The Rest of College Football

[WM Wolverine]

Navy to the Big East (in 2015)...

Big East in 2015 might look something like this:

Rutgers
Connecticut
Louisville
Cincy
USF
-
Boise State
Houston
UCF
SMU
San Diego State
Navy

Is it much better than what the MWC is now?

[SeattleLionsFan]

I'm not so sure. That website and the oversigning issue have gradually become an issue. I wouldn't be shocked if the NCAA move the germane date for 85 to NLOID day. That would be a step in the right direction, IMO. A very big step.

Problem with that is you still have seniors on Scholly generally (so they can finish studying).

Maybe a system where you can declare who will be gone as of NSD.

[Wild Hoss]

Mainstream media has even been bringing up this issue, I see the NCAA (or conferences) doing something about it in the next couple years.

Its getting to a point where the NCAA is going to start having serious issues with the 90% of its membership that isn't part of their SEC cash-cow.

From the Nebraska perspective, I know that the various message boards are really waking up to what's going on. The first 3 consecutive national titles may have garnered some respect and been considered soemthing of a statistical oddity, but after another 3 straight people are starting to dig into the subject and complain. I imagine its similar elsewhere.

[iam416]

Problem with that is you still have seniors on Scholly generally (so they can finish studying).

Maybe a system where you can declare who will be gone as of NSD.

It would just be a matter of not counting players that have consumered their eligibility and counting players that sign on NLOID. Fairly straight-forward.

I do think a change is coming. And people will still find ways around it, but moving the 85 to NLOI Day makes it more difficult to oversign. You have to "cut" people in a single month (or do it after the regular season but prior to the bowls). Or, alternatively, you "cut" people after NLOI Day and it costs you that body for the upcoming season. That's a much harder thing to do, IMO.

[iam416]

And the Big East is a steaming pile of dung.

[WM Wolverine]

Big East has lost these programs since 01:

Miami
Virginia Tech
Boston College
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
West Virginia
and TCU before they joined...

I can't see a BCS bowl tying themselves to the Big East.

[Jeff Buchanan]

talent .... I think the tinkering the NCAA could do with the 85 scholarship rule to make it harder to over-sign is like plugging the dike with one's finger. Imposing scholarship limits on programs that have the upper hand with the elite recruits, making it harder for less prestigious programs to compete under the guise of fairness, is by itself unfair. Someone is going to win a challenge in court on this basis at some point in the future.

I think this HAS been challenged in court by HS athletes who could have played at the collegiate level but were prevented from doing so, they claimed, because there were not enough scholarships to give out. The cartel card was offered as the basis for the claim which the NCAA has so far been able to wiggle around getting favorable rulings from the courts hearing these cases.

It's my view that the NCAA will continue to wiggle around this one for a while longer until some smart lawyer who has connections in Washington calls them on the bull-shit they are selling. At some point they are going to get arm-twisted into a lesser role in matters such as these as the amount of money that is at stake for the colleges increases .... and there is nothing on the horizon indication that it is not going to increase. They are a cartel controlling and restricting free trade and it is becoming more and more evident they are as the amount of money involved increases.

Just a matter of time. But my point was that the NCAA is going to fight anyone trying to limiting their role (for the antediluvian reasons we have discussed in the past) by doing nothing or something possibly that is meaningless simply to keep the dogs at bay.

[iam416]

That's a fair point, Buchanan. I'm not sure where the legally cognizable anti-trust issues lie on that one, though. But, then again, I only dabble in that stuff.

[Jamie H]

Bottom line .....

The rule of unintended consequences applies.

Kind of like how Title 9 caused schools to just cut a bunch of men's programs because there was no provision for football made. I applaud the effort, but the real world shows that if you don't put things in black and white, schools will get around mandates in ways you didn't want/anticipate.

The 85-scholarship limit has only hurt the teams that actually have ethics and morals.

[SeattleLionsFan]

It might be better to allow teams to offer 4 year schollies and get past the idea that "cuts" are ok.

[Jeff Buchanan]

..... and finally, more truth about Paterno's passing and PSU in general .......

The most salient example of this phenomenon is the recent push by Penn State alumni to oust their board of trustees for the perceived sin of succumbing to a witchhunt against Paterno, of not allowing him to retire with dignity. That's the essence of Paterno's legacy: creating an unthinking paternalistic monolith that valued complete fealty to his cult of personality beyond all else.

The quote comes from an SB nation article that appeared today. It is rightfully harsh on Joe Paterno:

http://www.onthebanks.com/2012/1/23/2728753/joe-paternos-sad-demise

It is sports writing like this that gives me some faith in that particular profession.

[UMStan White]

The article points out a couple of important points--Paterno's legacy was always going to be about his winning streak--not the "good' that he did. That was just collateral to his longevity. The other point is that for a FUCKING DECADE he stood by Sandusky-even praising him and his "Second Mile" pedophile breeding ground. Contrary to many commentators (Ivan Maisel comes to mind) this was not a "two month mistake" that should not overshadow six decades of character building. One really has to ask the tough questions--how great could Paterno's "molding of men" really be when not only him but McCreary, the president of the University, the AD, the "head of security" could not only do nothing for a FUCKING DECADE, but continue to interact with Sandusky as though nothing was amiss. The most disturbing "fact' to come out of all of this is McCreary's claim that "out of respect" for Paterno, he didn't tell him he witnessed Sandusky fucking a child in the ass and Paterno, in his last interview claiming that as an 85 year old who had been around men his whole life never knew that a man could rape another man. Some people, including posters here have suggested that "in JoPa's day" pedophilia wasn't "spoken about" or "understood". Perhaps that's what they should engrave on Paterno's tombstone because in the end it's hard to understand how anyone could rationalize a FUCKING DECADE of inaction by a "molder of men" or a program that had never been hit with NCAA sanctions..

[UMStan White]

Sometimes a single or continuing mistake overshadows other life achievements. (Mousollini who got the trains to run on time comes to mind) A hard lesson for both Paterno and Sweater Vest to learn. (Not to suggest that Trressell's blatant lies to the NCAA to secure an illegal competitive advantage is on the same level as turning a blind eye to a FUCKING DECADE of pedophilia

[entropy]

The article points out a couple of important points--Paterno's legacy was always going to be about his winning streak--not the "good' that he did. That was just collateral to his longevity. The other point is that for a FUCKING DECADE he stood by Sandusky-even praising him and his "Second Mile" pedophile breeding ground. Contrary to many commentators (Ivan Maisel comes to mind) this was not a "two month mistake" that should not overshadow six decades of character building. One really has to ask the tough questions--how great could Paterno's "molding of men" really be when not only him but McCreary, the president of the University, the AD, the "head of security" could not only do nothing for a FUCKING DECADE, but continue to interact with Sandusky as though nothing was amiss. The most disturbing "fact' to come out of all of this is McCreary's claim that "out of respect" for Paterno, he didn't tell him he witnessed Sandusky fucking a child in the ass and Paterno, in his last interview claiming that as an 85 year old who had been around men his whole life never knew that a man could rape another man. Some people, including posters here have suggested that "in JoPa's day" pedophilia wasn't "spoken about" or "understood". Perhaps that's what they should engrave on Paterno's tombstone because in the end it's hard to understand how anyone could rationalize a FUCKING DECADE of inaction by a "molder of men" or a program that had never been hit with NCAA sanctions..

Agree

[SeanB]

The article points out a couple of important points--Paterno's legacy was always going to be about his winning streak--not the "good' that he did. That was just collateral to his longevity. The other point is that for a FUCKING DECADE he stood by Sandusky-even praising him and his "Second Mile" pedophile breeding ground. Contrary to many commentators (Ivan Maisel comes to mind) this was not a "two month mistake" that should not overshadow six decades of character building. One really has to ask the tough questions--how great could Paterno's "molding of men" really be when not only him but McCreary, the president of the University, the AD, the "head of security" could not only do nothing for a FUCKING DECADE, but continue to interact with Sandusky as though nothing was amiss. The most disturbing "fact' to come out of all of this is McCreary's claim that "out of respect" for Paterno, he didn't tell him he witnessed Sandusky fucking a child in the ass and Paterno, in his last interview claiming that as an 85 year old who had been around men his whole life never knew that a man could rape another man. Some people, including posters here have suggested that "in JoPa's day" pedophilia wasn't "spoken about" or "understood". Perhaps that's what they should engrave on Paterno's tombstone because in the end it's hard to understand how anyone could rationalize a FUCKING DECADE of inaction by a "molder of men" or a program that had never been hit with NCAA sanctions..

Agree with this as well. Some folks I know, however, can't seem to recognize this at all. Mind numbing. And the flags at half-mast were a disgrace, IMO. Absolute disgrace.