NCAA College Football -

81

Paul Heuerman was not thrilled as a picture of his son spread across the Internet last weekend.

After the Ohio State spring football game April 24, Mike Heuerman and two other high school prospects posed for a photo with a Buckeyes fan in a Columbus restaurant. They later learned the man was a sex offender, which led one of the recruits, linebacker Alex Anzalone, to withdraw his commitment to OSU.

But Paul Heuerman, who played college basketball at the University of Michigan, laughs at those who blamed OSU for the encounter, which occurred during an unofficial visit.

"My son is almost 18 years old, and he's out there in the world making decisions," said Paul, whose older son, Jeff, is an OSU tight end. "If my son were like 10, I think I'd be a lot more concerned. But my 10-year-old wouldn't be alone or by himself."

Though Mike Heuerman, a four-star tight end from Naples, Fla., committed to Notre Dame, he made his pledge before Ohio State learned the man in the photo pleaded guilty in 2008 to downloading child pornography.

"My goodness," Paul Heuerman said, "you might as well blame Urban Meyer for the budget deficit if you're going to blame him for someone taking a picture with a guy in a restaurant."

For Meyer and OSU athletic director Gene Smith, the bizarre saga marked the latest headache-inducing reminder of the scrutiny that accompanies life in charge of a major college athletics program.

Meyer's first five months in Columbus have largely been a public-relations hit at a school that needed a burst of good news after the tumult of 2011. But he has not been immune to criticism, from other Big Ten coaches questioning his recruiting tactics to a Sporting News story that excoriated his methods as the head coach at Florida.

Smith has found himself in the position of defending a coach he believes has done nothing wrong. He said Meyer has done a "marvelous job."

"He, I and others that are fortunate to be in these positions, we understand it comes with the territory," Smith said Monday. "We're blessed to have these leadership roles."

Smith said he was "disappointed" by the Sporting News story, but insisted of the criticism, "I don't let it frustrate me."

"I understand that it's just the world we live in," he said. "You just have to deal with it."

Smith also believes the case of Charles Eric Waugh, the 31-year-old sex offender who contacted dozens of OSU athletes and recruits via Facebook and Twitter, comes with the territory of a major athletics program. He could not comment on Waugh's interaction with Anzalone because it involves an unsigned recruit.

Waugh, of Ashland, Ky., was arrested in his hometown Monday for failing to comply with terms outlined by the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry. Those on the registry are not permitted to use social media Web sites to correspond with a person under 18.

"We have so many living alums and so many people who are passionate about Ohio State athletics and our institution," Smith said. "You always have to be concerned that there is someone out there that is trying to befriend your athletes for personal gain. You have to put up as many firewalls as you can. You have to educate and educate your fans and athletes."

Paul Heuerman, for one, is not losing sleep over the photograph.

"I wasn't happy about it," he said, "but it could happen tomorrow again. Imagine how many times Lebron James poses with people. Who knows what all their backgrounds are? He could have convicted murderers, rapists. All he knows is he's walking and somebody asks, 'Can I take a picture with you?' "

81

good read on the big ten and the rose bowl

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--big ... imURE5nYcB

:fp:

The Fixer

81 wrote:

good read on the big ten and the rose bowl

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--big ... imURE5nYcB

:fp:

pretty funny. the big 10 is such a joke

norm

Statement from BCS commissioners: "We have developed a consensus behind a 4-team seeded playoff."


:fp:

Heisenberg

norm wrote:

Statement from BCS commissioners: "We have developed a consensus behind a 4-team seeded playoff."


:fp:

I vote that Norm is no longer allowed to post in this thread because he may say something foolish like "go blue". There is no place in college football for obscenity like that. Kat can we make this happen please?

norm

Heisenberg wrote:

norm wrote:

Statement from BCS commissioners: "We have developed a consensus behind a 4-team seeded playoff."


:fp:

I vote that Norm is no longer allowed to post in this thread because he may say something foolish like "go blue". There is no place in college football for obscenity like that. Kat can we make this happen please?

and i'm a bigger USC fan!

:wave:

Heisenberg

norm wrote:

Heisenberg wrote:

norm wrote:

Statement from BCS commissioners: "We have developed a consensus behind a 4-team seeded playoff."


:fp:

I vote that Norm is no longer allowed to post in this thread because he may say something foolish like "go blue". There is no place in college football for obscenity like that. Kat can we make this happen please?

and i'm a bigger USC fan!

:wave:

Good lord...can we get this poor bastard some counciling? :fp:

norm

thought you'd like that

Jason P

81 wrote:

good read on the big ten and the rose bowl

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--big ... imURE5nYcB

:fp:

It gives Big 10 fans a chance to see some sunlight and warm weather. I like the move. Although my team only gets there about once every 40 years.

81

Jason P wrote:

81 wrote:

good read on the big ten and the rose bowl

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--big ... imURE5nYcB

:fp:

It gives Big 10 fans a chance to see some sunlight and warm weather. I like the move. Although my team only gets there about once every 40 years.

i'd rather have home field advantage....sun be damned.

norm

Beginning with the 2014 regular season a four-team playoff will decide college football’s national champion, with participants chosen by a 15-member selection committee after the final week of play.

Rejoice! After months of hovering and circling, the 12 BCS commissioners and 12 university presidents of the presidential oversight committee have officially stamped the BCS with an expiration date — Jan. 8, 2014.

That’s the day after the final BCS National Championship Game, which, ironically, will be held in the Rose Bowl — the site of the bowl that has proven a major sticking point in the long history of playoff proposals and debate in college football.

In the BCS’s place, the commissioners and presidents have completed work on a four-team playoff system that will take place a little more than a week.

More to come, obviously.

The two semifinal games will be held at two of six first-tier bowls each year.

A non-traditional host will stage the national championship game, much like the BCS National Title game had no “bowl” affiliation. This title game, however, will be bided out year-to-year, as the Super Bowl is

LloydXmas

:corn: :corn:

fuck yes.

81

LloydXmas wrote:

:corn: :corn:

fuck yes.

just saw that.

pureoc

81 wrote:

Jason P wrote:

81 wrote:

good read on the big ten and the rose bowl

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--big ... imURE5nYcB

:fp:

It gives Big 10 fans a chance to see some sunlight and warm weather. I like the move. Although my team only gets there about once every 40 years.

i'd rather have home field advantage....sun be damned.

Completely agree. The Big Ten's love affair with the Rose Bowl is ridiculous. Semi-final games on campus would be unbelievable, especially one in Big 10 country in the snow, the way football is meant to be played, not in a fn' dome! But of course it's all about money, so the bowls will continue and fans will continue to have to open their pocket books or just not go.

norm

Why I don’t like playoffs for college football

I wasn’t going to write much about the new four-team playoff. Maybe it’s the ennui of the offseason setting in, but the prospect of rehashing all the same arguments one more time just wasn’t very appealing.

What finally spurred me to write something was seeing the NFL Networks’s “Top 10 Traditions” show on Thursday night.

The NFL’s ‘great’ traditions included such time-worn nuggets as ‘Cheerleaders’, ’Mascots’ ‘Tailgating’ and , lo and behold, the ‘pre-game flyover.’ Did you know that pre-game flyovers are an NFL tradition? Neither did I. But Brett Michaels of Poison fame and various other human debris showed up on the network to tell us all about it.

This horrible show reminded me of what’s at stake here. The advent of a playoff carries the danger of turning college football into a pale imitation of the NFL which, to me, would be the worst fate imaginable for such a unique and interesting sport.

I don’t want to rip The League too much. It has its charm and it’s obviously very popular. But it’s a product first and a sport second. It has a brilliant marketing strategy that has figured out how long it takes for someone to go to the bathroom during a commercial break. A large portion of its fan base follows the sport purely for fantasy league purposes. The Super Bowl is a social event centered primarily around gambling. The league as we know it began in 1970 and, like almost everything else created after that date, it gravitates toward tackiness, soullessness and self indulgence.

College football shouldn’t lurch toward that model and I don’t think most fans want that either. While I don’t doubt that some do want it and that others don’t care one way or the other, I’m not convinced they have the best interests of the sport at heart.

Don’t get me wrong. Even a traditionalist such as myself isn’t mortally opposed to this four-team format. But I’m also a realist. The new system does not actually solve anything when it comes to picking a champion. It just expands the playoff pool. There is still a poll, except now we will call it a selection committee. There will still be subjective judgements that lead to major disagreements, with teams crying over being left out or discriminated against. And, if history is any indication, the answer to this problem will be an expansion of the playoffs, first to 8, then 12, then 16 and so on. Eventually, the regular season will be virtually meaningless and college football will be nothing more than NFL-lite. Congratulations.

[Future reporter to future player: "What's your goal this year? Player: "Same as it is every year. To go 9-3, win our division and make the playoffs."]

Some people will welcome that expansion and have no problem with it and even push for it. My first instinct is that they should be kept as far away from college football as possible. My second instinct is that many of them probably like college football, but they don’t like it quite as much as the NFL or basketball and therefore the history and traditions that so many fans hold sacred don’t mean as much to them.

I grew up watching the old bowl system and it never once occurred to me back then that there was anything wrong with it. College football wasn’t about this ravenous quest for a national title and television rights, but about beating your rival, going to the big bowl game, hanging out on campus before the game and singing the fight song. Oh, sure, the polls came out at the end of the year and people argued all offseason about how their team got shafted in one way or another. But your team was still the best and your rival still sucked no matter what happened.

It was fun.

Somewhere along the way, that was all dismissed as inadequate. Think of all the money to be made if we can come up with a new way to crown a champion, they said. Revenue streams was the mantra. And so the BCS–essentially a two-team ‘playoff’–was created. Old rivalries died. Conferences broke up. Bowls lost their importance. The sport became more popular even as dissatisfaction with the postseason grew, mostly because it titillated fans’ natural paranoia about injustice, conspiracy and corruption (feelings many in the playoff-hungry media were only so happy to stoke).

Now the solution to the old ‘problem’ is a four-team playoff that is replete with the same issues that dogged the two-teamer. It’s just that no one will admit it because it’s more important to them that the camel’s nose of the playoff has finally been snuck under the tent. Besides, we all know it’s only temporary, even if the contract is for 12 years. Some are already pining for an eight-team affair, but I think any move in that direction would be a huge mistake.

My stance is that if we are going to create an imperfect way of crowning a champion, we should do so while holding on to as much of college football’s history and tradition as possible. It is this history and tradition, as well as the connection that alumni and fans and small towns have to their teams, that makes the sport special.

But if a small playoff leads to a bigger playoff and therefore to an end to the sanctity of the regular season and disruption of these traditions, then the sport as we know it is finished. Do I trust that the powers-that-be and their willing allies in the media will prevent this from happening? I do not. Do I think we should take this gamble? No.

So if we are going to have an imperfect, unsatisfying championship process that degrades the value of the regular season, then we might as well go back to the old bowl system. It may have been imperfect, but in many ways it was far more appealing than what we’ve been dabbling with of late.

I’m under no illusion that we can recreate some lost college football arcadia–some change will always be necessary–but we can certainly be more mindful of the direction we are taking.

Otherwise we might wake up one day with a 16-team playoff…and Poison performing at half time instead of the marching band.
http://heismanpundit.com/2012/06/29/why ... -football/

81

norm wrote:

Why I don’t like playoffs for college football
blah blah blah

bring on the playoffs.

norm

81 wrote:

norm wrote:

Why I don’t like playoffs for college football
blah blah blah

bring on the playoffs.

right here...enjoy

http://www.nfl.com

Wobbie

Georgia RB Isaiah Crowell dismissed after weapons charge

(US Presswire)

About 12 hours after running back Isaiah Crowell was arrested on three weapons charges, coach Mark Richt announced the former No. 1 recruit in the country had been dismissed from the team.

"We have a dedicated and committed group of men who are working hard to prepare for the coming season," said Richt in a statement. "Our total focus will be directed toward the team and this effort."

Although the statement was brief, it didn't seem to leave room for Crowell to return.

According to the Athens Clarke County booking report, Crowell was arrested by Athens police at 3:37 a.m., at which time he was booked into the Athens Clarke County jail. The county's online jail booking report states Crowell bonded out at 12:44 p.m.

A police spokesman told UGASports that Crowell's arrest came following an early-morning stop at a police checkpoint on East Campus Road and Green Street on the Georgia campus. Four other individuals were in the car, but they were not arrested.

According to the spokesman, Crowell's car was stopped at 2:20 when an officer reported smelling the odor of marijuana. Crowell's car was searched, no marijuana was found but police did locate a 9-mm Luger handgun with the altered serial number. The gun was found under the driver's seat.

Two of the charges were felonies and the other was a misdemeanor and Crowell was originally booked on a $7,500 bond, which was raised to $9,500.

However, being dismissed from the Georgia football team might be the least of Crowell's problems. According to ESPN's Mark Schlabach, Crowell could face severe charges for his gun possession.

"Crowell facing 2-5 yrs on gun in school zone charge & 1-5 yrs on altered serial numbers, according to Georgia sentencing guidelines"

Because of potential jail time, it's hard to speculate where Crowell might try to restart his career. He rushed for 850 yards and five touchdowns in an injury-riddled first season with the Bulldogs.

But he also had trouble following the rules. He was suspended for the Vanderbilt game on Oct. 15 for unknown disciplinary reasons and again for the Nov. 5 game against New Mexico State for failing a drug test.

As of right now, this is an unfortunate end to what could have been a promising career.

norm

imalive wrote:

According to the spokesman, Crowell's car was stopped at 2:20 when an officer reported smelling the odor of marijuana. Crowell's car was searched, no marijuana was found but police did locate a 9-mm Luger handgun with the altered serial number. The gun was found under the driver's seat.

tybird

imalive wrote:

Georgia RB Isaiah Crowell dismissed after weapons charge

(US Presswire)

About 12 hours after running back Isaiah Crowell was arrested on three weapons charges, coach Mark Richt announced the former No. 1 recruit in the country had been dismissed from the team.

"We have a dedicated and committed group of men who are working hard to prepare for the coming season," said Richt in a statement. "Our total focus will be directed toward the team and this effort."

Although the statement was brief, it didn't seem to leave room for Crowell to return.

According to the Athens Clarke County booking report, Crowell was arrested by Athens police at 3:37 a.m., at which time he was booked into the Athens Clarke County jail. The county's online jail booking report states Crowell bonded out at 12:44 p.m.

A police spokesman told UGASports that Crowell's arrest came following an early-morning stop at a police checkpoint on East Campus Road and Green Street on the Georgia campus. Four other individuals were in the car, but they were not arrested.

According to the spokesman, Crowell's car was stopped at 2:20 when an officer reported smelling the odor of marijuana. Crowell's car was searched, no marijuana was found but police did locate a 9-mm Luger handgun with the altered serial number. The gun was found under the driver's seat.

Two of the charges were felonies and the other was a misdemeanor and Crowell was originally booked on a $7,500 bond, which was raised to $9,500.

However, being dismissed from the Georgia football team might be the least of Crowell's problems. According to ESPN's Mark Schlabach, Crowell could face severe charges for his gun possession.

"Crowell facing 2-5 yrs on gun in school zone charge & 1-5 yrs on altered serial numbers, according to Georgia sentencing guidelines"

Because of potential jail time, it's hard to speculate where Crowell might try to restart his career. He rushed for 850 yards and five touchdowns in an injury-riddled first season with the Bulldogs.

But he also had trouble following the rules. He was suspended for the Vanderbilt game on Oct. 15 for unknown disciplinary reasons and again for the Nov. 5 game against New Mexico State for failing a drug test.

As of right now, this is an unfortunate end to what could have been a promising career.

Making Steve Spurrier look like a prophet.....did not want to move SC's game against Georgia to later in the season because you could always count on them having a couple of players suspended for the first couple of games each year.