Jake Corman Scores a Victory

A small one.  But a victory nonetheless.

According to Pennsylvania's Legal Journal, the NCAA has agreed to allow the sanction fine money to be kept in Pennsylvania.

A Pennsylvania lawmaker who recently filed for injunctive relief seeking to prevent the
National Collegiate Athletic Association from dispersing or otherwise dissipating any of the $12 million in fine money already paid by Penn State to the sports association arising out of the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal has announced that the NCAA has agreed to the terms of the litigation.

“Every dollar will continue to go to worthy and valuable child abuse prevention and education organizations, except this way, the connection between Pennsylvania resident funds and Pennsylvania benefits will be clear,” Corman, in a statement, said of the goals of his suit, which asked the court to enjoin the NCAA from using the fine money elsewhere.

The Tower of Sauron Emmert is not quite ready to collapse yet, but I think this is a positive sign of things to come.  If Corbett's anti-trust case survive the motion to dismiss (I'm not sure there has been one yet or if the NCAA has even responded to that suit yet) I think the pillars of sand that the NCAA has built it's castle on will start to sink and the house of cards will fall apart.

In addition to Corbett's anti-trust suit, two Pennsylvania Representatives have petitioned the NCAA to dismiss the ban on scholarships.

In the letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert, U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent and Glenn Thompson wrote that taking away up to 40 scholarships harmed players who had nothing to do with the scandal that engulfed the university in 2011.

"I want to make it clear to the NCAA who they are really hurting with this scholarship reduction. It's not Jerry Sandusky and it's not the university," Dent said in a statement. "They are hurting young people who are completely innocent of anything relating to the Sandusky situation and who through no fault of their own are being denied a chance to get a great education."

In announcing sanctions last July, Emmert drew the ire of some fans and alumni after the NCAA denounced the school for "perpetuating a 'football-first' culture that ultimately enabled serial child sexual abuse to occur."

Penn State historically has had high graduation rates for athletes. Dent cited in his letter NCAA data released last year showing the football team had a record graduation rate of 91 percent, which was tied with Rutgers for seventh best among major college programs. The major college average was 68 percent.

Dent said the statistics showed Penn State places education ahead of football.

"Thus, arbitrarily eliminating 40 scholarships to Penn State is undeniably and inexcusably punitive to young people" not involved with the scandal, he said.

This request sounds good, and I like the continued attack on multiple fronts, but let's face it.  The NCAA is not preventing PSU from offering 40 other "academic" scholarships . . . they are only denying football scholarships.  That said, though, I don't think punishing the players of today accomplishes anything.  The courts will handle Schultz, Curley, and Spanier.  Sandusky has already been dealt with, and the argument to continue beating a dead Joe by punishing the current team, coaches, administrators, professors and fans is really a flimsy one at best.

"Frodo" Corman defeats the evil NCAA . . . our precious stays in Pennsylvania, yes it does.

One Year Ago Today . . .

For some reason, Blogger will no longer allow me to upload any images, so if you want to see what this post would have looked like, head over to The Lion's Den sister site at Wordpress.

If anyone uses Blogger, are you having issues with uploading images?  When I try to upload, I get the usual window, but there is no BROWSE button to allow me to select an image.  Very strange.  Everything else seems to work.

Lights Out in South Bend

Apparently, whenever the Notre Dame football team (or any Irish team) is ranked #1, there is a large #1 lit up over Grace Hall on the Notre Dame campus.

When Notre Dame backed into the number one spot by default, a crack team of engineers was called in to refit the old number one, last used in 1988, with modern electrical bulbs.  In 1988, they had to wire the #1 as it previously was gas-lit.

Perhaps I jest, but the truth remains:  Notre Dame football hasn't been relevant since the World War II era.

Is anyone really surprised by Monday night's blow-out loss to Alabama?  Okay--anyone outside of Notre Dame and their ardent fans?

This is a team that should have lost to Stanford, but continued undefeated thanks to incompetence by the refs.  Pitt should have beaten them as well, but a phantom PI kept the Irish alive to send the game into OT.  They should have lost then as well, but Pitt failed to kick a chip shot field goal that would have sent Notre Dame tumbling out of the top ten.  It still took three OTs for a team that went to the BCS Championship to beat Pitt.  Hello, McFly?  This ain't a good team. 

There was ironic redemption in the first quarter as Notre Dame was the victim of a couple of questionable calls by the referees.  In a way, you could call it payback, but it doesn't help Stanford or Pitt one bit.  And when you look at the final score, 42-14, Alabama didn't need the help after all.

Oregon versus Alabama would have been a more entertaining game.  Notre Dame versus Northern Illinois would have been a more competitive game, but the Irish might still have come up short.

There are only four "independents" in major college football:  Notre Dame, Army, Navy and BYU.  Only the Irish have a special clause to "guarantee" them a BCS bowl berth if the school is in the top 8 of the rankings.

Why is that?

Why is Navy not guaranteed a spot if the Midshipmen end up ranked 8th or higher?

Because Notre Dame won 4 Championships in the 1940's, they are given special consideration for bowl games? 

Why isn't Notre Dame in a conference for football?  We all know the bottom line is they don't want to share their NBC contract with anyone else, but they complain that they would lose historic and traditionl rivalries such Michigan, USC and Navy.  So basically, for reasons that are somewhat obscure, Notre Dame continues to have the flexibility to schedule in the name of tradition at whim, while other schools watch traditional rivalries fade into the past, perhaps where they belong (Penn State-Pitt., Oklahoma-Nebraska,) because of conference commitments and financial constraints.

Seriously?  How can Notre Dame be allowed to continue to hand pick their schedule, and take up space in bowls that other teams, better teams, are more deserving of?

What's the difference between Notre Dame and Frosted Flakes?

Frosted Flakes BELONG in a bowl--and they're GRRRRREAT!