Posts tagged College Football at FanHouse

I cringe to say it's a Southern truth because really, this may just apply to the vast majority of college football fans. But Southern zeal for the game is rarely matched as evidenced by this story.

There's a short video below (2:13 in length) about the lengths two friends went to catch the entirety of an Alabama football game, thereby delaying by an hour their arrival at one of their weddings. Predictable fallout: relatives who won't speak to them, a divorce years later. Less predictable fallout: "I'd do it again".

Honestly, this video is instructive. Chances are you won't agree with what the two men did, but the lesson is not to schedule fall weddings. Ever.

Ever ever ever.

Ever ever.

...

Ever.

Sometimes it pays to have an otherwise successful peer do something really stupid. Such is the case for Florida football coach Urban Meyer. It was announced last week that the Gators' football coach, leather jacket warrior and national champion will be paid $3.25 million annually as part of a six-year contract extension.

This wouldn't have been as likely even a few weeks ago, but then Billy Donovan almost left, stayed, left, and then returned. His bouncing ball act may have forced Florida to commit extra case to ensure some permanence with its pair of championship coaches.

It's not Meyer's fault, but the NCAA skeptics will be certain to mention this pay raise (and Nick Saban's salary!) to Congress. It's also certain to raise the salaries of several coaches including Bob Stoops and Pete Carroll. Stoops is alleged to have a clause in his contract allowing for near or matching salary to other highly paid coaches. Carroll will just flirt with the NFL again next offseason and quietly sign another fat extension.

Previously At FanHouse
Billy Donovan Needs To Be a Man and Apologize
Sources Confirm Billy Donovan Will Leave Gators for Magic
Things Take a Decidedly Kentucky-Ish Turn for Donovan

Stanford's new football coach Jim Harbaugh is a journalist's and blogger's dream, but oh man is he in a rush to tick everyone else off.

His latest: taking a dig at rival Cal's academics.

From an interview with The Stanford Daily:

TSD: I see most schools across college football selling out in order to win: taking kids that wouldn't get into that school if they didn't run a 4.4, funneling them through easy courses, looking the other way when they get into trouble. You mentioned Michigan, but a lot of Stanford fans would say that's the route Cal used to turn its program around. What do you think? Do Stanford and Cal differ in terms of how they prioritize academics and football?

JH: I don't think there's any doubt about it. It's a pretty wide gap. Right now, Stanford is No. 1 in the country at 92 percent graduation, and Cal's at 44 percent. So, I'd say they're cutting some corners.

He can check Cal off the list now. Only seven other Pac-10 schools and 108 other D-IA schools to go before he's insulted everyone in college football. Somehow I don't think that's a good thing. Is this campaign his version of a more caustic "Straight Talk Express" a la John McCain? What program is his next target? People want to know.

Other Harbaugh works of art this year:
-Saying alma mater Michigan's football program is far from superior in academic rigor compared to other schools.

-Suggesting USC coach Pete Carroll will leave his job this year, citing coaches on the USC staff. Carroll was miffed and barked back with this:

"If he's going to make statements like that, he ought to get his information right," Carroll said. "And if he has any questions about it he should call me."

-This week's slam of Cal football's graduation rate and allusion to "cutting corners".

Next?

Previously at FanHouse
Can Jim Harbaugh Win Against Stanford Admissions?
Jim Harbaugh Tag

Or is it Hula partner? Or Haka partner? Whatever, the Hawaii football program needs a 13th opponent but threw in the towel a few days ago.

The University of Hawaii has failed to add a 13th opponent and will play a 12-game football schedule this season, officials said Friday.

The schedule includes seven homes games, including two against Division I-AA opponents. Because of an exemption, the Warriors are allowed to play 13 regular-season games.

"After a long and exhaustive process that included discussions with several schools, no team we targeted for a 13th game would agree to play at UH in 2007," Hawaii athletics director Herman Frazier said.

I have a feeling we may need to reference this in December when Hawaii is undefeated or something darn near it and people start grousing about their weak out-of-conference slate. We warned you, it's coming!

I realize travel's expensive lately, but certainly someone in D-I should have been willing to make the finest road trip in all of college football. Or maybe Hawaii was unwilling to play that special someone? Who knows.

At least four college football players competed at this weekend's NCAA outdoor track championships. This is a high honor for those players as they are true two-sport stars which is rare nowadays. I wrote earlier about LSU's Trindon Holliday being college football's fastest man. Well, he and his second-place 10.06 times in the 100 meters happen to share some fast company.

Florida State cornerback Michael Ray Garvin placed sixth in the 100 meter finals, completing the race in 10.30 seconds.

The other event to feature a quartet of football players was the final of the 4x100 meter relay. Michael Ray garvin ran the #3 leg for Florida State. He and his teammates won the event in 38.60 seconds. Holliday ran the anchor leg for second-place LSU as they came in at 38.85 seconds.

Clemson tailback C.J. Spiller ran the anchor leg for his Tigers who clocked in at 40.07 seconds to finish seventh in the event. Finally there was Arizona cornerback Antoine Cason who ran the third leg for his eigth-place Wildcats who finished the race in 40.13 seconds.

There are many more college football players who compete in track during the spring, but few reach the NCAA Championships. Congratulations to Holliday, Garvin, Spiller and Cason for representing their programs well in Sacramento.

(Photo Credits L-R: Streeter Lecka, Grant Halverson and Harry How, Getty Images)

ESPN crack investigative reporter Mike Fish (along with George J. Tanber) have revealed new details into the Toledo gambling probe. The big news is that that an NCAA representative sent an email to the athletic director in November telling him that the NCAA was done investigating the situation.

The e-mail from [the NCAA's gambling pointwoman, Rachel] Newman-Baker was sent to [Toledo Athletic Director Mike] O'Brien in response to an e-mail sent by O'Brien earlier that day in which O'Brien asked Newman-Baker what the result was of the NCAA probe into the UT-Kent game.

The university tried to retrieve the e-mail from O'Brien's hard drive without success. O'Brien later found a hard copy of the e-mail in a file, according to UT spokesman Tobin Klinger.

In his e-mail, O'Brien wrote: "At the conclusion of the [Oct. 11] meeting, I asked what the next step would be and you indicated you would respond. With the meeting occurring almost a month ago, I thought I should contact you. I would assume that nothing has come of this and that you had nothing to share."

In her response to O'Brien, the first contact she had with him since Oct. 11, Newman-Baker said "no additional investigation was warranted at this time."

Additionally, the man fingered for involvement in the scandal is claiming that investigators and the government have no evidence to prosecute him.

"They got nothing," Ghazi "Gary" Manni said in an interview with USA TODAY. Manni, a Detroit-area resident who describes himself as a gambler, was alleged to have conspired with Toledo football and basketball players to fix games, according to court documents.

But Manni said his contacts with Toledo athletes, including running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr., was about friendship and had nothing to do with fixing games.

In the meantime, McDougle's father is hoping his son can return to the field and be cleared of the situation.

What's puzzling about all of this is that Vegas is not a place to make mistakes about something like this. They were the first to raise a red flag about some irregularities involving a Toledo football game and as we reported here earlier, there's a 99% chance something unusual or illegal happened in the way of betting for that game.

Back to square one? Maybe.

Previously at FanHouse
Point Shaving Can Only Be Limited
Toledo Gambling Scandal 99% Funny Business
This Is Why Legal Gambling Helps
Point Shaving At Toledo
FanHouse: NCAA Football Gambling

Need further confirmation of the story the FanHouse broke all this week? We got it. Check out this message board posting at the Bucknuts website, formerly Scout's Ohio State affiliate:

The Scout Oklahoma website, OUInsider, considered at one time to be the 'flagship' of the Scout fleet has pulled up anchor and set sail. . . .As part of the dissolution, the site has given back to Scout management of the once popular Sooners Illustrated magazine.

We called the newly independent Oklahoma website for their comments this morning.

"We felt like our customers we're not getting their monies worth with Scout," publisher Brian Bishop said. "This on-going message board debacle was the last straw, and I doubt that Scout can survive it. We had no choice but to let the sucker sink and try to load as many customers as possible into the lifeboats before next weeks' announcement from Scout that they will become MySpace Sports."

Bishop went on to opine, "Imagine that -- you'll now be crossing paths with your fourth grader as you visit you favorite team site. That's not exactly the affiliation we wanted when we signed on the Scout."

Heh. Just in case you still can't believe what's happening, we have more proof: Scout's website is already posting job listings for the new MySpace/Scout merger. Check out the logo (below):



Will this new venture plug the leaks or are more publishers bound to jump ship at the sight of the reworked Scout.com platform? Stay tuned ...

Previously at FanHouse:
Scout.com Wants To Add You As a Friend
Scout.com Getting The Pants Sued Off It
Is Scout Crumbling?

Symbolic of Arizona State's decline the last three years, former Arizona State star tailback Loren Wade was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday. Wade shot and killed teammate Brandon Falkner in March of 2005, apparently in a fit of jealousy.

Prosecutors claimed Falkner was shot because Wade saw him talking to his girlfriend. Falkner was 25.

Wade faces a maximum of 22 years in prison when he's sentenced.

There's a cost to killing a man in cold blood, and Wade's going to pay it here.

At one point he was a promising sometimes-starter as a freshman before a benefits issue and the murder charge derailed his career. In his absence the Sun Devils struggled to run the ball on offense until they finally found a reliable tailback last year. Falkner's murder, Wade's benefits scandal and murder arrest and the Keller/Carpenter quarterback situation all contributed to the termination of former coach Dirk Koetter.

Strangely, the ASU Athletic Department decided to play with fire again in hiring the controversial Dennis Erickson to be their new football coach. Wherever he's gone, suspicious program behavior has followed. Somehow we don't think Arizona State is out of the woods, yet.

The pair of former Parade Magazine Players of the Year have made the trek across country to Los Angeles to join their new teammates in "voluntary" summer workouts. McKnight wasted little time in getting noticed as reports had him beating a veteran cornerback and a veteran linebacker in speed drills. He also wasted little time enduring himself to teammates with this special delivery:

When the workout finally ended Joe was completely winded and ended up vomiting before leaving the field.

Uh, welcome to Los Angeles?

It's not unusual to spot former prep All Americas on the USC practice field. Heck, they have ten in their backfield alone. What makes this extremely unusual is that both Joe McKnight and Mitch Mustain are two of the south's finest and many are shocked to see them at Troy. In a different world McKnight's an LSU Tiger and Mustain is preparing for his sophomore year at Arkansas. Having both out west is a shock to the system.


Mustain endured a chaotic freshman season at Arkansas, finishing with an 8-0 record before being benched late in the year. Arkansas ditched any semblance of a balanced offense and later watched newly hired offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn leave after just one season. Mustain and high school teammate Damian Williams, both coached by Malzahn as preps, left school and ended up at USC.

McKnight, a speedy back/receiver out of Louisiana considered something of a Reggie Bush or Percy Harvin type athlete, was expected to commit to in-state LSU. He ended up picking USC, however, and we have been documenting the ridiculousness of some members of the LSU fan base on here ever since.

Needless to say both have taken an unusual path in getting to USC and thus the blinking confirmation needed by these pictures that they are in fact following through with their plans.

Previously at FanHouse:
Mustain Enrolls at USC, Will Wear #13
Mess at Arkansas Continues With Malzahn Departure and Mustain Rumors
07 Issues: Recruiting Insanity
Impact National Recruits: Part II

Sorry, No Photos

File this under: "rumor" for the moment. A tipster wrote in to tell us that the rapidly deteriorating situation at the recruiting/fan network Scout.com just got weirder.

Apparently Scout's chameleon act continues with plans to become an entity called "MySpace Sports".

HUH?

We've reported earlier on three major departures from Scout's network of team websites as its Ohio State and Florida affiliates parted ways. Then the USC affiliate announced last week it, too, was leaving Scout. Not to be outdone, the Oklahoma affiliate officially went independent (err, is partnered with ESPN?) yesterday. Those websites collectively represent the fan bases of four of the last seven BCS championship teams. Somehow we doubt this is the last departure, either: see Brian Cook's analysis of the pending class-action lawsuit against Scout.com by a handful of former affiliates representing all its affiliates.

Anyway, if true the MySpace thing is just bizarre. Hopefully some details will trickle in so we can learn if Scout as we know it is still motoring along or if this is the end of the line as a mainstream recruiting platform.