The Dead Season

It's all quiet on the football front. Spring practices and games still two weeks to a month away for most schools.

The NBA, NHL and MLB spring training definitely bring no relief. The only thing that stirs my interest is the NFL combine and random recruiting/coaching.

Let's hit the combine:

• Good Lord! Oregon St. DT Stephen Paea threw up 225lbs 49 times! For those of you paying attention, that's a NFL combine record. I'm not sure how much that will translate to him being a great or even productive NFL player, but it's more interesting than watching baseball players button and unbutton their batting gloves as they wait for the pitcher to get comfortable. 

• In the knucklehead department, QB prospect Josh Portis just DOESN'T get it. Let's recap Portis's collegiate career
• Portis started his career at the University of Florida in 2005, but didn't receive a lot of playing time.
• Portis subsequently transfers to University of Maryland, where he is suspended for cheating on a test. On the field, Portis playing time drops and he eventually transfers.
• Now a starter at the California University of Pennsylvania, Portis excels on the field. Off the field, it's more of the same, in late 2010 Portis makes a deal to avoid a stiffer penalty for theft, stolen property and use of a stolen credit care.

That brings us to Portis at the combine. Portis is complaining that he didn't get a "fair shot" at the University of Maryland. Instead of debating the merits of Portis's reasoning why his academic cheating wasn't a big deal, I'll just go ahead and say Portis doesn't get it. What's "it"? Well, how about staying focused and not getting distracted at the combine? Do NFL execs want to hear a guy of questionable character complaining about the unfairness of his academic suspension? Probably not. I'm not sure where he'll go in the draft, but I can guarantee it's not where he thought he'd go when the 6'4'' highly-touted QB prospect signed his letter of intent to University of Florida. 

The NCAA's High Horse

For once, don't blame Facebook. The Orlando Sentinel reported today that the University of Florida football program faces secondary sanctions because coaches posted messages on a recruit's Facebook wall. According to Orlando Sentinel, Facebook walls are considered "open forums" in which coaches cannot send messages to their prospective recruits. If, however, the coach wanted to send a private message via Facebook, this would be permitted because it's similar enough to the private nature of an email.

In an attempt to defend the policy, the NCAA's associate director of communications, Cameron Schuh, claimed that "NCAA member institutions maintain concern over the level of intrusiveness the recruiting process can create for a high school student who is a prospective student-athlete."

Reducing the level of intrusiveness? Really? Can NCAA officials really say that is something they are really concerned about? I'm sorry, is this the same NCAA that has and continues to increase the number of bowl games almost every season? Didn't they also just increase the number of teams and games in the NCAA basketball tournament? The NCAA isn't really concerned about the instrusiveness that bowl games and NCCA tournament games have on student-athletes' education when they are bringing in sweet cash.

Lastly, if private communications between coach and prospective athlete are permitted, then why is text messaging banned? That's a private form of communication. The NCAA just arbitrarily makes disciplinary decisions and pretends to care about their "student-athletes." I'm guessing they believe that if they crack down on minor improprieties it helps prop up their image as an organization that promotes higher education and intercollegiate athletes. If you believe that though, you also probably think the horse in the picture is real. Also, best of luck to the NCAA if they want to try to keep up with the privacy policies of most social networking sites. It'll be tons of fun to adjust their rules against the rapidly changing nature of social networking.

Law and Order: College Football Style

Short post for me today, but a big day for the mildly threatening NCAA cops. Some schools even decided to take the law into their own hands, just before their "student athletes" managed to embarrass them too much.

Michigan: Denied the Big 10's highest rated recruit, DB Demar Dorsey, entrance into the university at the request of the school's admissions office. Besides being an on-the-field star, Dorsey had the potential to build an all-star "rap sheet" while at Michigan. Demar has already had two felony charges against him, although both were eventually dropped.

Colorado: The NCAA docked Colorado four football scholarships for failing to meet the their "Academic Progress Rate" standards.

Oregon: Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli, who was already suspended for stealing laptops and a guitar from a fraternity, was kicked off the team days after he was arrested for driving with a suspended license and possession of marijuana. (I'm not sure why, but it seems like there are a disproportionally high percentage of stud-athletes who are arrested with either an expired or suspended license. I'm not sure whether there is a correlation between the two. I'm probably a sub-par athlete and I've never had an expired or suspended licence, so I'm going to go ahead and assert there is a correlation.)

USC: Received a two-year bowl ban and was docked ten football scholarships over the next three years. While I'm very happy about this, it still sucks that the NCAA really has no way to punish former USC head coach Pete Carroll. For those of you who are new to college football, Pete Carrol was the head coach at USC while all of the infractions occurred. Further, Carroll conveniently found a head coaching job in the NFL as the NCAA's investigation of his program intensified. The USC scandal really deserves a much more in-depth look, especially since it's one of the harshest penalties the NCAA has ever given, but there are so many other writers who can cover it much better than I can.