of college basketball will be getting a lot of attention.
Here is the rule that will get the attention of the coaches:
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Get caught cheating in a major violation and you are out of a job you're your contract will not be paid off and you cannot be employed at another college in any athletic position for a period of ten years. Period. Exclamation point.
That potential rule will not be discussed in the coaches' convention in Chicago either.
But don't get me wrong, I love sports...
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