So I've been away from my computer, anything interesting happen today?
I kid, I kid. The world of college football is melting down.
The expansion update has Colorado in the Pac 10 (or whatever it's going to be called), Nebraska is about to join the Big 10 and who the hell knows where Texas and the rest of its Big 12 lackeys will end up.
But the big, actually-happened news of the day? The NCAA threw its proverbial book at USC and as SI.com's Stewart Mandel explains set down a gauntlet for the rest of big-time football's compliance departments.
The Trojans (depending on the inevitable appeal) are banned from bowl games for the next two years and will lose 10 scholarships a year for the next three years.
Ouch.
But what the NCAA report hints at the most is that plausible deniability is no longer going to be an excuse. For years, football programs have turned a blind eye to external boosters/agents/marketers, etc. because there was little way to control such external factors. According to the report, USC set new levels of such, err, ignorace, opening practices to whoever could find a parking spot and sticking its systemic fingers in its ears whenever told of potential impropriety.
Coaches and administrators take note. Saying "I don't want to know." shouldn't be a phrase to use in the coming years.
Written by:
