Happy Valentine's Day!!!

And because your pals at the NCAA love you, they've given you the most awesome gift of all!

Rule 3-2-5e has been repealed!

Instead, we're going to try these things to "speed the game up"

Limit the play clock to 15 seconds following a television timeout.
Kickoffs moved from 35-yard line to 30-yard line.
Reduced charged team timeouts by 30 seconds.
Penalties for all kicking team fouls that occur during the kick can be enforced at the end of the run.
Encourage coaches, officials, game management personnel, media partners to manage the game in a more efficient manner.
Play clock is started when the ball is handed to the kicker by the umpire on all free kicks.
Limit instant replay reviews to two minutes to decide to overturn or confirm the ruling on the field.

Of course, there's also the idea of not having so many freaking commercials, but let's celebrate small victories, shall we?

Hope is a good thing... maybe the best of things

Well, there's good news.

Even as we speak, er, type, the NC2 rules committee is meeting in Albequerque (took a wrong turn there once) to discuss changes for next year.

Seems like the stupid clock rules may be out the door or tweaked significantly. Thanks be to God.

As always, the fantastic Wizard of Odds has the full details.

Character Education

Yesterday was National Signing Day for college football prospects, and there's a lot out there on the internets and ebays about this process. Don't look at me... use Google, for heaven's sake.

Quick thoughts:
1) I'm creeped out by the amount of attention that we pay to high school athletes- 17 year olds- in this process. But, given that ESPN is televising HS B-Ball games, I think it will probably get worse.

2) This year, there were a lot of verbal commitments that went out the window; the Detroit News has a good article about the impact that this has and what this implies. But again, we shoudn't be surprised at this.

3) Given that we're talking (allegedly) about Insitutions of Higher Education, what does this mean about the values of these places and what persons involved with them are teaching?

Like I was $aying

Remember the frustration that we've had with the new college game clock rules, and the impact that it had on the game? Remember the speculation that this had little to do with 'the game' and more to do with revenue? Remember the speculation that an easier way to speed the game up would be to cut out commercials?

Well, now there's more proof. From the Wizard of Odds comes a great article about how CBS actually added commercials to their broadcasting with the time freed up from the new rules. No one should be surprised...

Remember folks, if you want to get to the bottom of things- follow the money.

Habla USC?

The LA Times has an interesting story about grade creation/inflation and USC athletics. You can check it out here:

Summertime, and the grading is easy

I'm not surprised that the famous "USC Song Girl" was on the list of students who's grades are in question- she doesn't seem like the brightest bulb, if you know what I mean. I also wonder if that's where Reggie Bush took his ethics class??