The Rest of College Football

[lineygoblue]

Shoot, even WV may buy him back.

[Hannibal]

No major program will hire him. I think that his ceiling is Big East.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Lots of baggage for RR.

In an NCAA environment of cracking down (well, we'll see), big programs would be going out on a limb offering him a HC job.

He's a good coach. Things haven't worked out .... but people looking closely will see he brought many of those black clouds on himself.

[whodean]

RR will be back coaching after next season, I look for him at Clemson.

[entropy]

RR will most likely coach again in the big east or ACC

[entropy]

http://triangle.johnlocke.org/blog/?p=11916

interesting blog on NC reputation and academic fraud

[Mike]

Submitting a plagiarized paper to the NCAA in defense of your academic fraud case is pure comic gold.

[Jeff Buchanan]

According to several radio stations (cited on the Main Rivals Board), Yahoo is working on another NCAA violations story that it will reveal in August. The target school is supposedly an SEC West team, and speculation is that the team is either Alabama or LSU.

Yahoo sports seems to have it in for what appears to be happening in the cigar smoke filled back rooms of college athletic programs. Is it justified?

I think Yahoo Sport's target is the NCAA not CFB programs per-se because it is pretty clear to me that Yahoo Sports is beating the drum for the hypocrisy of the NCAA and the blatant money grabbing of the BCS/Bowls.

But if another Kaboom comes to the skyline involving a major program like LSU or Alabama in the next few months, College Presidents, who, if the truth be known, sanction the existence of the NCAA, are going to have to come up with a plan to make the organization work in a way where it is more effective in ferreting out cheaters and punishing them.

I also think the conference offices are going to be on the hot seat too. They have some role in this on both sides of the fence ...... keeping their member sports programs in line on one side and figuring out how to lessen the impact of moneyed interests on college sports on the other side of the fence.

These seem to me to be conflicting interests in that the money is good as I pointed out in another thread. But is it? Obviously, there is a balance some where and the deciders are going to have to figure that out most ricky-tic if they want to keep the Feds out of this ...... because that's what's coming next. Yahoo Sports should watch out what they wish for.

[entropy]

Jeff.. I do hope it happens. The worse it appears, the more that will be done.

[hodgkal]

Reading about the biking culture it appears the use of steroids and other performance enhancers is so widespread it is almost impossible to regulate. What Lance Armstrong allegedly did was pretty much what they all do. This thought comes to me as I read the lengthening list of CFB programs currently under investigation. I'm beginning to think enforcement of the existing rules is almost impossible. I guess its in the nature of humans push the envelope in any way possible to get an advantage.

Are we all kidding ourselves about the sanctity of amateur sports? Pretty depressing to think about. It's sort of like our problems with the "war on drugs". The efforts at enforcement have suffered from unintended consequences, and many would say to the point of being counter productive. Maybe we should just legalize drug use. By the same token maybe we should just legalize financial reimbursement in amateur college sports. This is not my position but it is a legitimate question.

[Hannibal]

Are we all kidding ourselves about the sanctity of amateur sports? Pretty depressing to think about. It's sort of like our problems with the "war on drugs". The efforts at enforcement have suffered from unintended consequences, and many would say to the point of being counter productive. Maybe we should just legalize drug use. By the same token maybe we should just legalize financial reimbursement in amateur college sports. This is not my position but it is a legitimate question.

I have been wondering that myself. The NCAA needs to take a position either way. Instead of paying players stipends, I'm wondering if the NCAA should just legalize booster payments and agents.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Slippery slope to pay college football players (and B-Ball) because of Title IX.

AAU status of football players who might also compete in track and field ends.

Elite programs could handle it, smaller programs couldn't ..... would split the field between haves and have nots in both B-Ball and football (which may not be a bad thing but would have to plan for it).

Compromises the mission of University ...... yeah, I know all the arguments here but I still believe in the concept of the student athlete and I'm pretty sure the Presidents agree with me here. IOW, no chance you are going to get agreement from college Presidents to pay the athletes.

Gradually, the public (mostly from the sports press influence) is coming to the conclusion that if you want to stop the cheating, you have to have penalties tough enough to dissuade those who might cheat.

I've heard some interesting proposals in that regard. Most of them involve punishing the cheaters and not the programs themselves unless it is a coach who cheated and gained unfair advantage by doing so (osu) .... then, you have to take actions that tend to reverse the advantage gained making that program play from behind so to speak (loss of scholarships, bowl bans, etc.).

I also believe the NCAA is ineffective as it is currently structured and chartered. The Presidents have to deal with that and that should be done in concert with the Conference offices. These are smart people, generally, and I think they are starting to realize they might have to regroup here and start over.

[entropy]

Jeff... I think you'll see the NCAA break into two. I've been surprised as to who is supporting additional money for scholarship players. Seems the NCAA has limited things schools used to provide (like travel) and many schools feel scholarships have actually declined in value. When coaches salaries are skyrocketing, tough to say scholarships are declininig in value. I think members are going to improve competition through like mindset and rules.

I think the process or thoughts have begun

[entropy]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box had five prescription painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug in his system when he died, according to a preliminary toxicology report released Tuesday by the state medical examiner's office.

The death of the 22-year-old Box two months ago was ruled accidental. In the report, the agency said the combination of drugs likely caused pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs, and aspiration pneumonia, which is an inflammation of the lungs caused by inhaling foreign substances.

"There is no greater pain than the loss of a child," Box's parents, Craig and Gail Box, said in a prepared statement. "The pain is intensified by knowing that the death of your child could have been prevented.

"Anyone that knew Austin would give testament to his pure heart. The love and pride we feel for our son cannot be diminished by the cause of his death. He gave us so much joy and so many wonderful memories. He will forever be 'Mommy's baby' and 'Daddy's little boy,'" they said.

A friend found Box unresponsive in the friend's El Reno home and called authorities the morning of May 19. The friend told a dispatcher Box wasn't breathing, that Box had been taking pain pills and later told a police officer "he believed he had overdosed."

An autopsy found the painkillers oxymorphone, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxycodone in Box's system, along with the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam. The report noted Box's significant medical conditions included cardiomegaly, or an enlarged heart, and a chronic pain history.

Box starred at Enid High School, leading the Plainsmen to the Class 6A title game in 2006, playing quarterback, running back, wide receiver and free safety at different times.

He redshirted with the Sooners in 2007 and played in 10 games as a freshman in 2008, starting four at middle linebacker. He suffered a knee injury late in the season and missed the Big 12 Conference championship game. He played in 10 games in 2009, starting a game each at outside linebacker and inside linebacker.

But, as his family noted, he had a long history of injuries during the past seven years, many of which required surgery. The most recent came last August, when his parents said he had a disk rupture in his back and he lost the feeling in his left foot.

"We were certain his career was over," they said. "As always though, he battled back when he saw the team needed him."

The 6-foot-1, 228-pound Box returned to start the final five games last season for the Sooners, recording his second career interception in a win over Oklahoma State and making eight tackles as Oklahoma beat Connecticut in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. He was expected to start this season for the Sooners.

In an interview with The Oklahoman, attorney Craig Box recalled taking a four-day trip with his son to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play and that he never saw his son take any medicine other than "liquid Advil."

Gail Box, a school counselor, said after her son underwent elbow surgery in 2009 and was prescribed painkillers, he refused to take all the medicine.

"He only took that medication for a couple of days and then he said, 'No,'" she told the newspaper.

She described her son as a "silent sufferer."

In their statement, Box's parents said "it is with much sadness; we look back and see that recently Austin had turned to other methods of managing his pain." They said they're hopeful people using such a combination of painkillers "will see this tragic accident as a message and think about the consequences."

They said their son's greatest fear was letting others down.

"Our greatest regret is that Austin did not feel he could share his pain with those who loved him and those he touched," they said. "He chose to suffer in silence rather than to feel he let someone down or hurt his family."

An Oklahoma athletic department spokesman didn't return messages left Tuesday.

[Jeff Buchanan]

In case it isn't apparent to you, every one of those drugs listed would have been present in blood samples ONLY from taking individual tablets containing those substances.

Every one of them additively suppresses the respiratory response. No way someone taking all of those simultaneously survives. Even if taken within days of each other would have produced a similar outcome.

Two questions should come to the minds of persons responsible for such things: (1) where did he get all of these medications (if from a single prescriber - not likely - he should lose his license)? (2) Is this a suicide? If so, were there warning signs and was anyone looking/listening?