Random Thoughts

Lots of football talk for a summer day!

USC gets their knees taken out.... or did they?

Here's kinda the long and short of USC's punishment: they got a beating on paper, but how bad will it really hit them? The 2 year bowl ban hurts, but it just gave Kiffen a 2 year window to lob lolly around and it not matter. The 3 years of reduced scholarships could hurt, but when you look at a lot of teams you start to see that most get about 15 guys they can use out of each class. The other 10 either don't qualify, don't cut it once on campus, or go pro early. If USC continues to have that issue, then it hurts deep and true, but if they get 15 Cali men like they always do, it won't hurt them nearly as much. Now, I can answer the question that most Bama boards will rip into when they read that: "but but but Bama got hurt when they got hit, it will hurt them, you are stupid"....yes, but Bama recruiting was being done by a pair of pussies. As much as it hurts to say, Fran and Shula couldn't recruit near the level that Kiffen/Big O do (and yes they cheat, but nobody has ever busted them). Also, California, like Texas and Florida, can supply you with 15 starters each year. So, time will tell, but I think the fans getting a hard on for the punishment haven't thought it over in any depth. I do wonder how this case and Ohio State are different? Or some of the things Notre Dame has been accused of?

Speaking of, why all the joy over it? When it was our fans suffering, we'd be crying if anyone cheered. I can't recall USC ever singing the praises, hell they couldn't they were rebuilding with Carroll at the time. I'm sure a person somewhere will say a fan of USC's said something somewhere.... Gotta love the Internets, it all gets deleted over time so you can say it and it is almost true..... I think, personally, that the best response from a fan base on the matter is no response. It wasn't fun for us as fans, nor was it fun for the programs, so acting like we get pleasure from others pain is a little dangerous. Besides, they get the right to appeal and it might be dropped down still. I know some fans want to say "it was the probation" that made Fran and Shula fail, and I won't deny it played a part, but it was also them and their lack of discipline, focus, or ability to understand what it took to build a winner. If either were coach now at Bama, do you really think it doesn't makes a difference? If you want to know what level they were, how many were left when Saban won a national title? Not many.

Big 12 minus 9 equals 3 teams that just got raped...

And they were playing "Body is a Wonderland" in the background. I understand why Nebraska told the 12 to suck it. Rewind to the last 10 seconds of this past year's Big 12 championship game, and you get a good example of how the politics are there. Nebraska lost a lot of its ground as the Big 12 "matured" and that didn't sit well with them. I think they will like the Big 10 plus 2 anyways as they can fit in with a group of schools that have tradition similar to theirs. Colorado doesn't have the tradition, but they were always like Arkansas is to the SEC, that other school kinda furthest from. They beat the rush to the Pac 10, or whatever they name it next year. Will they prosper there? Probably not, but they see the future of college football.

The "super conferences" are where the game is going. Dead will be the NCAA, and BCS, and in its place will be 4 conferences maybe a few more that have the power to make things happen. There has long been a growing frustration over the lack of control that Universities have had. That has finally been answered by consolidation. 8 voices cannot find plurality, but 4 can. If you get the Big 10, SEC, Pac whatever, and ACC all on the same wavelength, you have enough heavy hitters to push the BCS and NCAA out of the way. The WAC and CUSA may be extinct if they can't land some weight soon. Is that good or bad? Time will tell, but my gut shot says it will end the constant problem that the BCS creates and force the NCAA to be equal to all for once, or at least more equal than they have been in the past.

I do worry about Kansas. Here is one of the nation's best basketball programs and they are about homeless. Their football program was improving with Manchild, who is now gone over nothing, and they too now are destitute. Baylor may not survive this and be a shell of its former self if it cannot get in with any conference that has the same stature that the Big 12 and old SWC had. I really am not wild about OU coming to the SEC for 2 reasons: 1, they are pretty damn far out there, and 2, they bring baggage of scandals and cheating with them that a conference like the SEC has enough issues with. Texas hasn't got the interest in the SEC because they can't dominate its structure and rules like they are used to. Again, see the last 10 seconds of the Nebraska game. I also can't stand to see Stoops lobby mediocre teams to play games that they really don't deserve.

So what is the SEC to do? Get two or 4 mid tiers? Va Tech, Miami, FSU, and Clemmmpson aren't really SEC improvements when you get down to it. There is no Bowden to make FSU appealing, and Beamer isn't going to be there much longer at Tech. Miami isn't the U any more, and the Tigers are always this year's pretenders. They would make SEC baseball better though, but the SEC isn't about baseball exactly is it? Texas aTm is kinda like Auburn, they are only relevant because they pester big brother (Texa$). Sure Beebs is there and all, but what do they do for Bama and the conference as a whole? Not much. OU would somewhat but again having to listen to another whiny coach is more than the fan bases can handle. Texa$ would but they don't come here unless they can control it because they are Texa$....supposedly that means something to somebody. If they do expand, the West is the shaken side for it. It also will more than likely push Bama and Auburn to the East and leave them playing Florida and Georgia every year. Of course, the alternative is to play the new additions from the West plus LSU. Choose your poison I suppose, but you can make things too competitive and hurt the total brand the way the SEC did for a while.

In the end, the SEC is almost as well off to stay as is and resist the urge to add schools that do not improve the best conference in America. The SEC has been bigger than most conferences for a while, and you can be too big....Pac Man 400 ya hearin me?.....and change too much. If the right combo comes along and it can improve the SEC brand, I say do it, but the names I keep reading (the 4 ACCs, aTm, OU) don't really make me jump up and cheer.

Cheating and Trophies...

Ivan Maisel writes a good article about cheating and being caught after the fact. It isn't like Niekro slinging the sand paper out as the game is going, or instant replay catching a missed call, or a player testing positive for PEDs during the season. The problem with taking back trophies like the BCS title and Heisman is that it unwinds an accomplishment and opens the door to a host of losers to say it belongs to them. You can bet that Auburn and Oklahoma will start chirping about their claim, but you can't replay the game with those players except on XBox and PS2 (sadly, this took so long that both systems are now antiques to the 360 and PS3). You can't give it to one because OU got its ass handed to them by USC by more than just Reggie Bush (who still says he and his family did nothing) and Auburn didn't exactly play anyone to give them that honor...again, VA Tech doesn't help the conference. So does vacating the title help matters? Maybe. But you play the game to have champions, we all like a winner and a finish not a draw or an ending that has no meaning. So, it really is a tough thing to say one way or another. Same for the Heisman, who deserves it if Reggie doesn't? It isn't like Reggie didn't play hard and really play well to not get that honor. It isn't like what Reggie did is worse than what OJ has done in life or Billy Cannon for that matter.

The mess is deep and true, that much is for sure. I do know this, the powers that be need to look at Bud Selig for a litmus test of how to handle the imperfection at hand. The Tigers' Armando Galaraga had a perfect game taken from him, but Selig had the wisdom (for once) to see that if you start tinkering with history and try to "fix" it, you only create situations where it could be worse than what you have.