We will go around the nation and, as usual, end up in South Bend, which was pretty much the center of the college football universe yesterday.
How about this for some bizarre news? Former Georgia head football coach Jim Donnan is accused of orchestrating a huge Ponzi scheme because he got a bunch of other high-profile coaches and former players to invest in his phony business. The scheme brought in $80 million dollars, of which there is only $12 million accounted for as actually having gone into the business. So Donnan and his "business" partner have 68 million dollars of splainin' to do.
Alabama self-reported 27 secondary violations, which I can assume is part of its attempt to catch up to Ohio State in the secondary violation self-reporting national championship. Your rules really have a lot of teeth, NCAA. Good job, good effort.
Pretty big news came out saying that 24 team playoff has been agreed upon and approved for 2013...in the FCS. Hard to believe their student-athletes could ever pull that off because I keep hearing how difficult it is for a bunch of FBS football players who seldom actually, you know, go to class or take finals or anything like that to do.
Which takes us right into the UNC scandal that not enough people are talking about. I mean, seriously, what do they have to do? Somehow, former Tar Heel and current Chicago Bear Julius Peppers' transcript ended up all over the Internet, and it showed him doing generally terribly in all his classes. And, honestly, who can blame him, being a two-sport freak and all? It looks as though the classes he was doing adequately in were (uh oh) African and Afro-American Studies classes, which are the focus of an investigation based on evidence uncovered that they were a complete sham. All of this going on at a school that is already on probation. They are going to have hell to pay, the only question is when.
Lane Kiffin apparently uncovered the problems with the coaches poll, in case you couldn't figure it out on your own. He said he wouldn't vote USC number one but then did and said well "yea it's my team, of course I'm going to vote them." It's dumb that this was a story.
Tyrann Mathieu was kicked off LSU's football team a week ago, and about 20 schools called LSU to inquire about him. I assume each phone call ended with, "Oh it was that bad, ok then never mind."
As easy as the Irish disposed of them last year, Maryland has become a little bit more cupcake-y this offseason, particularly in this latest bit of news that their starting quarterback CJ Brown has suffered a season ending knee injury. That's a tough blow for a program going nowhere fast, and also a reminder that Randy Edsall could have been the Notre Dame head football coach. Yeesh.
USC also lost another defensive lineman when DeVante Wilson tore his ACL. Their limited depth will certainly be tested this year and is likely their biggest impediment to a potential championship run.
The Big East hired a new commissioner, Mike Aresco, who was an executive over at CBS Sports. There were tiny rumors that Jack Swarbrick was a possibility, but those were quickly put to rest with Aresco's hire. Good luck not allowing your league to crumble, Commissioner.
Finally, back to Notre Dame, they unveiled new uniforms for their Shamrock Series game in Chicago against Miami. This was big news all over the place, eliciting all sorts of reactions, most of it something along the lines of "Asymmetry! What is this?!?!" To discuss your reaction and read OFD's resident uniform guru, Eric Murtaugh's take on the threads, go here.
All sorts of Media Day stuff happened yesterday in addition to the uniform, including Brian Kelly's press conference, which can be discussed here in our "Cutting Through the Coachspeak" series. For a litany of other Media Day content, I'll refer you to und.com, which was all over yesterday's events.
Also, seriously, if you haven't checked out fish's "Walking the Walk" article on the walk-ons, please stop reading my crap and go read the first half of her profiles of some great representatives of our University's football program.
Comment of the week goes to pburns2010, who in one fell swoop was able to lay into NDNation and coin the new word, "leftrechaun" to describe ND's Shamrock Series helmets. Well done, Burns. It's a long comment in the uniform thread and in shorthand here:
One really big positive
It looks like this may be the end of the road for a lot of our friends over at Rock’s House:
...
As the last shreds of dignity are stripped from something I hold dear, I realize that I just cannot summon the energy for apoplexy any more.
I am increasingly embarrassed to be associated in any way with this program, however distantly and tangentially. And my emotional investment in the thing continues to wane. I am not alone in this.
The people charged with stewardship of this thing have failed and failed miserably for a very long time. It’s just that in the past year, it’s reached the realm of the absurd.
(sigh)
CashI think it may be happening — the best thing that could happen to the gameday experience, these "fans" not showing up to games, may be happening!!!!
...
Also I would have preferred a white ND to a white "leftrechaun". Just me though...
by pburns2010 on Aug 16, 2012 4:23 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
Have a great weekend everyone! Go Irish!