After UCLA made it to a bowl game as a 6-7 team last year (due to their loss in the Pac-12 Championship Game), there were some discussions about moving the eligibility back up to a 7-5 record in January. Less than a month ago, it was reported by multiple media outlets, including ESPN, that the bowl eligibility would likely remain at 6 wins. Then over the weekend, everyone was thrown a curve-ball and eligibility was changed, and actually lowered.
PLEASE let’s have the NCAA continue to make up rules as they go along. Any team ever has been allowed to appeal sanctions, but Penn State isn’t allowed to? Thank god the Penn State Board of Trustees heard this and were like, “good luck with that” and filed an appeal. They stated that the University President did not have the power to enter into such an agreement and that the punishment didn’t fit the crime. Meaning that the Board of Trustees seems fairly logical, at least the current Board of Trustees. Especially when they said that if the NCAA denied their appeal that they would take it to Federal Court as a lawsuit. I wouldn’t be surprised even a little if the NCAA doesn’t repeal any sanctions, BUT that’s not the point. The point is they have been making up the rules to the game as the game is being played. How can you just determine that a University can’t appeal any sanctions when it is their right to? At this point they’re just bullying Penn State and its completely illogical, because the people who were involved in most of what happened are no longer even there. I won’t even be that upset if the appeal doesn’t change any of the sanctions, it’s the fact that Penn State deserves to have the right to appeal. Every team that has gotten NCAA sanctions ever, has had the right to appeal.
It all started with the Opening Ceremony. Yes, the Opening Ceremony was weird for those of us that are not from England, but in their defense, the Ceremony should be geared towards the host countries crowd. The host country should be able to show the world its history…regardless of how weird of a performance they turn it into. Having Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira narrate the Ceremony was pretty ridiculous and a big waste of time. It really detracted from watching what was going on and became distracting. But even after that I was still willing to give them a shot, it was after all, only strike one.
When the Penn State University President, Rodney Erickson, was asked why they didn’t oppose all of the sanctions the NCAA handed down, he responded by telling reporters that he was given an ultimatum. Either accept all of this punishment, or accept a four-year death penalty for the football program, and fines that exceeded $60 Million.
To the delight of Red Wings fans everywhere, Alex Semin signed with the Carolina Hurricanes on a 1 year, $7 Million deal. To me this is a great pickup for Carolina, and even though I’m by no means a fan of Semin and this is clearly overpaying for him, he adds some offensive ability to a team that can use all the goals it can get. The Hurricanes have quietly gotten very dangerous on offense this season with the additions of Jordan Staal and Semin; that is until Semin has to play a playoff game.
The morning started off with a bang, obviously with the NCAA making a ridiculous ruling they had no business making. Shortly thereafter, Michigan runningback Fitzgerald Toussaint was suspended indefinitely for getting arrested for a DUI. Following suit, Sophomore defensive end Frank Clark was arrested for 2nd degree home invasion (a felony), and was likewise suspended. I would have to guess that Toussaint will miss the first four games, as his case is fairly straight forward. As for Frank Clark, I’m really not sure what will happen to be honest. Stealing a Macbook Air computer out of the Stockwell dorms was a horrible life choice, and I hope that he isn’t convicted. Hoke has a serious no-nonsense attitude, and I would expect Clark to miss half the year at least, if I had to guess. Then Michigan went out and unveiled new uniforms that they will wear for the Alabama game in Dallas, which can be seen after the jump.
On Monday morning the NCAA set a historic precedent in the world of college sports. They dropped the hammer on Penn State. They fined them $60 Million dollars, gave them a four-year postseason ban, docked them 10 scholarships per year, forced them to vacate all wins from 1998-2011 (making it so Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest coach in college football and Bobby Bowden has now reclaimed the title), put them on a five-year probation, and is allowing any current or incoming player to transfer without having to sit out a year to play. The Big Ten Conference later chimed in that Penn State was ineligible for the Conference Championship game for four years, and that they will be fined what their approximate bowl game revenue would have been for those four years as well (about $13 Million per year). These are huge punishments that have been dropped on Penn State, but don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, this is not as bad as the Death Penalty; it’s close, but not quite. It took SMU 22 years to make it back to a bowl game after the Death Penalty was handed to them, and they had to cancel a second season on their own because they could not field a competitive team. Once the bowl ban is lifted, Penn State will be back playing in the postseason right away. Even though players can transfer anywhere they want right now, not everyone on scholarship will; with the Death Penalty, every single player on scholarship would have left and as history has shown, would have set the program back decades. The NCAA wants you to believe that forcing the University of Penn State to vacate wins was to attack them, but that was a specific action to take Joe Paterno out of the top of their record books, and send him down to 8th all-time (originally reported as 12th, has since been recalculated by ESPN to 8th).
I was supposed to get home on Wednesday night, but a flight delay left me in beautiful Rochester, New York for another night. This wouldn’t have been a terrible thing, if the plastic single mattress in the dorms hadn’t destroyed my back. It was obviously nice to get out of the normal routine, but it’s always demoralizing to see 15-year-old kids that are better at hockey than you.
Only one major thing happened in the hockey world recently, and that was a GM finally sacked up and threw a bunch of money at a major restricted free agent. Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren sent out a 14 year $110 Million dollar offer sheet, which Shea Weber immediately signed. This is extra unfortunate because I always hoped to see Shea Weber in a Red Wings uniform, and this contract effectively kills any shot of that. This contract amazingly gives Weber a lower cap hit than Ryan Suter, so kudos to Holmgren for hammering this deal out. Nashville now has less than a week to match it, and I would be shocked if they didn’t. Yes, it is a ton of money for a player on a smaller market team, but, they will kill their team if they lose their #1 and #2 defenseman in the same offseason. Weber is supposed to make $67 of the $110 Million in the first 4 years, and while this is a killer, Nashville has no other choice at this point. Those four first round picks they will get in compensation will be late first round picks and will not have the same impact that Shea Weber would.
Big news leaked out yesterday on the NHL front, big enough for me to take time out of my schedule in Rochester to write about it. I first read it on the Puck Daddy Blog from Yahoo Sports, and the news was far from good; it sounded like a blueprint for a lockout. The five terms that the NHL Owners had sent to the NHLPA that they want to get done leaked out and they were bad; now granted this is the start of negotiations and as businessmen the Owners are bound to start off with a proposal highly in their favor, but this proposal all but assures a lockout.
The five terms are as follows:
Tomorrow I’m heading off to Rochester, New York for a week to help work the Select 15 hockey camp, so I’m going to be pretty busy. Unless something major happens, I would not expect any posts. Now it will be nice to have a change of scenery, but I am in no way looking forward to being back in the humid climate. Also, go to diehardsport.com and check out Alex Friedman’s blog that I’ve been contributing too, if you haven’t done so yet. It’s a great read with a lot of great articles and I would highly recommend it. Also, keep an eye on foxsports.com, particularly the NHL and College Football sections…occasionally they pick up articles from Diehard Sport, which is always cool to see and a good way to pump my tires.
Coming up on Monday the 16th is the deadline to sign the NFL players that have been franchise tagged to long-term deals. The two most notable players that I’ve been keeping track of have been QB Drew Brees and DE Cliff Avril. There are plenty of other key players that were tagged and have not had a long-term deal worked out, but I haven’t been watching their sagas as closely. Most notably those other players are: RB’s Ray Rice and Matt Forte, WR’s Dwayne Bowe, Wes Welker and Desean Jackson.
The Daily Traub 