ZachTheZip

Jim Dennison weighs in. Now there's a coach I respect. What's interesting, and has seemingly been confirmed by a few interviews with people in contact with Tressel is that he never had any intention of stepping down until very, very recently. Perhaps it's in preparation for the story SI is coming out with tomorrow. The sh!t will really hit the fan then, and OSU would face the full wrath of the NCAA for not having fired him.

The difference is that UNCC hasn't proven to the average fan that they're a perpetual loser yet. Akron has had 24 years to show to local people that they can't win in the FBS. So people are willing to gamble their money away on UNCC, while people already know they have a losing product with Akron.

I wonder if this scandal will spread to his assistants. I would laugh and laugh if Can't's new coach got implicated in the upcoming investigation.

Lee Owens reccommends Luke Fickell be hired as OSU's next head coach. I still believe that we made a mistake by not accepting Tressel's bribe and hiring Fickell instead of Ianello. I bet Fickell wishes he had a secure job not connected to a major scandal and an athletic department preparing for an NCAA smackdown.

He may be an excellent coach, but he is not a good person. He is a liar who put his personal gain ahead of the wellbeing of his players. I keep hearing the apologists saying he was protecting those tattooed idiots, but at what cost? He is now hurting the players who didn't do anything but outnnumber the ones who did somethign like 5-to-1 (I am certain that in time 5 to 10 more players will be exposed as cheaters with serious NCAA infractions, while the rest weren't considered important enough to get the royalty treatment). He hurt their college football careers, their reputation which is tied to the program, and if program scholarships are lost he will force them to abandon their dream as they transfer out. And for what? So he could get a Sugar Bowl ring?

Ohio State's shifting narrative. Pass the buck, blame the scapegoat. The NCAA will see past it.

The Sporting news has reactions from some of the players they are recruiting. It's no surprise that the out-of-state prospect sees OSU for what they are, but the in-state kids have their blinders on. Hopefully the NCAA comes down with their sanctions soon enough to shake loose some of the in-state support before too many top-talent kids choose to go there. I have to imagine that OSU will at the very least get the same punishment as USC, with the loss of 30 scholarships and a post-season ban.

By the time this is over, he'll have a Show Cause label slapped on him. Nobody in the NCAA could hire him, and anyone who did would suddenly be under a huge amount of scrutiny that would continue until he got caught cheating again or retired. His is a culture that we do not want to bring to our program.

Manny's Pub re-opens. I'm personally more interested in the Hanini's Sub shop opening up adjacent to it.

The SEC is looking into outright banning the practice of oversigning. If it goes through, it would change things in the recruiting world quite a bit. The SEC wouldn't be able to stockpile as much talent, and you wouldn't see around 20 highly talented kids every year forced to go JUCO or transfer to the FCS and instead sign with other FBS teams, something that would affect the talent parity of the entire sport. The SEC presidents are coming down hard on this, despite the protests of most of their ADs and coaches. I think they sense a major controversy brewing and are looking for easy fixes to gain themselves on a better moral standing before the hammer drops. http://www.cbssports.com/#!/mcc/blogs/...895818/29562510

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/bask...ml?sct=cb_t2_a8 I like all of these rule changes. Having an actual painted arc takes away power from the referees who were previously allowed to call charges under the basket however they saw fit. Not having two separate three-point lines on the court will make womens games less confusing for the fans, name changes to flagrant/intentional fouls also helps. If you recall, there were several instances last season where the type of foul called was in question, when the MAC officials decided that lifting Zeke's arms above his head was illegal.

The Orlando Sentinel puts us at #116

The lady Zips made it into the preseason WNIT and should have the opportunity to test themselves against some top teams. Baylor, Notre Dame, and UCLA are obviously the headliners of the tournament but the whole field looks pretty solid. Our roster right now is more talented than I can ever remember despite losing arguably the best player in the history of the program. We were likely brought in as cannon fodder for the big programs, but I think we can surprise.

Four new offers: WR DeShawn Dowdy TE Jake Schwaba ATH Malik Golden OT Adam Pankey

He wouldn't be able to play until 2012, correct? I think that for soccer you can play immediately so long as you've never transfered previously.

New offer: WR Trenton Coles

College baseball is huge in the south. Crowds of 1000+ are fairly common. Check out the top 50 for average attendance last year.

http://blogs.sites.post-gazette.com/index....-park-transfers Devin is a 6'3" 185 lbs combo guard.

Pat Bangston resigns. Now Tom Wistrcill has a choice. If he wants to attract a good coach, he needs a stadium better than the ones dotting the city in the neighborhood parks. He can either draw up some plans to build something on top of the current field or work out a deal to play all our home games at Canal Park.

APR from the 2009-2010 academic year can be found here. They are the only UA program to get hit, and one of only three programs in the entire MAC to have a penalty, the others being the Ohio and Toledo mens basketball programs.

And another walk-on. Jermayne Brooks from Struthers HS. He might also have a future on our track team. All these walk-ons have a pretty good chance to earn a scholarship, considering how we have plenty available. You could call them blueshirts.

New offer: OT Kyle Williamson

Another possible walk-on for 2011.

No one else from Can't, please. That was the thinking behind hiring Bangston, that he could bring some of the winning ways from Can't and OSU, where he was an assistant. As for how much the baseball team has to spend, the number of scholarships is only 11.78 to be distributed to players as either partial or full. It's not that much at all. It pales in comparison to the money they spend every year in early spring on their month-long road trip to start the season. One of the problems with starting the season in mid-february is that we can't really host a home game until half way through the season and we have to spend a huge amount of money on airfare and hotels as we play all across the south. There are no real payday games in baseball.

Watching Duke and ND play LAX today made me realize something. Having a strong spring spectator sport is an important factor in the success of an athletic department. What it does is it keeps the fans involved for two or three months after the winter sports end. It keeps college athletics on the minds of charitable alumni through the year, filling the gap we see at UA between the end of basketball and the ramp-up to football. In another thread, CK mentioned that the football golf outing served that purpose. Baseball could be that sport, but the way things are going it probably will not. Track, Tennis, and Golf don't lend themselves well to spectating fans. So it's either baseball, softball, or try something new. I hope there is some lobbying going on at the MAC HQ to drop the mandatory tag for baseball. Most schools will keep it, but some may choose to invest in another sport to keep them in the minds of fans after March.