Unverified Voracity Roots For Ties Comment Count

Brian

[Programming note: Ace is at a Big Day Prep Showdown event today and will be reporting from that. Recruiting roundup will be tomorrow.]

Jamie Morris breaks the record. Via WH, the 1987 Minnesota game:

Also Michigan gives up a 98-yard touchdown run.

FOOTBAW. Also from WH, the 1998 shutout of Penn State. Try to watch the first minute of this without punching something and thinking about FOOTBAW:

Keith Jackson, man.

UPDATE/BONUS: Fumble recoveries, man.

image

Luck be a lady tonight.

Your tears are so yummy, Scott. Run, don't walk, to ND Nation and imbibe the thread "An emo rant: I'm still not over the Michigan loss" if the suffering of other tribes stirs even the barest tremors of pleasure in you. You will not be disappointed:

I was there...

by mg73

and the worst part for me was the 45 min it took to wade through 100,000 rabid fans screaming and singing the entire time.

I had perfect seats right under the press box on the west side with my best friend who's a UM fan. There were so many head-banging letdowns during that game: The last drive, Denard continually throwing the ball up for grabs the entire game and having UM come down with it every time, Denard fumbling and then picking it up and running it in for a TD vs Rees having the ball just fall out of his hands in the Red Zone...

Fortunately my friend was very gracious in victory, as I would have been had we won. But it still makes me ill when I think about it.

My brother's response after the game summed it up perfectly

by jameszuro

"I don't know where to start cleaning up. Firs I sh*t myself I was so happy. Then I threw up all over the carpet."

Oh, man. I have to sit down after that.

He came with the power of LAW and gave unto newspaper reporters. Are you wondering what the only lawyer in America thinks about the Penn State sanctions? Wonder no longer:

On Sunday, Buckner filed a blog entry (read it here) stating that he is "extremely concerned about the possible NCAA sanctions and urge the organization to comply with its existing processes and procedures to address the Penn State sexual abuse scandal."

Further, he wrote that sanctions could "potentially violate federal and state notions of due and fair process" because, among other reasons, Penn State did not violate an existing NCAA rule, and the NCAA is not following existing procedures available to other schools.

He's got a blog now. Batten down the law-hatches.

Even more PENN STATE~! So the thing about the sanctions that is truly painful is that the roster restriction doesn't start for two years. The bowl ban is now, the scholarship reductions are now, but the roster cap of 65 does not come into effect until 2014. But since it's open season on PSU players and what's left of their 2012 recruiting class, PSU is likely to be way, way below their hypothetical maximum this fall, and then they've only got 15 slots to try to bring that up to par next year, and that's when the roster cap kicks in. Penn State has six years of extreme restrictions. Which… wow.

Q: assuming academic-fraud-laden and booster-runner-employing North Carolina gets charged with LOIC can Mark Emmert level a similar punishment? I think that's the test case for those theorizing about the New Era Of Enforcement. What went down at UNC seems as egregious a violation of NCAA principles as what happened at Penn State, though not the principles of basic human decency. If Emmert agitates for a similarly harsh, long-term punishment of the Tarheels, then I'll believe in the new era.

I'm on the fence as it is. Emmert is clearly trying to repair some of the things that suck about the NCAA. Under his watch they jammed through the ability to offer multi-year scholarships (barely) and were only thwarted by the Indiana States of the world when they tried to offer an additional stipend to the athletes. IIRC, both of these pieces of legislation took some arcane-but-direct route that got them through the legislative process without exposing it to votes involving the Indiana States until their only resort was the override process. That required a supermajority of 5/8ths to knock down the legislation and that is the only reason (THE OPTION TO OFFER!) multi-year scholarships got through. A majority was against it.

So, yeah, rail on the NCAA because you're Drew Magary or Charlie Pierce and railin' is your speciality, but really what we're railing at is the rickety structure trying to accommodate schools that spend millions of dollars annually on a bonfire called college athletics with the major schools that can build thousand-foot tall statues of Charles Woodson intercepting that pass against MSU*. When the big players try to lurch slowly towards a more equitable distribution of their massive revenues, the small schools cry "level playing field" with a straight face and knock it down. That's the real issue, and the only solution is to hack big football schools away from Indiana State.

Anyway, Emmert seems to be ramming things through the NCAA without regard to anything except how he can Get Things Done, and the things that he wants to get done are good changes. He can't help it that he's not a dictator.

*[Just sayin']

Paterno statue position paper. Should have left it up, but removed the "educator, coach, humanitarian" text under his name. Just let people look at as they would.

We've got a poll. The writers have taken it upon themselves to replicate the preseason polls the milquetoasty Big Ten has done away with. Results:

Leaders Division

1. Wisconsin (19 first-place votes)

2. Ohio State (5)

3. Purdue

4. Illinois

5. Penn State

6. Indiana

Legends Division

1. Michigan (16 first-place votes)

2. Michigan State (7)

3. Nebraska (1)

4. Iowa

5. Northwestern

6. Minnesota

Michigan wins the championship game on 11 out of 24 ballots. If only it was slightly under 50% for the Rose Bowl this year. The inexplicable Will Gholston Hype Train continues, as he's the pick for defensive player of the year. Kawaan Short and John Simon are like "WTF I have beaten many blocks in my career page me when Gholston does yes I still have a pager also Tamagotchi."

The Elite 11 is a ridiculous thing now. You may not be following this closely, but there are now 25(!) quarterbacks at the Elite 11, which is, like, too many quarterbacks. Not only is your name silly but it results in events like this:

The third day of 7v7 began at the Elite 11 in which each quarterback takes eight throws. The duration of the day spread across a seven hour time frame makes for some strikingly different conditions. The early afternoon groups contend with a stiff ocean breeze that typically dies down late afternoon and into the evening.

Even more ridiculous was a redzone event where the QBs threw four times. Take all Elite 11 rankings with a grain of salt, as they represent little data made big. Shane Morris did well according to all observers, but did not make the camp coaches' Elite 11 list.

Isn't he doing this whenever he walks down a street? Will Campbell's Dukes of Hazzard fail magically transmogrifies into

Michigan senior defensive tackle Will Campbell accepted responsibility for a civil infraction of blocking a sidewalk Monday morning in the 15th District Court in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Be narrower or pay $300 in fines or court costs. Campbell also has a sentencing hearing for misdemeanor destruction of property coming up. My punishment spidey-sense suggests this is a stairs-type offense that shouldn't impact his availability for football games.

Nevermind. The "Valley of the Sun Bowl" is no more. In its place:

The bastard child of the Fiesta Bowl, the Insight Bowl, will now shed its technocratic shell and become known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Please insert immediately obvious jokes about a field rigged with sprinklers and booby traps designed to take games into overtime here.

I hope other people are driven as insane by the idea people would go to a sports bar and cheer for a tie, or that someone could be watching the Detroit Randoms try a last-ditch Hail Mary down a touchdown and say "the only thing that could make this better is… OVERTIME" instead of "the only thing that could make this better is winning 68-0 and being at a place where the food comes on, you know, plates." I hate the fake BWW people so, so much.

Yessssssss. EA has agreed to give up NCAA licensing exclusivity as part of an anti-trust class-action lawsuit. The contract lapses in 2014. Bizarrely, it stipulates that EA won't re-acquire an exclusive license for "at least five years." If your position now is so crappy you're paying out a class action lawsuit settlement why would it be better in five years? I don't know.

Anyway, this opens the door for football games from other people that may not suck and may get EA to actually fix its product. A lot of folks in the comment thread were skeptical about the economics of just putting out a college football game, but I figure someone's got to take a swing. Also one guy put out a call for a CFB game akin to Football Manager. Working title: "Brian was never heard from again."

Etc.: Bonus news that will depress Penn State fans: top basketball recruit Brandon Austin decommits. UNC stuff gets incrementally worse. Luke Winn on transferring up in college basketball. Former Penn State player twitter roundup. Penn State punishment comment fallout. BHGP podcast w/ the original BSD mafia (Chris Grovich, Kevin… uh… I don't know his last name) on the Penn State stuff. The city of Grambling is saucy, yo.

Comments

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

July 24th, 2012 at 12:33 PM ^

PSU I likely to be way, way below their hypothetical maximum this fall, and then they've only got 15 slots to try to bring that up to par next year, and that's when the roster cap kicks in. Penn State has six years of extreme restrictions. Which… wow.

I believe there's a small but nonzero chance that Penn State, slammed by transfers and unable to replenish their roster, looks at possibly having only 50 or even 45 or so players on scholarship by around 2015, and either appeals to the NCAA to ease up, or does an SMU-1988 and shuts 'er down for a year so that their players don't get killed.

I think there'll be enough WE ARE PENN STATE rally-round-the-flag type stuff that keeps the transfers to a minimum, enough to keep some semblance of a program.  But it's not crazy to think a death-penalty-like substance will emerge from this.

ESNY

July 24th, 2012 at 2:19 PM ^

I don't think PSU will be harmed to such an extent that they won't be able to field a team.  They may be terrible, but if they can keep their coaches and they actually show they can coach, I don't see why they couldn't get 15 commits per year to add to whoever stays. 

Maybe you can't go to a bowl game, but PSU is still going to be a public program with games on TV, so if you were a low 3 star recruit, wouldn't you rather go to PSU than play at Miami-Ohio or Eastern Michigan with the chance that you'll get some exposure for the NFL?

WolvinLA2

July 24th, 2012 at 2:38 PM ^

Yeah - they'll get 15 each year, but it doesn't mean that those 15 won't see the same types of attrition that other teams have. Those guys still might get in trouble, have academic issues, or get injured or homesick. Also, some of them might be total busts too.

And you're right that kids would rather go to PSU than Miami or Eastern, but about on par with Indiana. They'll be on TV some, but mostly BTN because ABC/ESPN won't be picking up many Penn State games after this year because they'll suck and won't be a new story anymore.

So think how good Indiana would be if you randomly removed a third of their roster. Yeah, that.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

July 24th, 2012 at 2:53 PM ^

The other problem is that even 15 kids per year might not be enough.  Let's say they're down to 60 by next year through transfers and attrition and such, and then by 2015 they've lost five more players each year than they can replace.  That brings them down to 50 in 2015 with one more recruiting class of 15 only, so they'd be looking at having, like, 48-52 players on scholarship and playing against teams with 85.

Seen another way, the next four recruiting classes (13, 14, 15, 16) they can only bring in 15 players a year, which adds up to 60.  They won't have more than 60 scholarship players in 2016 no matter how you slice it.  They'll probably have less.

Needs

July 24th, 2012 at 3:07 PM ^

They can get to 65 in 2016 if they redshirt players this year.

But... this class is viewed as mediocre after it got picked over in the wake of the story breaking. If players transfer off the current squad, they're going to need to burn more redshirts than normal just to make up special teams squads, etc. And they still have to deal with the indefinite number of players that get hurt, give up football, etc. It's hard to see them pulling top 250 recruits with these sanctions. And Penn State hasn't recruited well for the past decade (one top 10 class). By 2016, they'll need  good luck to compete with anyone other than the dregs of the conference. 

MGoShoe

July 24th, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^

...thing Brian wrote with which I'm in total agreement:

I hope other people are driven as insane by the idea people would go to a sports bar and cheer for a tie, or that someone could be watching the Detroit Randoms try a last-ditch Hail Mary down a touchdown and say "the only thing that could make this better is… OVERTIME" instead of "the only thing that could make this better is winning 68-0 and being at a place where the food comes on, you know, plates."

Yes, Brian. Many others think this is a pretty stupid concept. Also, paying someone to pour coffee on a power plant distribution control panel to allow a friend to leave work/join up at B-Dub is pretty effing stupid.

Leaders And Best

July 24th, 2012 at 12:52 PM ^

UNC already was investigated last year and penalized for academic fraud, impermissible benefits from agents and a failure to monitor the football program. They received sanctions from the NCAA COI in March.

At the time though, the academic fraud was limited to the tutor who wasn't cooperating, and the scandal in the AFAM department hadn't broken yet. I still have my doubts the NCAA will do anything about it.

A solid read from the Charlotte Observer a couple weeks ago (unfortunately references Michigan though):

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/12/3379656/on-the-other-unc-scandal-the-ncaa.html

MGoShoe

July 24th, 2012 at 1:13 PM ^

...with this. My understanding is that PSU was offered the chance to conset to these penalties or face multiple years of the death penalty. They chose to consent because even if crippled, they will still have a functioning football program.

French West Indian

July 24th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^

Maybe this has already been clarified but does the PSU bowl ban include the Rose Bowl?  Because the Rose Bowl isn't just any bowl game, it should be singled out if it is part of the punishment.

snarling wolverine

July 24th, 2012 at 1:35 PM ^

I like how ND fans have to come up with increasingly long names to describe their recent Return to Glory.

First, they referred to 1997-2001 as the "Davie years."  Simple enough.

After the next coaching failure, they started referred to 1997-2004 as "Davieham years."

After the next coaching failure, the 1997-2009 years became "Davieweisham."

What's next?

Davieweiskellyham?  Kellydavieweisham?

Evil Empire

July 24th, 2012 at 1:36 PM ^

I was standing above the tunnel entrance waiting for my brother.  I recognized Sandusky when he walked in from the parking lot, within 30 minutes of kickoff.  It was Penn State's offense that failed them that day, but I remember thinking their team was at a disadvantage if its coaches weren't showing up on time.

At the time I wondered if Sandusky was hung over from the night before.  In the past year I have wondered if he was doing something else.  Ugh.

turtleboy

July 24th, 2012 at 2:31 PM ^

Ateast the finally got a statement from Bill O'Brien. Scorecard? That's 468 crap statements from Bobby Bowden, 1 good statement from Bill O'Brien.

Tozmo

July 24th, 2012 at 4:27 PM ^

Also one guy put out a call for a CFB game akin to Football Manager.

I rarely have "nerdgasms", but I would probably end up divorced and my child taken by CPS if this game existed.  I'm on a 5 year game of Championship Manager right now (would be 10 if I didn't lose a hard drive).  The problem with football (American version) with these types of games is that the match-sim is tough to balance.  Do you watch every play and end up with one Saturday match per 3 hours?  Or breeze through quarters and have a "I have no idea what is going on on the field" feeling?

With soccer-football sim, they only show you the highlights so you can get a lot of matches in each time you play.

yzerman19

July 24th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^

The ND schadenfruede made my day.  The best one you did not post:  "I've been gradually dying these last 15 years. Most of the rest of me died before we even scored our last TD in that game. Those last 30 seconds finished me off, possibly for keeps."