The Week in News: Online Courses, NCAA Enforcement and the NFL Combine

Johnny Manziel is suing a T-shirt guy in Texas for Trademark Infringement.

Manziel's corporation, JMAN2 Enterprises, filed a lawsuit in Texas last week against Eric Vaughan, a man who was selling T-shirts that read, "Keep Calm and Johnny Football." Manziel claims Vaughan infringed on his trademark rights.

Apparently Johnny Football has time for things like lawsuits. We learned this week that he is only taking online courses and allegedly only shows up on campus about once a month. As MotS would say Johnny Football doesn't play CLASSES. It seems to me that once you go the online route with student athletes you could really open up a serious can of worms.

How common are online classes at major universities these days? This is apparently completely legal, it just seems to me that if student athletes are allowed to take unlimited online classes that it would be significantly easier to magically keep some borderline students eligible. There's a whole lot of room for shadiness there. Are there any NCAA rules about student athletes and online courses? If there were they would be extremely difficult to enforce.

Speaking of the NCAA they are definitely having some very public issues here of late. In the wake of bungling the Miami scandal the NCAA ousted top enforcement officer Julie Roe Lach. Fall guy? I mean fall gal? The former was a great show by the way. Who doesn't love Lee Majors as a stuntman bounty hunter in an early 80's GMC pickup? Fantastic reruns. Sorry, I got distracted there for a second. Regardless it seems like Lach is taking one for the team here.

In other NCAA news this Robert Wheel post brings up some really interesting discussion points. The comments section there is pretty interesting.

As long as the NCAA is predicated on preserving amateurism, it will never have a functional enforcement arm.

What say you commenariat? Oh yeah, this little nugget is interesting too.

It's tempting to blame the NCAA's current problems on president Mark Emmert, but they long predate him. Investigators have always been a problem with the NCAA. Take a look at this excerpt from the Congressional Record in 1978 that Sports by Brooks uncovered. Congress found out that a recruit bought off then-NCAA investigator Jim Delany (yes, THAT Jim Delany) by giving him a date with one of his friends. Delany then told the Ole Miss football coach that he wouldn't report his findings because the recruit had dirt on him.

Hmmmmm....

Moving on.

In the wake of all that action the NCAA did hit Miami with a Lack of Institutional Control accusation. Stand by to stand by for the actual sanctions. This piece explains LOIC with some historical examples that include Southern Cal.

Nick Saban really is a dark lord. Seriously. Every time you turn around that guy is doing something evil and genius like hiring Mario Cristobal away from his alma-mater Miami about 5 whole minutes after he got there. The Death Star was blown up eventually right? Do we have any orphaned farm boys willing to volunteer their services for the greater good?

Fantastic, we have more conference realignment rumors! I can't even keep up with this stuff anymore. The latest rumors involve North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech potentially jumping to the B1G? Jim Delaney must still be angry about Jack Swarbrick ignoring all of his emails.

Mack Brown and the Texas Longhorns have started spring practice in Austin and Mack says that the Horns are going to work on installing a no-huddle up-tempo offense. That will fix everything. I wonder why that Manziel kid didn't want to go to Austin and play safety? How much longer will the big money boys in Austin keep Dodds and Brown around?

Leslie Miles and LSU signed Cam Cameron 3 year 3.4 million dollar contract to be their new offensive coordinator. That's a lot of scratch to call handoffs all day. Does Cameron get a bonus if he can keep Miles from throwing on 2nd and 3rd and short with a bowl game on the line?

I'm just going to drop this here.

Wow ... Mayock just called USC's overall offensive tape vs. UCLA"horrendous" and among "the worst I've ever seen".

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) February 22, 2013

I love Mike Mayock.

The 2013 NFL Scouting Combine is underway people! All of the measurables! Murtaugh broke down the Notre Dame players that are participating earlier this week. You can stay up to date on the combine on nfl.com and the mothership. The schedule for on-field workouts is below. In the two days prior to their on-field workouts each position group will go through media interviews, measurements, medical exams, bench press, and some psychological evaluations. Click on the players name to take you directly to their nfl.com profile for all of their combine updates.

Saturday: Tight End, Offensive Line, Special Teams (Braxton Cave, Tyler Eifert)

Sunday: Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers (Cierre Wood, Theo Riddick)

Monday: Defensive Linemen, Linebackers (Manti Te'o, *Kapron Lewis-Moore)

Tuesday: Defensive Backs (Jamoris Slaughter, Zeke Motta)

*No physical testing for KLM as he is still recovering from the knee injury he suffered in the BCS Championship.

What else?

HLS interviewed First Down Moses! I wonder if all of this attention will go to his head?

Subway Domer took a look at the potential freshman jersey numbers this week and discussed some of the issues associated with multiple players wearing the same number. The kids do love the single digits and teens don't they? Fish, what did you propose on Twitter? A Duel of Duals?

Over at Inside the Irish Keith Arnold has a solid series going on restocking the various position groups. It is worth taking clicking over there to check those out.

Comment of the Week.

PAK dropped this one under C Dubs piece on the Men's Basketball win over Pitt.

Have a great weekend!