In a just world, USC basketball would have something in common with SMU football in the near future.
The death penalty.
It’s not going to happen, because NCAA bylaws don’t work that way. And besides, they’re not likely to ever again disband a program for a year after the smoking crater it left at SMU.
But USC deserves it. The school has so far escaped facing NCAA prosecution for compelling allegations that star tailback Reggie Bush and his family were lavishly compensated by an aspiring agent while playing for the Trojans. Now comes a devastating, thoroughly documented “Outside The Lines” report that goes into stunning detail about the money and gifts star guard O.J. Mayo allegedly received before and during his one season at USC.
Pretty cool. Check this out:
For the boys, Northwood senior Tobias Palmer, an N.C. State football and track recruit, won the 100 meters with a time of 10.58. He ran an 11.09 at regionals. “This was my last chance,” said Palmer, who wanted to win badly after taking sixth last year and second place as a sophomore.
It seems pretty clear that the ACC will go to an 18 game basketball schedule if (and only if) the networks agree to pay handsomely in the next TV contract. Increasing the regular season will obviously push more conference games into December and it seems to me that this change would be in the networks’ best interest.
So for today’s exercise, let’s assume that the TV networks pay enough money to over ride the coaches’ objections and the ACC goes to an 18 game schedule. When this happens, a generic schedule would break down like this:
Just last week we were all talking about the ACC’s potential interest in expanding the conference basketball schedule.
Now the N&O is reporting that the conference will also consider expanding the league’s football schedule.
“It’s something that I think we should talk about and explore,” Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman said Thursday. “There are some obvious pros and cons, and it’s certainly not beyond the exploratory stage for now. But with the 12-game regular-season policy, there is some additional room for flexible in-conference scheduling.”
Perhaps the best part of the N&O’s blog entry is that Lee Fowler is FINALLY NOT interviewed the piece!
He inherits a program with a struggling recent history. Since winning back-to-back South Division titles in 1997-98 under Slocum and earning a three-way tie for the second place in 1999, the Aggies have finished no higher than third in the South since then. And since Sherman left A&M after the 1996 season, the Aggies have lost seven of their past eight bowl games.
ESPN ran an article about Texas A&M’s new Head Coach Mike Sherman last week that I found interesting and decided to share.
Why the secrecy? Public left out of search for UNC-CH Chancellor.
Today is a big day for North Carolina’s flagship public university. The UNC Board of Governors may give its OK to hire the next chancellor at UNC Chapel Hill.
Who’s in the running? Nobody knows except a handful of insiders.
That’s because this search has been top secret. An appointed search committee hired a professional search firm that specializes in recruiting chancellors. The firm recommended names to the search committee, which in turn recommended finalists to UNC system President Erskine Bowles for a decision. Mr. Bowles could have — and should have — made those names public. But he didn’t.
I love this kind of stuff. I love looking back and reviewing issues with some hindsight and holding people accountable to their words.
Tip of the hat to the N&O for their insightful use of yesterday’s APR announcement.
Given the scholarship penalties handed out by the NCAA on Tuesday, Chuck Amato was a man ahead of his time in his criticism of Akron and the MAC school’s commitment to academic excellence.
The NCAA released the Academic Progress Rates on Tuesday and the Zips got zapped five scholarships for historical negligence and an APR score of 920 for the years between 2003 and 2007.
May 1, 2008
The writing may be the wall for JJ Hickson. As NC State fans people who genuinely want to see JJ Hickson maximize his earnings and succeed for years to come; we can only hope that the young man is mature enough to ‘read the wall’ objectively ans execute the kind of decision-making-skills needed to insure a bright future for the young man.
Before the recent onslaught of announcements by dozens of highly rated underclassment, Hickson was projected by many to be a second round draft choice in this summer’s NBA Draft. The impact of all of these underclassment has certainly not helped Hickson’s cause.
Last week’s report where the NCAA honored 712 different teams throughout the country laid the groundwork for today’s broad release of the NCAA’s Academic Progress Report that effectively takes a scholarship away from NC State’s wrestling program.
You can access NC State’s specific report by clicking here.
* NC State is the ONLY school in the entire Athletics Coast Conference to be penalized with the loss of a scholarship in any sport.
* Additionally, N.C. State joins East Carolina, Gardner-Webb and UNC-Greensboro as the only schools in North Carolina penalized for failing to meet the NCAA standard for academic progress.
Seems like it wasn’t so long ago that State’s football team punched America’s sweetheart in the mouth in the Gator Bowl (thanks Sean Berton), or that men’s basketball beat UConn at the buzzer to make the Sweet 16 or that Kay Yow led the Wolfpack Women to the Final Four.
But much like Falls Lake, State’s postseason appearances dried up this school year. While 
baseball is still in progress (and should make the NCAA tournament), the other three revenue programs failed to make a bowl game or the NCAA Tournament. That puts State in a category as one of five BCS schools to have that distinction.
Since Philip Rivers is on my mind and it happens to be (NFL) Sunday (if we were in season), I thought I’d take a quick ACC-related diversion for hard core football fans who like to stay fresh.
Philip Rivers ‘now he’s a folk here’
How awesome is this story on Philip Rivers?
The guts and passion that Rivers exhibited by playing in the AFC Championship game one week after tearing is ACL in a win over the Indianapolis Colts has worked to turn some of the mounting criticism of PR into massive praise. This article paints a lot of the picture. We will highlight a few quotes below:
Although I am not a fan of her politics, one can’t helped but be impressed with the involvement that University of Miami President, Donna Shalala has with her University’s Athletics Program.
Shalala recently made a change in the Athletics Directorship at Miami when long time AD, Paul Dee, was forced aside in the midst of the deterioration of Miami’s high-profile football program.
Perhaps some of you got the same e-mail I did recently from GoPack.com about their latest Rivers/Holt auction item.
Nevermind that “Rivers to Holt” seems a bit silly to me considering Philip and Torry never played together. But is it too much to ask for the official athletics website to correctly spell the name of our mascot?