The More They Say, The Worse They Make It
06/16/10 14:59 Filed in: College
Basketball | College
Football
Ah, for the good ole days when the prevailing sound
from sc was silence.
The more the astoundingly arrogant uncle petey has to say, the more ridiculous he sounds, and likely the more the good folk in Seattle are having second thoughts, and I’m sure the more the dunderheads at 60 Minutes would like to burn the film of their blubbery tribute to the impeccable mr carroll from a year and a half ago (see my post “60 Minutes Disgrace - Pete Carroll Love Fest”, Dec. 14, 2008). The arrogance of this idiot - to again come out and say he had neither knowledge of the special treatment afforded his star players, nor of the total lack of institutional oversight of the goings on, boggles the educated mind, let alone the minds of sc students and alumni.
Even worse are the comments now flowing from the mouth of r bush. Lest you forget, the NCAA went out of its way to include in their 67 page report, the statement that “Bush and his family refused to cooperate with the investigation”. Now, bush has the gall, the arrogance, the audacity, to actually come out and say - while continuing to deny any wrongdoing, of course - that now, “all I can do is continue to try to help them and move forward with the situation.” Bush pledges to help USC fight NCAA sanctions. He has also said that he knows that he will not lose his Heisman. We’ll have to see about that.
For all you doubters out there, you have to read the definitive article, detailing the events of the bush-petey-timmy-m garrett years, written by then sc student and now ESPN correspondent Arash Markazi, entitled appropriately, USC turned a blind eye.
The more the astoundingly arrogant uncle petey has to say, the more ridiculous he sounds, and likely the more the good folk in Seattle are having second thoughts, and I’m sure the more the dunderheads at 60 Minutes would like to burn the film of their blubbery tribute to the impeccable mr carroll from a year and a half ago (see my post “60 Minutes Disgrace - Pete Carroll Love Fest”, Dec. 14, 2008). The arrogance of this idiot - to again come out and say he had neither knowledge of the special treatment afforded his star players, nor of the total lack of institutional oversight of the goings on, boggles the educated mind, let alone the minds of sc students and alumni.
Even worse are the comments now flowing from the mouth of r bush. Lest you forget, the NCAA went out of its way to include in their 67 page report, the statement that “Bush and his family refused to cooperate with the investigation”. Now, bush has the gall, the arrogance, the audacity, to actually come out and say - while continuing to deny any wrongdoing, of course - that now, “all I can do is continue to try to help them and move forward with the situation.” Bush pledges to help USC fight NCAA sanctions. He has also said that he knows that he will not lose his Heisman. We’ll have to see about that.
For all you doubters out there, you have to read the definitive article, detailing the events of the bush-petey-timmy-m garrett years, written by then sc student and now ESPN correspondent Arash Markazi, entitled appropriately, USC turned a blind eye.
theHoundDawg
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Poetry in Motion: BCS Schools and Wanabees Vie For Mega-Conferences - This Cannot End Well
06/12/10 23:13 Filed in: College
Basketball | College
Football
Bye, Bye, Big 12; So long, Big 10; Pac 10, I knew you
well.
Right now, they are the Big Nought, the Big 11, and the Pac 11. Tomorrow, they could be anything.
Colorado is now in the Pac [Insert Number of Your Choice Here]. So is Texas. No, wait - Texas is in the SEC! No, That’s Texas A & M. And it’s Texas Tech that’s in the Pac [Insert Number of Your Choice Here]. But aren’t Miami and Florida State now in the SEC? Well, Boise St and Kansas and Kansas State and Missouri are all in the Mountain West, aren’t they?
So if there are going to be four super-conferences and the conference champs play a four-team playoff for the National Championship, where does that leave Boise State? Or will that mean that the Mountain West must also be a super-conference? But won’t that make five of them? Then you’ll need even more conference champs for that playoff.
And how does the University of Memphis fit into all of this:
Right now, they are the Big Nought, the Big 11, and the Pac 11. Tomorrow, they could be anything.
Colorado is now in the Pac [Insert Number of Your Choice Here]. So is Texas. No, wait - Texas is in the SEC! No, That’s Texas A & M. And it’s Texas Tech that’s in the Pac [Insert Number of Your Choice Here]. But aren’t Miami and Florida State now in the SEC? Well, Boise St and Kansas and Kansas State and Missouri are all in the Mountain West, aren’t they?
So if there are going to be four super-conferences and the conference champs play a four-team playoff for the National Championship, where does that leave Boise State? Or will that mean that the Mountain West must also be a super-conference? But won’t that make five of them? Then you’ll need even more conference champs for that playoff.
And how does the University of Memphis fit into all of this:
What seems clear here, is the following:”FedEx CEO Fred Smith has spoken to various conference officials and made it known that his Memphis-based company could provide millions of dollars -- perhaps as much as $10 million annually -- to a BCS-affiliated league willing to offer an invitation to the University of Memphis, multiple sources close to the Memphis program have told CBSSports.com.” CBSSports.com, June 12, 2009.
- The super-conference movement will mean the end of the NCAA was we know it.
- That may work well for football, probably leading to a real national championship playoff system.
- It will be a disaster for college basketball - it could well mean the end of the NCAA Basketball Tournament as it has existed for the past several decades.
- It likely will lead to more and more major instances of failure of institutional oversight and flaunting of rules - with a weakened NCAA or a replacement organization monitoring the ever-powerful schools and conferences, what sc did, and got away with for six years, will be much more prevalent.
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theHoundDawg
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USC TROJANS, RIP
06/10/10 15:04 Filed in: College
Basketball | College
Football
THE REPORT is in, the sanctions have been announced,
and justice, incredibly, has been done.
First, the official penalties:
On Page two of the report, the NCAA went out of its way state that Bush and his family refused to cooperate with the investigation.
So, what did the NCAA say about the brain surgeons’s athletic programs? Here are some excerpts from the 67 page report: [Note: Additional material added at 7:30 pm]
“The general campus environment surrounding the violations troubled the committee. At least at the time of the football violations, there was relatively little effective monitoring of, among others, football locker rooms and sidelines, and there existed a general post game locker room environment that made compliance efforts difficult. Further, in recent years, the NCAA has made efforts to encourage universities to curb excesses in the entertainment of prospective student-athletes making visits to college campuses so as to avoid a perception by prospects of special status or entitlement. Yet, in this case, the committee reviewed information that, during the official paid visit of a highly recruited football prospect, his host - student-athlete 1 [Bush] - did not pick up the prospect until nearly midnight the evening following a home football game and that he was taken out until the early morning hours. There also was information in the record that the assistant football coach knew that the prospect was not picked up until nearly midnight by student-athlete 1 [Bush] and that the prospect was taken to a club at which alcohol was served. These activities and others referred to during the hearing fostered an atmosphere in which student-athletes could feel entitled to special treatment and which almost certainly contributed to the difficulties of compliance staff in achieving a rules-compliant program.”
“During a telephone conversation in late 2004, student-athlete 1 [Bush] informed agency partner A that he (student-athlete 1) was embarrassed to drive his current vehicle, a pick-up truck, and wanted a different vehicle. Agency partner A [agency Bush had agreed to hire upon leaving sc] agreed to provide the cash to purchase a vehicle. A short while later, in December 2004, student-athlete 1 [Bush] located a vehicle he wanted, and agency partner A gave student-athlete 1's [Bush’s] stepfather several thousand dollars in cash for a down payment on the vehicle. Student-athlete 1 [Bush] later contacted agency partner A to request additional money needed to purchase wheel rims for the vehicle. Agency partner A then drove from San Diego to Los Angeles and gave student-athlete 1 [Bush] an additional several thousand dollars in cash. Approximately one week later, agency partner A gave student-athlete 1 [Bush] another sizable cash payment, which the student-athlete used for a car alarm and audio system.”
"In the fall of 2004, while student-athlete 1 [Bush] was competing for the institution, student-athlete 1's [Bush’s] step-father and agency partner A discussed the formation of a sports agency and marketing company featuring student-athlete 1 [Bush] . Subsequently, student-athlete 1 [Bush] entered into an agreement with sports agency partners A and B to establish a sports agency to negotiate future marketing and professional sports contracts. Shortly after the agreement was reached to form a sports agency, student-athlete 1 [Bush] and his family began asking for financial and other assistance from agency partners A and B. Thus, began a pattern of impermissible benefits provided by agency partners A and B to student-athlete 1 [Bush] and his family." Some of what this included was the following: 1) "In January 2005, at the request of the parents, agency partner A instructed his former brother-in-law to arrange round-trip airline transportation between San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a value of approximately $1,200, for the parents and for the brother of student-athlete 1 [Bush] to attend the Orange Bowl." 2) "In early March 2005, after a request from student-athlete 1 to attend a former NFL player's ("former NFL player") birthday party in San Diego, agency partner A contacted agency partner B to arrange for student-athlete 1 to use a room in a hotel near the venue where the birthday party was held. On the night of March 5, 2005, agency partner A provided cost- free round-trip limousine service for student-athlete 1 to travel from the hotel to the San Diego nightclub where the birthday party was held." The biggie: 3) "In March 2005 and after his parents were asked by their landlord to vacate their Paradise Valley Road residence, student-athlete 1's [Bush’s] parents and agency partners A and B agreed that agency partner B. would purchase a property located in Spring Valley for the parents. The written agreement called for the parents to pay agency partner B $1,400 per month (of the approximately $4,500 monthly cost) plus utilities until such time when student-athlete 1 [Bush] would pay the difference to agency partners A and B with money from the income he would earn once he became a professional athlete. However, the parents resided at the property at no cost until April 2006. In the spring of 2005, agency partner B provided the parents with approximately $10,000 in cash to purchase furniture for the Spring Valley residence. In April 2005, the mother of agency partner A ("agency partner A's mother") purchased a washer and dryer for the parents."
“From December 2004 through March 2009, the institution exhibited a lack of control over its department of athletics by its failure to have in place procedures to effectively monitor the violations of NCAA amateurism, recruiting and extra benefit legislation in the sports of football, men's basketball and women's tennis. As a result, three different agents and/or their associates committed violations regarding student-athletes 1 and 2. Particular instances of lack of institutional control were exhibited in deficiencies in the following areas alleged by the enforcement staff: a) monitoring of student-athlete 1's automobile registration; b) monitoring of student-athlete 1's employment at the office of a sports marketing agent; c) involvement of boosters and agents in the recruiting process; d) monitoring the number of countable coaches in the football program; and e) monitoring long distance telephone calls made from the department of athletics.”
Too bad all this come down on sc. They had run such a clean, upstanding athletic department until petey came on board. Oh, wait!. NOT SO: “This was the institution's sixth major infractions case. Most recently, the institution appeared before the committee in June 2001 for a case involving the football and women's swimming programs. Accordingly, USC is considered a "repeat violator" under NCAA Bylaw19.5.2.3. The institution also had infractions cases in 1986, 1982, 1959 and 1957, all of which involved its football program.”
We now await the BCS to remove the brain surgeons from that ill-gotten championship, and the Heisman people to send UPS to pick-up Bush’s stolen trophy. And how long will Mike Garrett have a job?
First, the official penalties:
- Postseason ban in football following the 2010 and 2011 seasons;
- Loss of 30 total football scholarships over the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons;
- Loss of all football victoriesfrom December 2004 through the 2005 season, including the national championship win over Oklahoma on Jan. 4, 2005;
- All statistics vacated for Bush, Mayo and an unnamed women’s tennis athlete in the games which the NCAA deemed them ineligible due to rules violations;
- Bush and Mayo must be "disassociated" from USC athletics;
- The acceptance of USC’s self-imposed penalties on its basketball program, which included a forfeiture of all wins in 2007-2008 and a one-year postseason ban;
- All titles won during ineligible games must be vacated and trophies and banners must be removed;
- The loss of wins in the women’s tennis program from May 2006 to May 2009, for long distance telephone violations committed by a student-athlete;
- A reduction of recruiting days for the men’s basketball program in 2010-2011; and
- Four years of probation.
On Page two of the report, the NCAA went out of its way state that Bush and his family refused to cooperate with the investigation.
So, what did the NCAA say about the brain surgeons’s athletic programs? Here are some excerpts from the 67 page report: [Note: Additional material added at 7:30 pm]
“The general campus environment surrounding the violations troubled the committee. At least at the time of the football violations, there was relatively little effective monitoring of, among others, football locker rooms and sidelines, and there existed a general post game locker room environment that made compliance efforts difficult. Further, in recent years, the NCAA has made efforts to encourage universities to curb excesses in the entertainment of prospective student-athletes making visits to college campuses so as to avoid a perception by prospects of special status or entitlement. Yet, in this case, the committee reviewed information that, during the official paid visit of a highly recruited football prospect, his host - student-athlete 1 [Bush] - did not pick up the prospect until nearly midnight the evening following a home football game and that he was taken out until the early morning hours. There also was information in the record that the assistant football coach knew that the prospect was not picked up until nearly midnight by student-athlete 1 [Bush] and that the prospect was taken to a club at which alcohol was served. These activities and others referred to during the hearing fostered an atmosphere in which student-athletes could feel entitled to special treatment and which almost certainly contributed to the difficulties of compliance staff in achieving a rules-compliant program.”
“During a telephone conversation in late 2004, student-athlete 1 [Bush] informed agency partner A that he (student-athlete 1) was embarrassed to drive his current vehicle, a pick-up truck, and wanted a different vehicle. Agency partner A [agency Bush had agreed to hire upon leaving sc] agreed to provide the cash to purchase a vehicle. A short while later, in December 2004, student-athlete 1 [Bush] located a vehicle he wanted, and agency partner A gave student-athlete 1's [Bush’s] stepfather several thousand dollars in cash for a down payment on the vehicle. Student-athlete 1 [Bush] later contacted agency partner A to request additional money needed to purchase wheel rims for the vehicle. Agency partner A then drove from San Diego to Los Angeles and gave student-athlete 1 [Bush] an additional several thousand dollars in cash. Approximately one week later, agency partner A gave student-athlete 1 [Bush] another sizable cash payment, which the student-athlete used for a car alarm and audio system.”
"In the fall of 2004, while student-athlete 1 [Bush] was competing for the institution, student-athlete 1's [Bush’s] step-father and agency partner A discussed the formation of a sports agency and marketing company featuring student-athlete 1 [Bush] . Subsequently, student-athlete 1 [Bush] entered into an agreement with sports agency partners A and B to establish a sports agency to negotiate future marketing and professional sports contracts. Shortly after the agreement was reached to form a sports agency, student-athlete 1 [Bush] and his family began asking for financial and other assistance from agency partners A and B. Thus, began a pattern of impermissible benefits provided by agency partners A and B to student-athlete 1 [Bush] and his family." Some of what this included was the following: 1) "In January 2005, at the request of the parents, agency partner A instructed his former brother-in-law to arrange round-trip airline transportation between San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a value of approximately $1,200, for the parents and for the brother of student-athlete 1 [Bush] to attend the Orange Bowl." 2) "In early March 2005, after a request from student-athlete 1 to attend a former NFL player's ("former NFL player") birthday party in San Diego, agency partner A contacted agency partner B to arrange for student-athlete 1 to use a room in a hotel near the venue where the birthday party was held. On the night of March 5, 2005, agency partner A provided cost- free round-trip limousine service for student-athlete 1 to travel from the hotel to the San Diego nightclub where the birthday party was held." The biggie: 3) "In March 2005 and after his parents were asked by their landlord to vacate their Paradise Valley Road residence, student-athlete 1's [Bush’s] parents and agency partners A and B agreed that agency partner B. would purchase a property located in Spring Valley for the parents. The written agreement called for the parents to pay agency partner B $1,400 per month (of the approximately $4,500 monthly cost) plus utilities until such time when student-athlete 1 [Bush] would pay the difference to agency partners A and B with money from the income he would earn once he became a professional athlete. However, the parents resided at the property at no cost until April 2006. In the spring of 2005, agency partner B provided the parents with approximately $10,000 in cash to purchase furniture for the Spring Valley residence. In April 2005, the mother of agency partner A ("agency partner A's mother") purchased a washer and dryer for the parents."
“From December 2004 through March 2009, the institution exhibited a lack of control over its department of athletics by its failure to have in place procedures to effectively monitor the violations of NCAA amateurism, recruiting and extra benefit legislation in the sports of football, men's basketball and women's tennis. As a result, three different agents and/or their associates committed violations regarding student-athletes 1 and 2. Particular instances of lack of institutional control were exhibited in deficiencies in the following areas alleged by the enforcement staff: a) monitoring of student-athlete 1's automobile registration; b) monitoring of student-athlete 1's employment at the office of a sports marketing agent; c) involvement of boosters and agents in the recruiting process; d) monitoring the number of countable coaches in the football program; and e) monitoring long distance telephone calls made from the department of athletics.”
Too bad all this come down on sc. They had run such a clean, upstanding athletic department until petey came on board. Oh, wait!. NOT SO: “This was the institution's sixth major infractions case. Most recently, the institution appeared before the committee in June 2001 for a case involving the football and women's swimming programs. Accordingly, USC is considered a "repeat violator" under NCAA Bylaw19.5.2.3. The institution also had infractions cases in 1986, 1982, 1959 and 1957, all of which involved its football program.”
We now await the BCS to remove the brain surgeons from that ill-gotten championship, and the Heisman people to send UPS to pick-up Bush’s stolen trophy. And how long will Mike Garrett have a job?
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theHoundDawg
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SC Rumors Abound - What Will It Be?
06/09/10 21:38 Filed in: College
Basketball | College
Football
SC Verdict Next Week?
05/30/10 11:43 Filed in: College
Football | College
Basketball
