The problem with some denials…

In fact, Peterson told Culotta twice that he never even visit the school in College Station, Texas. That would seem to contradict an ESPN report in which Kelly Naqi cites Peterson’s father, Patrick Peterson Sr. as describing his son’s visit to A&M as “a good trip.”

… is that it can be hard to keep your story straight.

(h/t Year2)

************************************************************************

UPDATE: This story doesn’t get prettier with the retelling.

“I visited Texas A&M the other day,” said the 6-foot-1, 193 pound prospect. “My dad and I were in Houston visiting one of his friends and he suggested that we go look at A&M.

Dad’s friend?  You guessed it.

Here is a story I wrote on Peterson visit to #TAMU 3 yrs ago. I confirmed at time the "friend" was Will Lyles. http://bit.ly/fJXj0a

— Brian Perroni (@Perroni247) March 31, 2011

Advertisement

Crazy little thing called love

Thirteen D-1 football teams played in front of more than a million fans last season.

Seven of them were from the SEC.

Wave to the cameras.

ESPN has added Georgia’s spring game to its broadcast schedule.  By my count, that’s seven SEC teams on the WWL’s spring menu, if you count ESPN3.com.

***********************************************************************

UPDATE: And just like that, it’s been removed.  Strange.

A horse of a different color

Michael Elkon asks a question that I’ve asked in one form or fashion many times:

How exactly does one sell the four-month college basketball regular season when the Final Four is comprised of: (1) the second-place team in the SEC East that went 2-6 on the road in KenPom’s sixth-placed conference; (2) the ninth-place team in the Big East that lost seven of its last 11 games (so much for that theory that you can watch games in February and figure out which teams are peaking); (3) a team that was at one point 6-5 in the Horizon League; and (4) the fourth-place team in the Colonial Athletic Association that finished on a four-game losing streak in that mighty conference?

The answer is that the best sale you can make is that it’s a delivery system for a postseason that many people are crazy about.  And I’m okay with that.  In fact, I’m beginning to think that it’s an appropriate arrangement for a sport that for a number of reasons enjoys a far greater degree of parity than others.

That’s why Elkon is right to reject March Madness as a template for college football.  There’s no one-and-done rule in football.  Football is a game where depth separates quality teams far more than it does in basketball.  The level of competitive balance between the two sports simply isn’t comparable.

If you want irony, check out this explanation for the rise of mid-majors in the basketball tourney:

… Mid-major teams are used to playing with one-and-done pressure as early as January and February, understanding that a stumble can kill their at-large tournament hope. If a Big East team has a major slump — like, say, Villanova — they know they’ll still make the tournament regardless.

“I think VCU and Butler played with a lot of pressure in January and February,” Stevens said.

“When you get into the tournament, that pressure may flip a little bit. We’re playing loose. We’re playing for the first time, in a lot of ways, in a couple months where you’ve already been playing, basically where you feel like you can’t lose. So you’re already used to that. The NCAA Tournament is a welcome.”

That’s the college football regular season experience, isn’t it?  Except it’s not just mid-major schools which face that pressure; it’s every single one from the SEC on down.

What is this “law of supply and demand” you speak of?

The next time you hear a college president whine about the rise in coaches’ salaries, remind yourself about Brady Hoke’s contract.

Maybe we give the Jimmy Sextons of the world too much credit sometimes.

Thursday’s scandal buffet: Ain’t No Free

Here’s this morning’s sampler of sleaze:

• Can a bowl get the death penalty?  Matt Hinton and Berry Tramel make good cases for it.
• Ah, I love the smell of back stage maneuvering in the morning.
• Paul Westerdawg makes the case for Auburn’s “money movement infrastructure”.
• The SEC and Auburn want you to know they’re on the mother.
• A former Texas A&M coach claims Patrick Peterson’s services were put out for bids.
• RichRod on the NCAA:  “And I also think it may be a little misguided. I think sometimes, instead of going after the bank robbers, we’re going after the parking violators.”
• Meanwhile, Mark Emmert makes another about face and says he’ll champion getting student athletes mo’ money.  The guy is giving me whiplash.

And I was honestly worried it was going to be a boring offseason.  Silly me.

From his lips to God’s ears…

So much for tamping down the Big John Jenkins expectations.

If only there were a TMZ rumor about Dez Bryant going to Miami…

Here’s a tip:  If you’ll analogize A. J. Green’s receipt of a thousand bucks for selling a jersey to crack cocaine and Dez Bryant getting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry before the start of his junior year to the powdered stuff, the NCAA’s inevitable (lack of) response in the case of the latter will be easier to comprehend.

Todd Grantham, antidote to happy talk.

From Bulldogs Blog:

… Grantham was in midseason mode when asked what the defense needs to do to stop the run better.

“Tackle the runner,” Grantham said.

College football, go take a shower.

There’s a lot of sleazy business disclosed in the Fiesta Bowl’s Special Committee Report, but this is the specialest of all:

For 30 years, John Junker was a glad-handing, canary-blazered shogun of the Fiesta Bowl, the smiling face of that event and its most passionate advocate. So grand was his passion that it overruled his judgment, which is how the 55-year-old came to find himself seated at a conference table, trying to convince investigators there was a legitimate business purpose for the $1,241 he’d charged to the bowl for a visit to a high-end Phoenix strip club on September 12, 2008. (“We are in the business where big strong athletes are known to attend these types of establishments,” Junker said, according to investigators. “It was important for us to visit and we certainly conducted business.”)

 

I can’t wait to try that line out on my wife.

Between that and the lay-for-play recruiting approach Ohio State took with Stanley McClover, you’d think it’s only a matter of time before some enterprising blogger comes up with a sleaze version of the Fulmer Cup.  Nothing illegal, just immoral.  Given the current state of things, keeping track of all that might turn out to be a full time job.