NCAA Endzone

The New York Times ran a nice article on Virgina Tech, marking the beginning of freshman orientation on the campus. It seems that the freshmen overwhelmingly want to know where and when they can get their football tickets.

Football games are a fun part of college life. But football will mean more than fun at Virginia Tech this year. This will be the year when an entire campus uses football as a healing process.

The spring game was cancelled in the wake of the shooting tragedy that occurred in April at the Virginia Tech campus, so the resumption of football games will be a sign that everything is returning to normal. It will give students, faculty and alumni something to be proud of, especially if the team does well. Having ESPN there to televise the return to normal is something I’ve been looking forward to all summer.

There is not a beating, feeling heart in the entire country that is not rooting for the Hokies this year in some small way. Here’s to healing.

Twenty people were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame today. Among them were Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and Dancing With the Stars winner - ahem- I mean, Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith (Go Gators!). My congratulations go out to this year’s inductees.

I love halls of fame, especially when the worthy are inducted. That means I don’t love the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because there’s a lot of unworthy performers in it, but I digress.

I love weddings, too. Speaking of weddings, Boise State tailback Ian Johnson will be getting married on July 28th. IdahoStatesman.com ran a story on it, and boy, do I feel sorry for his fiancee.

How romantic that she got proposed to on national TV after her honey scored the game-winning two-point conversion in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1st. I don’t feel sorry for her because of that. I feel sorry for her because NCAA rules have invaded the wedding planning.

It’s hard enough to plan a wedding that happens without any hitches, so that it becomes the day you’ve always dreamed of. But then there are these NCAA rules about accepting free or discount services, and who you can and shouldn’t accept gifts from. People who knew the player before he was a player can give a gift, but boosters shouldn’t.

I give the girl credit for going through with it, given all the extra constraints. If it were me, I’d be saying hey, honey, are you sure you don’t want to wait until after we graduate to get married?

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Minnesota suspended cornerback Dominic Jones and three other players for their alleged involvement in the rape of an 18-year-old woman.

Jones is the only one charged in the incident so far, which was videotaped on a cellphone and then erased. Investigators were able to recover part of the erased video, and there is DNA evidence linking Jones to the crime.

And yet another college football career is derailed by serious criminal allegations.

You would think these guys, smart enough get into college and to learn a football playbook, would be smart enough to stay out of trouble. It seems that once the party starts, the common sense ends.

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Yesterday the New York Post ran an article that hinted at NCAA football having a “plus-1″ semifinal playoff format as early as 2011.

The information on a possible “final four” format is speculative rather than substantive at this point, but interesting nonetheless. One has to wonder who the reporter’s sources are, and how they know what they know.

Whatever the change is, one thing is clear - the playoff format must change. The BCS is arbitrary at best, and at its worst excludes teams that by anyone’s standards should have a shot at the “national championship.” Perhaps we’ll never see a true “final four” like there is in NCAA basketball, but having semifinal and final bowls would at least lend some legitimacy to selecting a college football champion.

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Minnesota cornerback Dominic Jones was charged after investigators discovered a cell phone video clip of him having sex with a woman whose blood alcohol was estimated to be about .30, or at least three times the legal limit in most states. The victim was essentially rendered helpless by her level of intoxication. Way to commit a serious felony, Dominic.

Nick Saban admitted during an interview with Sun Sports that he handled his departure from the Miami Dolphins poorly. Wow, finally we get the truth from this man. Did anyone seriously believe him when he said he wasn’t talking to Alabama? Seriously. He lied from day one about Alabama, and he tried to play it off by saying he was acting in the best interests of the Dolphins. What a bunch of hooey. The Dolphins probably make all their prospective coaches take lie detector tests now, thanks to Saban.

And on a more positive note, look for The Express to hit movie theaters in October 2008. It’s about Syracuse running back Ernie Davis, known as the Elmira Express. In 1961, Davis was the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy. He was about to begin his career with the Cleveland Browns when leukemia took his life at age 23. Sad ending, but certainly a good story.

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Ohio State has a new president, and he’s a zero tolerance kind of guy.

That’s all well and good. Athletes who stray too far from behavioral norms can and should be punished, particularly when the behavior devolves into criminal action.

However, Gordon Gee is the guy who once disbanded the sports program at Vanderbilt for being too out of whack with the rest of the university. Hmm, there’s a problem with a leg, so let’s just whack it off instead of fixing it for the good of the rest of the body.

Can you see that going over at Ohio State? Athletics are big at Ohio State, and I don’t see students or alumni going along with something that extreme. People get emotional over sports, and sports can be an integral part of the overall college experience.

I know. I went to a college that didn’t have a football team. Drinking was very popular there.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Florida State athletic director Dave Hart has received written notice from the university president that his contract will not be extended past its scheduled expiration in January 2009.

If he’ll stay until then is anyone’s guess. His contract can be terminated by mutual agreement between Hart and FSU. Any buyout agreement funds would be paid by Seminole Boosters, Inc.

It seems silly to me to want to get rid of someone who’s been largely successful, but hey, I’m just a fan. I can’t claim any firsthand knowledge of how this stuff works. I live in the real world, where things sometimes make more sense than in the political, pro-win world of college football.

Oklahoma plans to appeal the NCAA’s order forfeiting all eight of the Sooners’ 2005 wins. Was there any doubt that they would? Seriously! The program that would forfeit eight wins without challenging the governing body’s ruling would be a pretty sucky one by anyone’s definition.

Sports Illustrated pundit Stewart Mandel has named Virginia coach Al Groh as the worst coach in college football. I’m sure Groh is suitably mortified, if he even pays attention to this kind of stuff. If I were a coach, I wouldn’t. I barely pay attention to it as a fan …

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If you’ve been reading here much, you know I think many NCAA violations border the edge of stupidity. I agree with the NCAA on this one, though.

The announcement came Wednesday that Oklahoma would forfeit its 2005 wins and lose two scholarships for the 2008-09 and 2009-2010 seasons. The punishment results from a situation in which players were booted from the team for being paid for work they had not performed for a car dealership. The Sooners’ current probation was extended until May 23, 2010.

The NCAA found that Oklahoma didn’t keep close enough tabs on many players’ employment, which allowed NCAA violations to occur.

It’s sad that many players will be punished due to the lapses of two, and I feel sorry for the ones who were not involved because they worked hard for those wins. But there was a level of dishonesty in this situation with the two players that sets a terrible precedent, and the punishment had to be severe to make it clear that ethics do matter. Allowing this situation to go unpunished would be like saying it’s OK, you’re a football player, you don’t have to work for your money like everyone else does. And that’s a load of crap.

This punishment will undoubtedly serve as a warning to other schools that might be tempted to straddle or cross the ethical line. The NCAA clearly won’t tolerate the wrongdoing, and neither should college football fans who work hard for their entertainment dollars.

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Northern Colorado punter Mitchell Cozad lost his bid to have his statements to police suppressed. As you may remember, Cozad was a backup punter and is accused of stabbing starting punter Rafael Mendoza in his kicking leg. He’s set to go to trial on July 30.

Jimmy Wilson, currently suspended from the University of Montana football team, entered a plea of not guilty to a murder charge on Monday in Los Angeles. He is accused of shooting his aunt’s boyfriend to death following a dispute.

Rumor has it that Evan Sharpley is the frontrunner in the three-way race for the starting quarterback spot at Notre Dame. The source? None other than David Frazier, father of former Notre Dame QB Zach Frazier, who split when he learned that he was the fourth man in the three-way race. Of course, this could be just another blog rumor. Sometimes those things pan out, though, so stay tuned.

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In this episode of America’s Most Wanted Football Players, New Mexico State wide receiver A.J. Harris was taken into custody on Sunday for battery. Harris reportedly told the responding officers that he slapped the complainant, who was his ex-girlfriend.

The NCAA is making the NFL look like a bunch of well-paid choirboys. Perhaps Roger Goodell should come head up the NCAA when he is done weeding out the NFL and get rid of the future Pacmans, before they have a chance to get paid for embarrassing their teams.

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The season can start any day now. Then there will be some real news to talk about, but instead there is the news that Alabama has self-reported three secondary violations of NCAA policies involving football recruits and/or their family members.

Zzzzzzzzzzz …

One of the improper contacts occurred during a game in December, when a booster talked to a recruit while both of them were in a skybox. NCAA bylaws restrict the booster’s contact to a greeting only, and apparently the conversation went beyond that. So, in other words, it’s OK to say, “Hey, how are you?” but you can’t say anything past that. That doesn’t sound very welcoming to me, but those are the rules.

In January, a graduate assistant took a recruit’s mother and a family friend to and from campus during a recruit’s official visit. Can’t do that either. Free ride for your son, but no free ride for you. Mmm, buh-bye.

Then in February, a booster gave a recruit a book on the history of Alabama football. Man, those boosters are off the chain! How dare they be proud of the program they support and want to share that with someone who might play football at Alabama.

I know, I know, the rules are supposed to protect the recruits from being manipulated and the school from liability and accusations of wrongdoing. It just seems to me that some of the rules suffocate the very normal human interactions people have with each other, without even thinking about it.

Guess they have to start thinking about it.

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Twenty-year-old Avery Atkins, a former Florida and Bethune-Cookman football player, was found dead in his car Thursday in Port Orange, Florida. The car was parked inside the garage of his aunt’s house, and police are considering the death to be suspicious. He leaves behind one child.

Atkins tripped a few times along the path to a successful college football career. He was released from the Gators by Urban Meyer after being charged with domestic violence battery. He then transferred to Bethune-Cookman, playing in only 3 games in the 2006 season before being released from his scholarship there.

He’d racked up some serious charges along the way, as so many troubled young men seem to do - two separate charges of domestic violence battery on the mother of his child, aggravated battery and drug-related charges, most recently on Monday for possession of crack cocaine.

This is undoubtedly a tragic end to what likely was a young life once full of hope and dreams of the future.

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Due to the Independence Day holiday, there was squat going on in the college football world. But I’ve got a little gift for you anyway.

When it comes to football, I’m not much of a statistics person myself. They’re just numbers to me. I am more of an intuitive football fan. My eyes see what they see, and that’s how I judge a player’s worth.

I recognize that numbers DO mean something to some people. So for those of you who do go by the numbers, I offer you this quarterback passer rating calculator. You can plug in your own stats, then click on NFL, NCAA or AFL and get your quarterback’s passer rating. It’s a neat idea that will surely keep some of you amused for a while. Let me know if it works!

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It’s been a while since I have heard anything about this story that reminds me ever so slightly of the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan ordeal, with one notable exception. In this case, the athlete is accused of doing the dirty work on his own.

Mitchell Cozad was a backup punter at North Colorado when he was accused of stabbing the starting punter, Rafael Mendoza, in his kicking leg in an attempt to secure the starter’s job for himself. Charged with attempted murder, Cozad could be sentenced to up to 48 years in prison if convicted.

Cozad’s attorney is trying to get his statement to police suppressed. A suppression hearing was held Tuesday, during which Cozad testified that he felt bullied by the police and that his requests for a lawyer to be present were ignored. Yet Cozad testified that he talked to police because he had nothing to hide.

I don’t know if Cozad did what he’s accused of, but I don’t feel sorry for him or anyone else who makes a statement to police without a lawyer present, then tries to have their statement suppressed. He says he wanted to lawyer up, but he talked anyway. Nobody can make you talk unless you want to; you have the right to shut up if you so choose.

If he was smart enough to ask for a lawyer, then he should have been smart enough to stop talking.

The Big Ten Network kicks off its inaugural season on August 30. On the following Saturday, it will broadcast its first games. Seventy-five local cable systems in eight states and DirecTV have already committed to carry the new network.

Will it be worth their while?

Personally, I can’t see the value in the Big Ten Network. But then again, I’m not a huge fan of the Big Ten. I’m in SEC country. If there was an SEC channel, I probably would subscribe to it if it meant I could see every Gators game. But I certainly wouldn’t spend more than $20 a month to have access to it.

There is no doubt that there is big money to be made in and around college football, so surely there will be advertisers willing to pursue Big Ten fans. My big question is, will it be profitable? Even if it is, will it be worth it to continue it?

I believe there is a limit to how much people will be willing to pay for a channel with such a limited range of sports programming. I also believe the number of interested advertisers may be limited. I could be wrong, but I don’t see this network surviving long. Then again, I could be underestimating fans’ level of dedication.

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