The Truth: The Complete Farce of the BCS

Over the course of the off-season, I embarked on a little project, inspired by this website.

FootballGeography.com listed every school in FBS that has ever been on probation, bowl bans, or the one Death Penalty.

The website only goes to the end of last calendar year, but it's a good starting point to show the abject farce of the BCS. I also add incidents that I know of from this year, and a couple of pending situations as well.

Anyhow, this is to demonstrate just how poorly college football is run.

A caveat before I begin:

There are several games I openly call illegally-played. Some of them have the result recognized, some do not. The difference is whether the result has been functionally vacated by the NCAA and/or other relevant parties. Though I am not afraid to say that some games SHOULD have been vacated, those that are illegally-played (and known as such) will be noted.

Teams not listed were not sanctioned for conduct that season, to the best of knowledge. Some teams are listed which are not sanctioned, their appearances being notable for one reason or another.

We begin with the start of the BCS Era:

1998-99:

Rose Bowl: Wisconsin illegally defeats UCLA 38-31.
Sugar Bowl: Ohio State defeats Texas A&M 24-14
Orange Bowl: Florida defeats Syracuse 31-10

National Championship/Fiesta Bowl: Tennessee wins the first BCS National Championship over Florida State 23-16.

Wisconsin: Improper extra benefits over a seven-year period (1993- summer 2000). Assessed five years NCAA probation (2001-2005), no bowl ban, no vacated games (though discussed), Rose Bowl win stands.

1999-2000:

Rose Bowl: Wisconsin (again illegally) defeats Stanford 17-9.
Orange Bowl: Michigan defeats Alabama 35-34 in overtime, in an illegally-played game.
Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska defeats Tennessee 31-21.

National Championship/Sugar Bowl: Florida State wins the national title over Virginia Tech, 46-29.

Wisconsin: See above. This was the final year of the covered misconduct.

Alabama: Massive recruiting violations, including impermissible benefits, over a period 1995-2000. The Death Penalty was considered for the Alabama program when the hammer came down in 2002, because they were a repeat offender from a 1993 sanction. (Oh, how college football would've changed if that occurred!) Five years additional probation (2002-2006), with the first two years having a bowl ban slapped on top of it. Apparently, the appearance in this game still stands.

They, according to the chairman of the Infractions Committee, probably came as close as any school post-SMU to the Death Penalty.

2000-2001:

Rose Bowl: Washington illegally defeats Purdue, 34-24.
Fiesta Bowl: Oregon State defeated Notre Dame, 41-9.
Sugar Bowl: Miami (FL) defeated the University of Florida, 37-20, in an in-state clash.

National Championship/Orange Bowl: Oklahoma defeats Florida State in the Seminoles' third consecutive title game appearance, 13-2.

Washington (becoming the third consecutive Rose Bowl winner to win the game illegally in the BCS Era): The 2000-2001 season was the first of four in which the NCAA identified the Huskies for recruiting violations and impermissible benefits from almost literally the day coach Rick Neuheisel took the job. Not only were the Huskies put on two years probation in 2005, but the penalty was extended when Neuheisel was accused of gambling on the 2003 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in violation of the NCAA guidelines. For these offenses, Neuheisel was going to be banned from the NCAA for two years (but apparently acted improperly themselves, forcing a financial settlement while Neuheisel was in the NFL), and Washington got two more years of probation. However, as with Wisconsin the two years previous, the participation and result, unfortunately, stand.

Additionally, at least a dozen players were arrested for what would be considered felonies just in that season alone, according to a special report by the Seattle Times. It was routinely known that football trumped all, as most punishments and investigations, that season, were withheld until the season ended.

Notre Dame participated legally: The Fighting Irish were under probation at the time for illegal benefits from a criminal booster and improper use of tickets for a player who was thrown off the team from 1995-1999. This was the second and final year of Notre Dame's probation.

Miami participated legally: Miami was two years removed from it's third bout with a bowl ban/probation situation with the NCAA, this one basically covering the entire “The U” era: 1985-1994. Nevin Shapiro does not become a booster with the University of Miami until later in 2001. Hence, no known violations for this Miami appearance, shockingly, unless something comes up in the Shapiro reports (hearings wrapped up in mid-June of 2013, with much wrangling as a result of the scope of the misconduct (on both Miami's part and the NCAA's!) in progress).

2001-2002:

Fiesta Bowl: Oregon defeated Colorado, 38-16.
Sugar Bowl: LSU defeated Illinois, 47-34.
Orange Bowl: Florida trounced Maryland, 56-23.

National Championship/Rose Bowl: Miami (FL) defeated Nebraska 37-14.

Colorado: Neuheisel was sanctioned (a year and a half into his stint with Washington) for similar illegal conduct at his previous job – at the University of Colorado!

Miami: According to an extensive timeline of Nevin Shapiro's involvement with the Miami (FL) program, Shapiro had met with at least two players before this BCS National Championship Game, and gave at least one of them a big-screen television set and Miami Heat game tickets. This would begin an eight-year period in which over 100 Miami players are alleged to have been given illegal gifts by Shapiro. The only information the timeline provides is that the gifts were given “after the season” and that he met with the relevant player in December, before the victory over Nebraska. It is not known at this time whether the illegal benefits came before or after this game, but, should the NCAA find the player ineligible and the allegations stand (even with improper conduct by the NCAA), look for this National Championship to be nullfied.

2002-2003:

Rose Bowl: Oklahoma (the Big Ten champion was in the title match) defeated Washington State 34-14.
Sugar Bowl: Georgia over Florida State (in it's 4^th BCS bowl, three losses) 26-13
Orange Bowl: USC defeats Iowa 38-17.

National Championship/Fiesta Bowl: The classic Ohio State double-overtime victory over Miami (FL) 31-24.

Rose Bowl/Oklahoma: This is the first time in the BCS Era (the FOURTH year of it) that the Rose Bowl was won by a team which was not sanctioned for actions in the season in which they won it.

USC participated in this one legally: It would be two further years before the Reggie Bush fiasco blows up. This Trojan team was in the second year of probation for another set of offenses, however, stemming from academic fraud from 1996-1998 involving three students.

Miami: It is almost certain, however, that, unless the entire Shapiro case is thrown out, Miami's participation in the Fiesta Bowl/National Championship Game will almost certainly be revoked. The player Shapiro gave benefits to after the previous season completed his career in Miami with this game, so he's clearly ineligible unless the case is thrown out. Over a period starting in 2002, Shapiro buys a stake in an agency recruiting players for the Miami team and lavishing the team with money, gifts, prostitutes, and parties on his yacht.

2003-2004:

Rose Bowl: USC defeated Michigan 28-14.
Orange Bowl: Miami (FL) defeats Florida State in another Florida clash, 16-14.
Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State defeats Kansas State, 35-28.

“National Championship”/Sugar Bowl: LSU only wins a share of the national title, creating much controversy, after defeating Oklahoma 21-14. USC would gain the AP National Title.

Miami: See above.

USC and Ohio State participated legally this year: But both schools would get in trouble starting the NEXT season.

2004-2005:

Rose Bowl: Texas defeats Michigan 38-37.
Fiesta Bowl: Utah became the first team outside the BCS (I consider Notre Dame to be inside the BCS) to break into the formula, and trounced Pittsburgh 35-7.
Sugar Bowl: Auburn defeated Virginia Tech to join Utah as undefeated, 16-13.

The National Championship Game is the only BCS Championship to be fully nullified. The game was illegally played, and no BCS champion will exist for that season.

Texas participated legally, but Colt McCoy's wife may have said differently in 2011. Nothing has come of it, though, at least to my understanding.

Utah: Utah was in the second year of a three-year probation period for “Extra benefits, recruiting, including impermissible observation of recruits in athletically related activities; continuing eligibility; playing and practice season limits; unethical conduct (academic fraud) and a lack of institutional control”. Took a while to find it, but there it was. Given this list of violations, one might question whether Utah could've been bowl-banned for the 2004-2005 season, preventing them from this historic event.

USC: The Reggie Bush fiasco would cost USC dearly. They would become the first team in history to lose a top-flight recognized National Championship in football, would lose recognition of participation in both this and the next BCS title game, four years of probation (this 2013 season being the last one), and two years banned from bowls, from which the USC program has still not recovered, being replaced in what I refer to as the “BCS Family” by the University of Oregon.

2005-2006:

Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State 34 – Notre Dame 20
Sugar Bowl: West Virginia beat Georgia, 38-35.

Orange Bowl: Game vacated and declared illegally-played due to Jerry Sandusky child-rape coverup at Penn State University.

National Championship/Rose Bowl: Texas would win the illegally-played National Championship game, and, since Colt McCoy's wife's claims have come to nothing, are still recognized as 2005-2006 BCS National Champions.

West Virginia: This would be the first year in which West Virginia used managers and other parties to illegally practice players on technique and other such matters. This took place over a five-year period under two head coaches (2005-2009). In 2011, the Mountaineers self-imposed two years' probation for these offenses, but this win, unfortunately, stands. One of the coaches involved? Rich Rodriguez.

Penn State: Jerry Sandusky.

The four-year bowl-ban given to Penn State is only the second time in NCAA history that a football team has been bowl-banned for four seasons. The first? Indiana! Indiana had either just gotten off probation in 1958 or was still on it when it committed a second set of violations, openly paying athletes and providing them with free airplane tickets. (Sounds like the Hoosiers were ahead of their time!!) In fact, the football offenses were so severe that ALL Indiana Hoosier sports were banned from the NCAA post-season. Various forms of the Death Penalty were in place by that time, but Indiana football (it appears unjustifiably) did not receive this penalty.

USC: Reggie Bush.

2006-2007:

Rose Bowl: USC (in the interim between the Reggie Bush scandal and the penalties) actually does legally defeat Michigan, 32-18.
Fiesta Bowl: Boise State wins an utter classic, 43-42 over Oklahoma, in an illegally-played game.
Orange Bowl: Louisville defeated Wake Forest, 24-13.
Sugar Bowl: LSU defeats Notre Dame 41-14.

National Championship: In the first separate BCS National Championship Game, the SEC began it's run of titles to the current one, Florida defeating Ohio State 41-14.

Boise State: Unfortunately, the entire Boise State run was almost certainly an illegal farce. Over the course of the five seasons where it really appeared the Broncos could've destroyed the BCS by forcing their way into the title game (2005-2009), Boise State was systematically giving illegal benefits to 75 current and prospective student-athletes, 63 of them in football. Many of these benefits came from illegal summer housing.

It would be very difficult for me to believe, at this juncture, that this storybook-tale win should not be vacated (unless none of the 63 players played for Boise State in that season), but the NCAA did not do so, even though most parties admit that the meteoric rise of the Broncos from Division II to FBS/BCS Crasher was done illegally – that there was no way it could've been done under NCAA rules.

Boise State, seen by many as one of the top 10 or so preseason teams in 2013, will do so in the third year of four years of NCAA probation as a result of these violations.

Oklahoma: In fact, both teams in that Fiesta Bowl classic were illegal that season. Later in 2007, the season previous to this (2005-2006) had to be vacated for Oklahoma due to illegal monetary benefits, including the starting quarterback. The team was already under two years probation at this time for violations in the basketball program, and got two more years tacked on.

So this game (one of college football's “classics”), feasibly, never should've taken place at all!!!

Orange Bowl/Wake Forest and Louisville: In the entire history of the BCS, this Orange Bowl game is the ONLY game in the BCS Era contested between two football programs never sanctioned at probation-level or above.

2007-2008:

Rose Bowl: USC over Illinois, 49-17.
Sugar Bowl: Georgia, in a game many felt finished the non-AQ's from championship consideration, destroyed Hawaii 41-10.
Fiesta Bowl: West Virginia over Oklahoma, 48-28
Orange Bowl: Kansas over Virginia Tech 24-21.

National Championship: LSU defeats Ohio State 38-24.

USC was still awaiting to pay the piper for Reggie Bush.

Hawaii became the first BCS Crasher to legally gain that status.

West Virginia: See above – year 3.

Oklahoma participated legally: The players involved in the previous incident were tossed at the previous season.

Kansas: Kansas was in the first full year of three seasons of NCAA probation for violations culminating in 2003 across their athletic programs, including significant academic fraud and illegal payments. Ironically, the Jayhawks were given the 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship after violations ruled Syracuse ineligible.

Though an audit had revealed significant violations through 2001, the NCAA was not satisfied anything was being done to deal with them until 2003.

This win, very easily, could have and should have been vacated. It was not.

2008-2009:

Rose Bowl: Southern California won an illegally-played game.
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech over Cincinnati, 20-7
Sugar Bowl: Utah over Alabama 31-17.
Fiesta Bowl: Texas over Ohio State, 24-21.

National Championship: Florida makes it three in a row for the SEC, over Oklahoma 24-14 in what, as time goes on, we should consider an illegally-played game.

Penn State: Sandusky.

USC: The seventh consecutive BCS bowl for USC, the last four (at least) under some degree of questionable circumstances.

Alabama: Alabama was in the middle of yet another NCAA investigation! The school would be forced to vacate 21 wins over the previous three seasons (2005-2006 through 2007-2008) for the illegal acquisition of textbooks for athletes in at least sixteen sports. The penalties would be imposed (three years of probation – and Alabama's track record with the NCAA was so completely slammed that, for the second time, the Death Penalty was, at least, mentioned) after this season. Again, how history could've changed!!

Ohio State: According to a timeline from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the violations which would fell the program and coach Jim Tressel started after this season. Terrell Pryor sold basically everything he had from this season (his gold pants, the sportsmanship award from this game, his ring from the Big Ten Championship from that year...).

Oklahoma: See above. Oklahoma's probation started here.

Florida: The truth is coming out – after the Aaron Hernandez arrest in July of 2013.

With what we know now, it is clear that SOMEONE should've stepped in and stripped this championship.

A July 2013 New York Times investigation brings up a startling point. No less than 16 players (first or second-string), including nine starters, the punter, the kicker, and a return specialist, have been arrested at some point in the equation, either in college and/or afterward. Of the 121 players listed on the roster for this team, a third have been arrested.

Then-coach Urban Meyer: “Relating or blaming these serious charges to the University of Florida, myself or our staff is wrong and irresponsible.”

2009-2010:

Rose Bowl: Ohio State 26 – Oregon 17.
Sugar Bowl: Florida creams Cincinnati. 51-24.
Fiesta Bowl: In the only BCS game to date not to be for the title and involving two undefeated teams (not coincidentally, also the only BCS game to date to involve two non-AQ programs!), Boise State illegally defeated TCU 17-10.
Orange Bowl: Iowa won an illegally-played game.

National Championship: Alabama over Texas, 37-21.

All five BCS games for the 2009-2010 season were illegally-played, in one form or another. Only three teams, Iowa (who has never been sanctioned to this level), Texas, and TCU were legally in these games.

Ohio State: Ohio State, as stated above, was clearly illegal and using ineligible players. The only vacation of wins from this period, though, was self-imposed for only the next season (2010-2011), which illegalized two BCS bowls. Pryor was shown to be ineligible before this season started. This season, too, should've been wiped out!!

Oregon: Oregon shouldn't have been in this game either. The violations recently sanctioned by the NCAA, and largely-agreed to have been committed by the program, date back to this season in the football program and the previous season elsewhere in the athletic program, through 2011.

The (affirmed by the NCAA in June of 2013) self-imposed penalties for Oregon would be 2013-14 and 2014-15 probation and a small scholarship reduction for those two seasons and 2015-16, which the NCAA tacked a third year of probation for as well. The then-head coach was banned from the NCAA for two years, but he's now safely coaching the Philadelphia Eagles – as if by design.

Game never should've taken place. Both teams were irretrievably dirty.

Florida: See above. Can't think this season was much better.

Cincinnati: Cincinnati was (a smaller degree of) dirty, though, though it reported the violations itself. Impermissible telephone recruiting calls, to a smaller extent involving the football program. Far below anything in the Ohio State-Oregon game, but still worthy of mention. Two years probation for the athletic program and small recruiting contact restrictions on the football end. (Larger violations were found in women's basketball.)

Boise State: See above. This was the fifth year of the illegal practices.

TCU would become only the second team to legally crash the BCS.

Georgia Tech (Iowa's opponent) was forced to vacate all wins after November 24, 2009, meaning it could not have been recognized as the ACC champion, hence, ineligible for the Orange Bowl in 2010. A player was discovered to be receiving illegal benefits from a former Rambling Wreck player who was an agent. This ineligibility cost Georgia Tech four years of probation (two left to serve), and the 2009 ACC Championship, which means they are out of the 2010 Orange Bowl.

Alabama: And Alabama was not bowl-banned this season for at least two major run-ins in the BCS Era... why??? Illegal acquisition of textbooks in 16 sports led to three years of probation.

(Especially because they were under probation when the textbook illegalities started!!)

2010-2011:

Rose Bowl: TCU won a game which effectively was illegally-played, not to the fault of them or their opponents, Wisconsin, who finally made their first legal BCS appearance, TCU winning 21-19.
Sugar Bowl: Illegally-played game.
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma over Connecticut, 48-20.
Orange Bowl: Stanford 40 – Virginia Tech 12.

National Championship: In one of the most farcical contests in NCAA history, Cam Newton illegally leads Auburn to a 22-19 championship “win” over a similarly-illegal Oregon team.

Here's three more illegally-played games, though only fault can be found in two of them.

Rose Bowl/Sugar Bowl/Ohio State fiasco: The BCS reached it's ridiculous nadir when the Ohio State scandal blew up in the faces of the BCS when five Buckeye players were found ineligible for actions dating back at least two years, but still were allowed to play in the 2011 Sugar Bowl.

Later, Ohio State would be forced to vacate the entire season, including the Sugar Bowl, by the NCAA.

There was nothing on TCU, Wisconsin, or Arkansas that season. The problem is that Wisconsin only gained entry into the Rose Bowl because Ohio State was part of a three-way tie for the Big Ten championship that season with Michigan State. (This was before the institution of the Big Ten Championship Game. Under the rules then in place, since Ohio State and Michigan State did not play that season, Michigan State's victory over Wisconsin was ignored, and the final BCS rankings of that season placed the Badgers in the Rose Bowl.)

If Ohio State had properly been ruled ineligible for that game, Michigan State would've gained a rightful place into the Rose Bowl because of their victory over Wisconsin in the regular season. (Wisconsin probably would've replaced Ohio State in playing Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.)

Auburn: The NCAA deliberately turned it's back on mounting evidence that Cam Newton was bought and paid for to bring a national championship to Auburn (even to the extent that, if Auburn had been punished, that the “Stalker's Principle” would've applied – if we can't have the BCS title, NO ONE CAN) through his father Cecil, as well as numerous reports that the FBI was investigating many payments and benefits to the Auburn football program, including casino benefits, perhaps involving legislators in the area.

Oregon: See above.

2011-2012:

Rose Bowl: Oregon illegally defeated Wisconsin, 45-38.
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma State over Stanford, 41-38 in overtime.
Sugar Bowl: Michigan 23 – Virginia Tech 20 (overtime)
Orange Bowl: West Virginia breaks a BCS record, putting 70 points up on Clemson, winning 70-33.

National Championship: Alabama defeats LSU in the only intra-conference title tilt, 21-0.

Oregon: See above.

Michigan and West Virginia: Both on probation for the misconduct of Rich Rodriguez.

This was the first full year of three years of probation (this season being the last) for the Wolverines for practices under Rich Rodriguez the previous two seasons. These were the same types of violations Rodriguez committed at West Virginia! (Illegal practices and coaching outside NCAA guidelines.)

Ironically, this was the first year (of two) of West Virginia's probation – for the very same acts of illegal practices under Rich Rodriguez that Michigan was also under probation for at the same time!!

And this idiot is now still allowed to be coaching at Arizona!

Alabama and LSU: Honey Badger for LSU, Alabama's continued probation... Yeah, that's a clean game for you!!!

2012-2013:

Rose Bowl: Stanford 20 – Wisconsin 14
Orange Bowl: Florida State 31 – Northern Illinois 10
Sugar Bowl: In one of the biggest FU's in history, Florida laid down to Louisville because it believed it should've been where Notre Dame was, 33-23.
Fiesta Bowl: Oregon over Kansas State 35-17

National Championship: Alabama rolls a clearly-unfit Notre Dame side, 42-14.

Wisconsin: No fault of it's own, but it becomes the third Big Ten team to lose at least three consecutive Rose Bowls. Wisconsin had no right to be in the game, as the two best teams in their Big Ten division (and probably in the conference at large) both were ineligible, and both, IMHO, should've been Death Penalty'd.

Northern Illinois: And if there's any indication as to the complete dominance of the SEC in present college football, Northern Illinois actually qualified under the non-AQ rules for the BCS, although no sane person actually believed they belonged.

This occurred because of two facts: First, they were ranked in the top 16 (#15) and outranked at least one BCS conference champion (in fact, they did two: Wisconsin (not in the BCS Top 25) and Louisville (#21)). Second, the SEC had 6 of the top 10 rankings in the final 2012 BCS rankings, making it impossible to feasibly fill the required slots.

For the record, Northern Illinois has never been sanctioned to probation or above. They are only the seventh school to get a BCS berth in this manner (Stanford, Illinois, Iowa, Connecticut, Louisville, and Wake Forest are the other six).

Oregon: See above.

--

I have always believed there were two purposes to the BCS.

One was to prevent another BYU or Alcorn State from sniffing the title, at minimum.

The other was to get rid of the NCAA entirely for the top level of college football.

The first has succeeded, and, if everything including today's Johnny Manziel fellatio-fest on ESPN is an indication, the second is soon to as well.

The Truth: Well, I Can Say He Was Probably One Who Knew About It The Most...

(Hat-tip, once again, to my anonymous friend who tosses me stuff from time to time.  Got this one while I was napping in Vegas.)

SI.com caught this little ditty in the new "America's Game" show about the Ray Lewis Thuggin' It Up Tour...  ERRRRRRRRRR, Ravens Super Bowl victory over the 49ers this last February:

Lewis himself said the following in the NFL Network program:

"“I’m not gonna accuse nobody of nothing — because I don’t know facts,” Lewis said, according to USA Today. “But you’re a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No. No way.


“You cannot tell me somebody wasn’t sitting there and when they say, ‘The Ravens [are] about to blow them out. Man, we better do something.’ … That’s a huge shift in any game, in all seriousness. And as you see how huge it was because it let them right back in the game.”"

C&C Music Factory had a song for things like that...

"Things That Make You Go....  HMMMMMMMMMMMMM...."

(Emphasis mine.)

The Truth: Homophobia in the NFL, and how speaking out against it can cost you your job...

Homophobia and the Realities of the National Football League

And, once again, we get another loud-mouth motherfucker who decides he would like to tell the rest of us how we should live our lives.

But it's another matter entirely as the National Homophobia-Football League has not only it's MVP do it, but that it probably exposes the true reason for the release (and eventual reassignment) of one of the best players in the league at his position.

Adrian Peterson opened up his trap on May 27th and said the following:

“To each his own. I’m not with it,” Peterson said in response to the question raised by hosts Bruce Murray and Amani Toomer. “But I have relatives that, you know, are gay. I’m not biased towards them. I still treat them the same. I love them. But again, I’m not with that. That’s not something I believe in. But to each his own.”

No you don't. You're a liar, Adrian. I'll come right out and say that to your face if you want to show it in front of me too.

There's no way that you could have all those statements made just in that paragraph be true. It's not the reality of having people in your life who are in the LGBTQ Community, and also not the reality of a National Football League which is, by far, the most homophobic of the major professional sports.

It's also not the reality of being the one person on your team that can get anybody fired or released, and anyone should know that, basically, Adrian Peterson is the head man of the Minnesota Vikings.

So let's take a look at this statement from the linked article:

Peterson has not been as vocal as former Vikings teammate Chris Kluwe who was very vocal and active on the issue of gay rights. When the punter was let go, there was speculation that the team felt Kluwe was too involved and less focused on the field. Peterson doesn’t feel Kluwe’s involvement in gay rights led to his release.

“I’m sure the Vikings’ organization did not release him based on that. They know Kluwe. They’ve been knowing him for a long time. They know he’s outspoken.”

Yeah, you'll say that in public.

The reality is different.

How do I know this, Adrian? How do I know that Chris Kluwe's gay rights stands all-but-surely terminated his career as a Minnesota Viking?

Let's take a look at the statistics of Chris Kluwe, courtesy of Pro Football Reference:

• Chris Kluwe is 8^th among active players in the NFL in the number of punts. We're not talking some Johnny-Come-Lately here.
  
• He is 63^rd all-time in the same statistic.
  
• Kluwe's 2012 punting average, yards per punt, was 45.0. That was, to be factual, 22^nd among NFL punters with 50 punts or more last year. He was a decent, average punter in the NFL last year.
  
• Didn't give up many yards per return...
  
• Nobody scored a punt-return TD on him in the regular season...
  
• When he was cut, the Oakland Raiders picked him up to replace no less than Shane Lechler, considered one of the best punters of recent years. As of today, he is slated to be the punter for the Oakland Raiders this season.
  

And yet he's cut.

Between the rape culture in this country and the absolute bully-pulpit that the National Football League has gained over the last how-many years, it is clear that the NFL purports a warped sense of manhood...

You going to tell the world that the likes of Greg Lougainis (if I have the spelling right after so many years) isn't a real man?

How about Eric Alva, who fought for your freedom in Iraq and lost a leg as a result?

Is this the kind of stand that is forcing what is believed to be at least four current NFL players further into the closet, for threat of their very own lives, Mr. Peterson?

And “[You're] not down with that...”.

Adrian, more and more, people are looking at the NFL as today's version of the Roman Collosseum. People have no problem, today, assigning the NFL a place above the life and death of everything around them – perhaps even of themselves!

Your opinions seem to indicate that you really want to live in that kind of environment.

Some of us don't.

Some of us would be killed in that environment.

Some of us “aren't down with” you, Adrian. But it's clear that this is yet another reason that you are one of the “chosen few” in the NFL these days.

There are gay people in the world, Adrian.

There are lesbians.

There are bisexuals.

There are trans-sexuals.

And the day has to come that the culture that has so permeated this country is going to have to accept that fact.

The Neanderthug Felon League (and football in general!) is the most homophobic of the major sports. It literally presents men only being real men when they overpower people violently (and to within an inch of their life), and the women are only there to be overpowered, and presented as effective harems.

And, Heaven forbid, you don't fit into The Game's little box on this.

This is 2013, Adrian. You might do well to join us.

Mission Accomplished for ESPN, Texas A&M, and Johnny Football.

Johnny Manziel was suspended today for a secondary NCAA violation -- that he didn't stop doing autographs even though God and everybody knew the brokers would make major money off of him.

He was suspended...  for one...  half.  Against Rice.

Is NOTHING Sacred? (Hint: No.)

Another Outside the Lines doozy before football takes over everything...

The first real legitimization, in many people's minds, of women's sports in this country was the famed second "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, where tennis hustler and (at least in front of the cameras) Male Chauvinist Pig Bobby Riggs, after defeating World #1 Margaret Court only four months before, ceding only three games in a two-set win in the process, against probably the pre-eminent activist for women's tennis in the day, Billie Jean King, in front of over 30,000 people (and a television audience of over 50,000,000 in the US alone), to this day the largest crowd ever to see an American tennis match, on September 20, 1973.

King won the match in three straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

There has been widespread speculation that Riggs threw the match, due to his hustler nature getting himself in serious money trouble with the Mafia.

ESPN has gained evidence to support this theory, and released it this week.

A Tampa, FL pro shop worker of the day reported a post-midnight meeting between three members of various sectors of the Mafia and a fourth man that he did not recognize.

Riggs, the meeting reported, was over $100,000 in arrears to dirty sports bets, and it was decided that he must throw the Houston match to get it back.  In fact, the Tampa pro shop worker believes that, effectively, Riggs had already told the Mafia types that there would be two "Battle of the Sexes" matches, in which he would crush Margaret Court, and then lose the match to Billie Jean King.

This would make sense on multiple levels:  Not only was Riggs in a compromised position, but he was a hustler in the first place (making him vulnerable), and an inside to the match would let the Mafia clean up many times that $100K, because of the fact almost no sane person was betting on King to defeat Riggs in their match -- this fact was reported by no less than Jimmy "The Greek" before the match.

Riggs was always gambling on every tennis match he played, it seemed, and there was at least one time at which Riggs openly threw a five-set doubles loss.  The ATP would've banned Riggs immediately, but the guy was no less than a hustler, a scam artist, a sham, and the winner of five US Professional championships in Forest Hills, NY (the precursor to the US Open).

Basically, it is not hard to read between the lines and realize that Riggs felt that he, himself, was too good for tennis and had to find other ways to challenge himself.

He actually had challenged King first, and she declined -- until Riggs crushed Court and King, to this day, states she was, then, compelled to face him.  The promoter of Ali-Frazier in 1971 (any surprise here?) took care of the rest, and the showdown at the Astrodome was on.

---

It's a fascinating read, but it's clear that it should be a surprise to no one.

This was, as noted, one of the seminal moments in American sport, held up as the first real legitimacy of women's sports (not coincidentally, ESPN's women's-based "Nine for IX" movie series is, tonight, showing a film questioning whether women's sports achievements mean a meaningful damn at all, or whether women are "Branded" to be simply sex objects on the fields and nothing more...) in the 1970's.

Billie Jean King was openly attempting to get equal purses for the women's tournaments to the men, and aided in starting the Virginia Slims Tour to aid in this endeavor.

All the while, Riggs was partying it up in scary fashion, and with some scary characters around to boot.  Reading everything he did, it's a wonder someone didn't shoot the man for simply being so stupid or something!

It's almost as if Bobby Riggs was, himself, the precursor to today's sports -- that the biggest sporting event of the early 1970's (long before football became The National Religion) was a scam job by a hustler in league with the Mafia.

Fact is, this should surprise no one.  Click the link, and read for yourself.

So just WHAT are you trying to hide, Mr. Goodell??

Every week, it seems like there's another story which indicates the full criminality of the National Religion (and especially the National Football League) is on display.

This week's story comes to us from Deadspin -- what a shock.

PBS' Frontline is doing a study on the epidemic of concussions (and their effects) in the Neanderthug Felon League.

ESPN was involved in assisting with the product through Outside the Lines.

There's a key word in that last sentence:  was....

According to Deadspin, the National Football League told ESPN to get the Hell out of the project.

James Andrew Miller said that no less than Goodell himself convened a meeting in a Manhattan restaurant with himself, the President of ESPN, the vice president for production at ESPN, and the President of the NFL Network.

Does anyone not think another Playmakers play was being made here?  Effectively, that Roger Goodell made it clear that, unless ESPN pulled out, that the NFL was prepared to start putting the Monday Night Football games on their network?

Both ESPN and the NFL deny this, obviously.

Of course, when you look at the reality of American sport (especially in light of Brian Tuohy's recent interview with JT The Brick in advance of the release of Larceny Games), the sports media and the leagues are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

So when it gets this combative with the one entity that can force ESPN to stand down (such is the power of the NFL, just ask Dan Moldea's father).

The two-part Frontline documentary is slated to air in October.

Fine and Suspension Blotter: Two weeks into the pre-season, and already it's racking up...

Well, let's try to catch up on some of the off-season (and a few pre-season) fines and suspensions.

Most of the back-work here is going to be from footballsfuture.com's NFL News Forum.  During the season, the NFL posts a weekly post on NFL.com of the fines and the like.  Anything major will, of course, be more quickly highlighted.

So let's take a look at the blotter:

Couple from Week 2 of the pre-season (most are, in fact, cross-posted from the NFL.com post):

• Tennessee Titans:  George Wilson, $15,000 for a horse-collar tackle.
• Washington Redskins:  Robert Griffin III, $10,000 for an unauthorized outfit under league rules.  He wore an "Operation Patience" T-Shirt somewhere he was not supposed to under league rules.  Feh.
• Houston Texans:  Brandon Harris, $21,000 for a head/neck hit.
• Dallas Cowboys:  Micah Pellerin, $15,750 for an unnecessary roughness foul.
• New York Giants:  Aaron Ross, $7,875 for a facemask.
• Chicago Bears:  Jon Bostic, $21,000 for lowering his head against a defenseless player.
• Houston Texans:  And a suspension to report:  The continuing war between Miami's Richie Incognito and Houston's Antonio Smith has resulted in a three-game suspension for Smith...  for swinging his helmet at Incognito!  Incognito is #68 White in this clip, Smith is #94 Blue.  Smith will miss two games of the pre-season and the first regular-season game for what probably should've gotten him double that and Incognito a stiff fine (at least!) for his continued dirty play.

Week 1 of the pre-season yielded these fines:

• Washington Redskins:  Fred Davis, $7,875 for an excessive touchdown celebration.  They might as well make it like the high school rule.  ANYTHING other than handing the ball to the ref and going to the sidelines is 15.  (NBC Sports noted:  "This is not a new rule: The 2012 official playing rules listed examples of prohibited acts that will result in unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, saying, “These acts include but are not limited to: sack dances; home run swing; incredible hulk; spiking the ball; throwing or shoving the ball; pointing; pointing the ball; verbal taunting; military salute; standing over an opponent (prolonged and with provocation; or dancing.”  (Spinning the ball is also prohibited.))

• And another one for the Redskins:  Chris Baker is hit for $15,750 for hitting the quarterback below the knees.
• Tennessee Titans:  Bernard Pollard, $10,000 for a hit out of bounds.
• San Diego Chargers:  Johnnie Troutman got hit by a new rule this year.  The peel-back block is now further banned, and he got fined $15,750 for one of those.
• Detroit Lions:  Travis Lewis, $15,750 for a horse-collar tackle.

This is all PRE-SEASON.   That's $155,000 or so, and that's just for pre-season games that DON'T COUNT (someone also needs to remind all the fealty-worshippers of this too!!!).

But no, we have to taunt and be dirty to keep our spot...  Blegh.

And then there's this list:

• Denver Broncos:  Von Miller:  Suspended 6 games for a Step Two violation of the Drug Program.  Appears to have been marijuana and amphetamines.
• St. Louis Rams:  Jo-Lonn Dunbar:  Suspended 4 games for a Step One violation of the Drug Program.
• St. Louis Rams:  Isaiah Pead:  Suspended 1 game under the Drug Program for a marijuana arrest.
• St. Louis Rams:  If these stand, the Rams team will be fined $102,000 for the number of players they've had suspended under the Drug Program.
• Baltimore Ravens:  Asa Jackson:  Suspended 8 games for a Step Two violation of the Drug Program.
• Washington Redskins:  Jarvis Jenkins:  Suspended 4 games for a Step One violation of the Drug Program.
• Indianapolis Colts:  Wesley Saunders:  Suspended 8 games for a Step Two violation of the Drug Program.  Saunders was also suspended last off-season for Strike One.
• Cleveland Browns:  Josh Gordon:  Suspended 2 games and fined 2 more game checks (total of four) for a violation of the Drug Program.

And then we have the whole Seattle Seahawks farce:

• Bruce Irvin became the fifth Seahawk under Pete Carroll to be suspended under the Drug Program this year.  He will miss the first four games.  (A sixth was overturned on appeal.)

(John Moffitt in 2011, Alan Barbre, Brandon Browner, and Winston Guy in 2012.) 

Wow.  Just...  wow.

I think I just found out how the sports leagues get away with all this...

This doozy from Democratic Underground...  (and it'd be the same way if the Democrats came across as this utterly STUPID...)  Just as an example of the general mentality of the American citizen...

Someone Finally Let The Cat Out of the Bag?

(Another hat-tip to my anonymous friend for catching someone in the act!)

Sometimes, in reviews of professional wrestling cards, you see the comment:

"I love shoot comments that aren't supposed to be shoot comments."

Basically, things that are true (and outside the story), but they try to make it act as if it was within it.

Cue another article on the stupidities of the PGA Championship gallery last week.

Cameron Morfit, for Golf.com, let this one slip:

"Tiger Woods, who looked so good this year at Torrey, Bay Hill, Doral, Firestone South and even the vexing TPC Sawgrass, has almost totally vacated the Tiger Woods role in the majors. All that remains are the pre-tournament hype and the crowds, which remain a show unto themselves, his fans yelling "mashed potatoes" and "baba booey" and "get in the hole," anything to be heard. After the affairs and the humiliations and the apology in front of the blue curtains, Woods's notoriety inspires just as much odd behavior as it ever did.The highlight of his round on Sunday may have been his interaction with a man who did nothing more than stand in place next to the 3rd tee. Woods looked at the guy's big, wavy Afro and cracked everyone up with a smile and a simple response: "Wow.""

Wow, indeed.  (Emphasis mine.)

You mean to actually tell me they let you tell the truth about the pigs that squeal for El Tigre?

Non-Sports But Quite Relevant: The Majority Now Defines Words, As Well As The Discourse

A "We Are So Screwed" moment, from CNN.com...

The definition of the word "literally" has been changed.

Effectively, the word "literally" now, in truth, has about the same weight as the word "figuratively".  No longer does an actuality have to be involved, according to Dictionary.com's note on the situation.

If this is where we literally are, without exaggeration...

we're in trouble, sports and otherwise.

The Truth: Are we about to make another human sacrifice to altar of The National Religion?

(Hat-tip to my anonymous friend, who pointed out the article...)

Robert Klemko wrote an article for Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback blog that anyone who wishes to swear their fealty to the National Religion and Neanderthug Football League needs to freaking read.

"Where is Titus Young?  Who is Titus Young?"

I'm going to give you the "Cliffs' Notes" version.

It starts in a court room, where, once again, Titus Young, formerly of the Detroit Lions, has failed to answer one of three sets of charges he racked up in May of 2013.  This is, in fact, the third time he has no-showed, and has two weeks to do so on his fourth attempt, or he goes back to jail.

The word is that he's undergoing treatment.

The belief is he's too far gone for it to matter anymore.

It appears, once again, that we have another head-hunter who has, quite literally, lost his mind.

It can be traced back to high school play in Los Angeles.  A rather disturbing 45-second clip shows what Young's coach was telling people -- he loved to lead with his head.  The first hit was definitely a launch-level helmet-under-the-chin job (which we actually seem to be seeing MORE of these days with the fines and penalties!).  The second was the classic belt of the receiver over the middle (almost-certainly accompanied by the taunting).  The third is Young breaking up a pass...  by belting the guy with his helmet.

He once celebrated a touchdown late in a game by front-flipping into the end zone.  He was suspended a game for that stupid stunt.

So Young gets to go to Boise State.  Yes, that Boise State.

He already appears to be getting a reputation as a partier and probably wanting to be in that thug life that his heroes in the Neanderthug Felon League were already living.

Young was suspended for a significant portion of his sophomore season for missing practices and insubordination.   Not surprisingly, this raised questions which dogged him into his draft class.

What WAS surprising is that the suspension appeared to wake him up.  He had two rather model years before being drafted by the Lions (with the aid of a rather questionable marketing agent) in the second round in 2011.

He demanded to be the #1 receiver in Detroit.  He committed a costly penalty in a loss which got him benched.  He gave the Lions one half-decent season.

And then it blew up.  A fight, believing he was actually better than "Megatron" Calvin Johnson, increasing insubordination, and then deliberately lining up in the wrong spot against the Packers in a game in 2012.  That (and a Twitter tirade the following January) ended his career in Detroit.

People began to notice disturbing changes in Young's demeanor.  After being claimed by the Rams, he said he wanted to play defensive back.  Nine days later, he left without a presumably-required escort to go to the airport, didn't have identification there, and caused a scene.

By this point, it was clear that something was very very wrong.

The next day, he was released.  His conduct had ended his career with the St. Louis Rams...  in ten days.

It took three attempts to finally get Young to a neuropsychiatric hospital at UCLA.  He was sweating, it was clear he was not himself...

Titus Young was slipping away.

He didn't even realize the Rams had cut him when he spoke with his old high-school coach (unannounced and quite erratic, at that!) about a month later.

Young claimed he had been in treatment in Texas and that they found a "spot" on his brain.  His penchant for leading with his head led to brain damage!

When he tried out for a third shot at the NFL, he had the classic "Thousand-Yard Stare".  When it was clear that was not going to pan out, the three arrests within a month happened.

--

Titus Young is probably going to die, very soon.

And it's yet another case of a person who is probably going to die (and, reading the comments, sounding like at the pleasure of a lot of the football types out there) at the altar of the National Religion.

There's more.  A lot more...

Victor Conte, PEDs, and Mixed Messages

On July 23/24, Victor Conte appeared on JT the Brick's radio show on FOX Sports and claimed that about 50% of all professional athletes are still, today, using performance-enhancing drugs.

On Sports Illustrated's SI Wire on their website, Conte now claims that half of baseball still uses performance-enhancing drugs.

Conte made the claim on Jim Rome's new Showtime show that half of the players in baseball have used PEDs in the last year, according to SI Wire.

So my baseball-historian friend and I took a look at some statistics, as of Wednesday night August 14, and saw some interesting things which make one wonder whether or not Conte (or the head of the MLBPA) is  telling the truth.

First, there are only 12 players, as of August 14, who have 25 or more home runs in a season.  Several of them play in hitter-friendly ballparks!

There are only five players with over 27.

In 2002, for the full season, the 10th-highest total in the major leagues was 39.  The six years previous, it was 40 or more.  In 1998, when McLiar drugged his way to 70, #10 was Andres Galarraga with 44!

This year, there may only be five players in the league that reach 35, unless the September pitching causes more home runs.

That would take us back to before the strike.

And that's why there is a case to be made for the MLBPA union head's statement (which I do not believe coming from the MLBPA union head, as I said, otherwise the MLBPA would (and should have anyway!!) have told A-Roid to go screw himself!) that the majority of players are clean and sick of the steroids.

Another piece of evidence in the MLBPA head's favor is batting averages.

10th place in the National League, as of the moment, is an adjusted .309.

10th place in the American League?  .300 !

That's right.  Only 10 batters in the Designated Hitter league have reached a .300 plateau that used to be a pretty good season.

So the jury is still out on Conte's claims.  Would it shock anybody in the least if he was right?  Probably not.

But the jury is certainly out.

Tom Brady tweaks his knee. Football World Has Collective Heart Attack.

So the collective New England Patriot football world almost ended today.

(For those who know me well, please understand the sarcasm.)

Tom Brady had a minor knee injury, MRI negative, etc.

Here's the point:  When the injury happened, prominent online offshore (and, hence, illegal to us in the USA) bookie Bovada took off ALL of the Super Bowl futures, ALL AFC East future bets, and ALL AFC future bets for the season.

Where's that one .GIF of stick figures running around... "OMG...  Oh Noez..."

Look, I'll admit I'm planning a few futures bets of my own for this season to invest in possibly financing a New Year's trip to Las Vegas for an anime convention.

But THIS just almost seems ridiculous.  Jeff Howe noted, in his Twitter from Patriots camp:

"This helicopter just arrived and the place is freaking out"

The Whole Manziel Thing Is Exploding Now

First, yesterday's revelation:

The number of items attributed to have been signed by Manziel in the continuing ESPN Outside the Lines investigation into the probable (almost definite, in my view) ineligibility vis-a-vis the dying NCAA is now up to at least 4,400.

As of this point, it appears to make at least four different sets of autographs signed, and at least two parties are claiming he was paid for at least one of the sessions.

• We have the session reported last week in Miami, for which it is rumored he was to get five figures.
• We have two Northeastern US autograph brokers who claimed to gather 300 signed items, and paid $7,500 for the privilege.
• Now, we have another session around the BCS National Championship Game.
• And another one later in January in Houston.  Both of the last two are rumored to have Manziel sign over 1,500 items apiece!  No word on if money changed hands at either of these.

One of the sessions has actually been confirmed by an autograph-authentication company, who paid $10,000 to verify over 1,100 signatures!

So that's one angle...

---

But it's nothing compared to what Deadspin came out with today.

A sourced family history of Manziel's family was one of the lead articles today on Deadspin.

 To say it's explosive would probably be a severe understatement.

The Manziel family is an oil family (no surprise in Texas), according to the article.

But it gets a lot more "colorful" (read:  criminal!) than that.

Family indictments and other indications seem to indicate that the Manziel family has also been involved with:

• Grifting and Land Hustling
• Cocaine Trafficking
• Murder
• Cockfighting
• and Match-Fixing

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

You really need to read this, and understand, given this kind of influence and peddling and criminality, just what Johnny Manziel might be allowed to get away with (and, as I've asserted long before now, what he probably already has...).

This family knows how the game is really played.  I speak of a Sports Machine of media, corporate, and underworld interests that control how sports go in this country.  It really sounds as if this family is very, VERY well acquainted with this situation.

Unraveling this string will probably upset a lot more than Texas A&M's football season.

Several of the Manziels have spent lengthy periods of time in both Texas and Federal prisons.

However, Bobby Joe Manziel Jr. has connections with the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin on his resume as well.

Bobby Jr. is Johnny Football's father's first cousin's father.  Bobby Jr. is Johnny Football's first cousin, once removed.  (I hope I got that right.)

Johnny Football's dad's claim to fame is not much unakin to my probably lesser-known one -- getting banned from message boards, these specific to college football!

You really need to get this all from the article.  I'm going to let it do most of the work, because you really need to see just how far this family tree has gone.

Given what we KNOW about sports (if you choose to pay attention), the level of criminality and the like in this family should be the final red flag to get Johnny Football off the field, probably permanently.

I think Johnny Manziel's only real hope of playing this year is:

• Signing on to the O'Bannon lawsuit (which he may have already done -- I'm not sure)
• and then getting a restraining order against the NCAA prohibiting them from sanctioning him before the O'Bannon lawsuit reaches trial or is settled.

I Rest My Case -- Sports Fan Syndrome Run Amok

In response to the Yahoo! article on the crowd shenanigans at the PGA Championship, I said:

"Bluntly, we have Tiger Woods to thank for ALL of this. If he and The Worldwide Leader didn't basically bring a bunch of third-rate supposed sports "fans" to golf, we wouldn't have this."

Getting this response from supposed member of the human race JoshuaW:

"Power to the people fool. I applaud these fans for bringing this silly, insignificant sport back down to Earth. People laud golf like it is some important event but it is a trivial game and nothing more."

Sports Fan Syndrome in the Tiger Golf Association

16th hole.

Sunday at the PGA Championship.

Jim Furyk on the tee, down by 2 to Jason Dufner.

And then, THIS...

It's not the camera he's staring at.

It's about three or four jokers who decided to take the 16th hole at the PGA Championship on Sunday and make a complete jackass out of it.

Oh, and he's not the only one pissed off at the "fans" of the TGA Tour.

Yes, I said TGA, not PGA -- because this is yet another symptom of what happens when you basically make golf into Tiger's World.

Ian Poulter got into a Twitter rant about the very same subject today, and you can see the results in this Deadspin article.

This shit needs to stop, and it needed to stop about 15 years ago when Tiger first came into the PGA and brought the hardcore Sports Fan Syndrome junkies with him.

In my personal estimation, there are three parts to this.

1) I truly believe we are starting to see, little by little, the fans openly trying to determine the outcome of/disrupt sporting events, to make them (not the sport, league, or players) the star of the show -- even if, for the most part, any discussion on their involvement would be insulting of their interference.

Anyone care to revisit THIS joker from the Arena Football League, as one great example?

Or THIS joker who would trade a year of his freedom for 1,000 retweets on Twitter and interfere with the 2013 baseball All-Star Game?

Or THIS idiot from the 2013 State of Origin that all-but-decided the traditional three-match Australian rugby series through his continued streaking onto the field?  (Second half of same post.)

Part of this, as has been seen directly many times in golf tournaments, is this whole "Get my ass on YouTube, I'm going to be a star!" idiocy.

Part of this comes directly from the diagnoses of Sports Fan Syndrome Howard Cosell made many, many years ago:

"6. The fan is sacred, even as sports are. He pays the freight, thus he is an entitled being. The media people tell him this every day. Therefore, once within the arena, his emotions whetted by the Sports Syndrome, the fan adopts what John Stewart Mill found to be the classic confusion in the American thought process, the confusion between Liberty and License—a natural and probable consequence of which is fan violence. "

2) Tiger Woods.  The absolute revolution of everything in American golf around Tiger Woods, his corporate image, and basically to make the fans into hardcore Nike/TW syncophants.  This garbage DID NOT START until Corporate Gaaaaaaaaahd came on to the scene.  We have the likes of The Worldwide Leader to thank for that one.

3) The complete lack of respect for ANYTHING out there today.

Do these motherfuckers know what a golf ball is, much less where the Hell they are?

People work their entire LIVES for the opportunity Furyk got, and we've got 3 or so idiots deciding they want to crap all over it.

I pity the day the Corporate Gaaaaaaaaahd is ever relevant in another major in the final four or so holes.

First thing they need to do is ban these motherfuckers from the course.

Second thing they need to do, with all the officials and technology involved in major tournaments, is some kind of defense against these idiots who are trying to disrupt play by yelling at impact (and missing).

But this shit has to stop.

EDIT 10 PM PDT 8/11/13:  Yahoo's golf blog has a whole cornucopia of PGA Championship Gallery bullshit.

Video highlights include verbal hooliganism against Tiger Woods, as well as Keegan Bradley, and Jason Dufner, by some idiot who would've preferred letting the Wookiee win.

The NCAA, in present form, is finished.

More and more, as I read what's going on in a number of fronts with respect to "college sports", one inescapable conclusion comes up again and again.

The entire concept of an amateur NCAA for athletes who are actually students at the universities they represent and play for is, for the top schools and the top sports, an archaic concept which is about to go the way of the dodo bird.

In short, there will be major changes, and probably frighteningly soon.

There are already several developments which point to this end.

First:  Two major developments against the NCAA have been made in concert with a continuing court case which could dissolve the NCAA and bankrupt it completely.

A couple of weeks ago, EA Sports, the evil conglomerate who basically has had control of college and professional football video game licenses for a long time now, could no longer license the NCAA Football game -- in fact, the court in which the case I will reference in a second is being held told EA Sports that they could not, in any way, use the likenesses of current athletes.

This basically meant that EA had to talk fast to even get this year's (the final edition with the NCAA logo -- and what I honestly believe may well be the final year of the NCAA entirely!!) edition out.

The other development came Thursday.

The NCAA will no longer, on their website, sell jerseys.  It, in fact, will no longer sell ANY college or university merchandise:

"Moving forward, the NCAA online shop will no longer offer college and university merchandise," [Mark] Lewis [the NCAA executive vice president for alliances and championships] said. "In the coming days, the store's website will be shut down temporarily and reopen in a few weeks as a marketplace for NCAA championship merchandise only. After becoming aware of issues with the site, we determined the core function of the NCAA.com fan shop should not be to offer merchandise licensed by our member schools."

It is obvious that they are about to lose what probably will be a bankrupting verdict in the mushrooming Ed O'Bannon (and an increasing number of others') lawsuit, in which O'Bannon claims that the money made by the NCAA was done on the likenesses of the players, who got nothing for it.

It now appears that the players will win.

This almost certainly, at least in my honest opinion, will bankrupt the NCAA, and the NCAA will die within one year, maybe two.  The current timeline for the trial has the trial starting July 9, 2014.

What could easily happen could make a football-less autumn at many colleges a reality.

It's certain, by the current tea leaves (including and especially the admission by the NCAA Thursday that the sale of individual and school jerseys was a "mistake"), that the players will win, perhaps, billions, with the only limit being the statute of limitations and how much money could feasibly be awarded by this lawsuit to all the different athletes in all the different schools in all the different sports in which the NCAA will (certainly) be found liable as to illegally making money where the law says it should not have.

You could have a situation that, come August or September, sans appeals processes, the NCAA (by being forced to liquidate) could simply cease to exist, leaving no sanctioning body (and, hence, no organizational process at all) for the continuance of college sports, even football.

And then you get to the formalization of something that, at least for football, I've been calling for for years.

The college presidents of the five remaining "power conferences" (Big XII, Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC, and SEC) are formally lining up proposals for the creation of what is informally being called (in the wrong direction, I might add) "Division IV".

This would finally, once and for all, codify what the five conferences have intended to do with the BCS the whole time -- separate themselves from their lessers and basically enforce that those five conferences play a completely different brand and level of sport (especially football) than anyone else.

To me, this would be the creation of what I would call "FBS-I" and "FBS-II".

All the current rules for inclusion into the Football Bowl Subdivision would stay, but now you would have the freedom to change those rules for simply the 62 schools in the 5 "FBS-I" conferences and Notre Dame.

Those 63 schools would be taken off and there would be no material interchange between them and the current "non-AQ" schools.

Most people believe this will take place in the next year.

But will the O'Bannon case render this all moot?

I've always said, and I do agree that reclassification is probably a good first step, basically codifying what is long-believed:  that schools, conferences, and schedules outside the "power conferences" have no place at the major table.

A quick re-classification would probably result, many believe, from a settlement where the NCAA is forced to allow the athletes to share the profits.

But what happens if the O'Bannon case goes to trial and bankrupts the NCAA?

First, the lower divisions probably get absorbed back into the NAIA (the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics), which would probably have to create divisions for them.

Second, you'd probably end up with a BCS-like coalition of conferences and colleges, in which college presidents and ADs effectively, in concert with media like ESPN and FOX Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network (etc.), would run the show.

In football, it would change little.  The only real question is whether the transition might make it very difficult to have a meaningful season, say, in 2014, if it becomes clear that the NCAA is bankrupt and cannot feasibly administer college sports at all.  Even under appeal of the O'Bannon case, could the NCAA lose the last real power it is perceived to have over schools, especially the likes of the SEC football powers?

Eventually, you'd have at least one coalition of the five conferences and Notre Dame and the current College Football Playoff would probably go (once the transition is complete) roughly to schedule.

In basketball, that little thing you call March Madness would disintegrate instantly.  You would literally have made-for-TV events in it's place, and forget the Florida Gulf Coasts or Butlers or the like even sniffing it.  One might say the only thing the NCAA realistically has left IS the March Madness tournament.

If you create an "FBS-I"-like model for basketball, forget about having to wonder if Florida Gulf Coast would make a hypothetical New March Madness -- they wouldn't even be that classification of school.  They, and this is if the schools of this size could have a meaningful tournament that more than three people outside the schools would want to watch (which see the current CBI or CollegeInsider.com tournaments -- yes, there are, in fact, TWO post-season tournaments BELOW the NIT!!!), would basically have to create their own coalition/agreement, not to say that one of the two aforementioned tournaments would not provide a "national championship" for such lesser schools and conferences.

(To give you an idea of how bad this goes, there were actually two "power conference" teams in the third-level CBI.  Both had losing overall records:  Purdue was 15-17, eliminated in the second round by eventual winner Santa Clara -- and Texas was 16-17, losing in the first round to Houston.  AXS TV, a mens' interest/sporting channel, had the bulk of the games, including the three-game championship series.  No "power conference" teams played in the CollegeInsider.com tournament.)

So I will say that there is a very real possibility that you might be seeing the last (or second-to-last) March Madness tournament in 2014.

And I think it's clear that most people concede that's where we're going.

But that brings another part to the question:  If the courts rule the athletes entitled to such benefits, does this not take them out of being students entirely, making them employees of the university?  This has taxation possibilities written all over it.

And it happens...

Alex Rodriguez is allowed to play on appeal of Monday's 212-game suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis situation..

He was suspended, today, under the drug policy, for the rest of this season and all of next.

He officially appealed Wednesday (through the Players' Union).

It's official:  Bud Selig has something to hide.

One source had it that Selig decided not to try for the life ban on A-Rod because Selig felt it would actually sway public sympathy toward Rodriguez.

The understanding that Selig has to have to believe that is either that he's clueless, he has no balls, or he is openly stating what I have personally feared for a long time:  20 years and more into the influx of performance-enhancing drugs to the sport, that these drugs had a profound impact on the retention of a number of Major League Baseball teams and that sterpids (at least in Selig's probable opinion and definitely in mine) saved the league in present form after the 1994 strike.

Bud Selig is a sham.

Bud Selig is a criminal charlatan.

Bud Selig, and most of the hierarchy of baseball (both on the owners' side and on the players'), should be put in prison under the RICO Act.

As I said earlier, I believe that Selig himself, as an owner and as an attempt to do the sole thing he was installed as Commissioner when the owners' ran off Fay Vincent in September of 1992, was simply making money.

At this point, CBS was leading the television ratings into the crapper, to the point they ate a half-billion dollars on the national baseball rights.

Vincent was, among other things, trying to put in a new drug policy that would've nipped the Steroid Era in the bud, something Selig and his cohorts among the 18 owners who voted Vincent out of the Commissioner's Office could not have, especially two years later, as it was clear the 1994 strike and cancellation of the 1994 World Series damaged baseball to an extent to which it will never recover.

It was then that baseball ceased as the National Pastime -- if not before, it certainly did then.

But the facts are simple:  The administration of baseball, on both sides, was very pro-drug until Congress decided to threaten the one thing that would be a deal-breaker to Major League Baseball:  Finally take away the anti-trust exemption.

Now, the players' union stance is that drug cheats are on their own -- which is one of the largest reasons most of the Biogenesis suspensions are not being appealed.

(Until Wednesday, when they got behind A-Rod's appeal!  Hypocrisy, anyone??)

And Selig, ever the charlatan, wants the BBWAA to actually think that he was against the use of PEDs during his Commissionership (never mind he never would've been Commissioner had he actually been against the use of illegal drugs -- as Vincent was trying to implement a policy against them in the Best Interests of Baseball, one of many things Allan knows NOTHING about).

That's right, people:  The only damn reason this criminal pig wants to "crack down" is because he wants to be in Cooperstown.

Screw that.

He has ZERO INTENTION, and that's not even the worst of it, to curtail drug use in Major League Baseball.

He is competing with a league that only a fool and an idiot (which would probably mean most of it's fans/fealty-swearers would this) would think that many/most of the football players in the Neanderthug Felon League would be clean.

The fact is, and I think he knows this:  He has done so many things to destroy the integrity, history, and tradition of baseball.  He now has a balkanized sport in which fans are fans of teams and not the sport.

(Which see Goodell's NFL for a perfect counterexample.)

He does not want "real fans" of baseball.  He does not want the historians and the grand traditions of the game to mean a damn thing anymore.

He is a money man.

Bud Selig is a whore.  Plain and simple:  Bud Selig is a whore, and he's willing to pimp out a drugged Major League Baseball to get it done.

He needs to go.

He needs to go to jail.

And this is a telling moment for the new head of the Players' Association.

Why?  My baseball-historian friend, ready to, once again for steroids, give up on baseball, came up with a great idea:  A work stoppage.  If the majority of players are clean and they are sick of the steroids, there's going to have to be a disruption.

That said, I do not believe the premise of the MLBPA head that the majority of players are clean and that they are sick of the steroids -- if this were the case, the head of the MLBPA might well be out of that post tout suite.  But if it is true, a strike might be the only way to shake out the remaining dirty players, because it will force all parties to take sides.

There is one huge problem which will almost-certainly prevent such a strike, however.  If the clean players lose, steroids will return to the game with an absolute vengeance.

We cannot have that.

Johnny Manziel, $Cam Newton Redux

Hidden in the other major farce of the day is this one:

USA Today Sports has reported that Texas A&M University has retained the same law firm for Johnny Manziel that allowed $Cam Newton to win the Heisman Trophy, BCS National Championship, and #1 Draft Pick by retaining his eligibility.

Even as a "cloud" is over Texas A&M's early football camp, it's clear A&M is all-in on Manziel.

And it sounds like Manziel might not be the only one the NCAA might have to ding for autograph money...

ESPN reports today that an EBay autograph broker was told by Nate Fitch, purportedly the personal assistant and a friend of Johnny Manziel, that Manziel would no longer sign anything for free.

The report indicates that, in November, Fitch also said he could provide other "standout" players for autographs (for fees) to the broker.

You know what this obviously means:  There are a number of players who are probably going under the NCAA microscope -- that is, if they can force either Fitch or this broker to talk.  The NCAA has tried on six different occasions to contact the broker, and the broker has refused to talk.

FOX Sports reports 12 accepted suspensions...

And now we get some of the names...

FOXSports.com reports these players have accepted Biogenesis suspensions.  There is still no official word from Major League Baseball, and everyone's holding their breath on Alex Rodriguez, who will (if not suspended -- though reports indicate the Yankees have been notified he will be today!) probably play tonight.

• Jhonny Peralta of the Tigers
• Nelson Cruz of the Rangers
• Everth Cabrera of the Padres
• Francisco Cervelli of the Yankees
• Jesus Montero, in the Seattle farm system
• Cesar Puello, in the Mets farm system
• Fernando Martinez, in the Yankees farm system
• Jordan Norberto, now a free-agent
• Fauntino De Los Santos, now a free-agent

If that list sounds familiar, those were nine players that Yahoo! reported last week were going to accept suspensions.

The FOX Sports report lists three further players accepting Biogenesis suspensions:

• Antonio Bastardo of the Phillies
• Jordany Valdespin of the Mets
• and Sergio Escalona, in the Astros farm system

As of 10:35 AM PDT, no word on A-Roid.

All of these suspensions appear to be 50 games. This is done at almost the precise point that all teams would have about 50 games left in their regular seasons.

ESPN may have to cover for Johnny Football to set foot on a football field again...

I knew it.

I damned well good and knew it.

NCAA investigation now underway on Johnny Manziel, according to a report today in Yahoo! through ESPN.

Sometime around the BCS National Championship Game, according to sources, Manziel was approached for, and agreed to, a five-figure sum for signing various memorabilia that began to surface just afterward.

The source does not confirm the money changing hands, but the NCAA wants bank records.

This is the same rule that canned the Ohio State program and Jim Tressel over Terrelle Pryor, et. al. for the tattoos.

I've said it time and again -- more frequently as more news has come out about Manziel:  Johnny Football has never played and will never play an eligible down in the NCAA.  How he got to A&M was crooked, his dealings with his coach were crooked, and I think we're going to find out that Sumlin and A&M were using this kid and a bunch of shady/illegal dealings with The Sports Machine (the media and corporate Powers That Be) to become relevant in college football, rather than be the SEC's and Texas' bitch.

You've got about six weeks, ESPN, to save your regular season.

Selig Cave-In Imminent!

At least two media sources are now, as of Saturday night PDT, reporting that Alex Rodriguez will only be suspended through the 2014 season, and that will be announced on Monday by Major League Baseball.

Nothing, obviously, is confirmed, but I would like to go on the record as to what I believe to be two material facts, should this come down:

1. This "punishment" is a colossal fucking joke.  I have no argument with Alex Rodriguez claiming the main motivator of a life ban is actually the Yankees trying to get out of the contract they have with him.  (And someone I was talking with on the subject came up with a better solution than anything I (or Stephen A. Smith) could:  Fine the Yankees at least through the 2014 salary -- upwards of $25,000,000 or more.)  I also have no argument with the belief I've seen in several articles that it is simply about wringing every dollar Alex Rodriguez can get for himself -- not unlike the cheap whore he comes across as.
2. There's more to this, and it should be obvious.  I don't think too many people, given the stature of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, should believe that Selig, et. al. would lose a lawsuit to Rodriguez, at least as Rodriguez has threatened to should he be life-banned.  The problem for Selig is what might come out in a trial.  I will make no illusions of my opinions on the subject:  I believe Bud Selig was personally criminally culpable for acts promoting and facilitating the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in the sport of baseball to promote and "save" the sport in the 1990's and 2000's, far beyond any obstructions or the like that most may feel he is known to have committed.

I believe he was part of a network, along with at least a number of the owners (if not all), Donald Fehr and the MLB Players' Association, and many MLB players to aid and assist in the promotion of the game by changing the game to a glorified, steroid-driven Home Run Derby.

I believe this included everything from promotion and recruiting to distribution.

I believe Major League Baseball itself was a drug-driven corporation for a number of years.

And that's why, Ian O'Connor of ESPN New York, I want fucking payback.

I want life bans.

I want prison sentences.

There was a point (and reports like this make me wonder if we're completely out of these woods yet!) that I believe the entire corporation should've been shut down.

If this guy (who should not only have been banned a decade ago, but probably has done enough to earn 3 or 4 life bans from baseball) skates with this year and next, even if he never steps foot on the field again, it shows that Bud Selig wants PEDs in the game full-scale.

Several Odds and Ends: August 1, 2013

Basically, a catch-all of a few updates before...

• It is now expected that MLB will announce the Biogenesis suspensions tomorrow.  There is late word that A-Rod may have been forced to negotiate a plea, but we'll see.
• Thank you to my anonymous friend who often tips me off.  When my friend read about the "bet" Aaron Rodgers had on Ryan Braun's PED use, my friend found out that the man Rodgers made the "bet" with, Todd Sutton, was a sportswriter for Yahoo!
• The Feds have been sicced on Biogenesis again, thanks to Outside the Lines.  OTL reports today that the agent of the FDA who spear-headed the BALCO investigation, Jeff Novitsky, is now investigating the OTL reports that Biogenesis was providing drugs to 16 and 17 year olds.
• Someone needs to get a leash on Johnny Football, before he gets his butt in a lot of trouble, or, dare I say, killed!  Last weekend, he was seen at (and thrown out of) a fraternity party.  Now, of course, he is a collegian, so, on surface, it wouldn't be an issue...  Except the fraternity party was at Texas A&M's (former, now that the two schools are in different conferences) rival, Texas!!!
• First Coaches' Poll today for the final year of the BCS Farce:  Alabama vs. Ohio State is the projected championship game, with Oregon, Stanford, and Georgia rounding out the top 5.  Half the top 10, as should be expected, are SEC, as are 6 of the top 13.

I guess all is fair in Neanderthug war and war, right?

So, let's see if I get this all straight?

Riley Cooper of the Philadelphia Eagles went to a concert and was caught on video using a racial slur to be violent toward African-Americans.

The Eagles fined him and will send him to The Dreaded "Sensitivity Training".

Roger Goodell, citing the CBA, indicates that the league won't punish Cooper, because they can't.

What a fucking cop-out, Mr. Commish.

You know better than to think I believe that bullshit.

You thrive on conflict, you homophobe. (And that's just for starters -- could probably easily throw misogynist in there too.)

He does that as a British soccer player, and he probably gets the better part of a quarter-season. He does that on the pitch, and there's a chance he gets no less than arrested. Just ask John Terry.

It's bad enough that you cater this league as a thinly-disguised gang war between thugs, but now you want to effectively allow racism and the like?