Well, duh.

How can you not love a study which, in concluding that the success of a college football team (Oregon, in this case) correlates with a significant drop in male student’s grades there, got survey feedback from male students who said they tended to drink more and study less after a football victory?

The Ohio State sanctions

The NCAA’s refusal to accept the penalties that OSU self-imposed and its replacement of those with something tougher – a one-year postseason ban, loss of nine scholarships over three seasons and a five-year show-cause penalty on Tressel (effectively ending his college coaching career) – makes for a bookend on the day with Mark Richt’s reported violations for being, as Mark Bradley puts it, the coach you want to work for.

Some random thoughts:

• If there’s a measure of consistency between these sanctions and those levied on Southern Cal over l’affaire Bush, it’s only because both schools violated the one rule you can never violate:  buddy, don’t screw with the NCAA.  The Trojans didn’t cooperate with investigators; Jim Tressel didn’t cooperate with anybody.
• That being said, it’s hard to argue with Zack’s point that there’s still no apparent rhyme or reason to how much weight the NCAA gives to a school’s effort at self-sanctioning.  Either that, or the NCAA is getting more sensitive to schools trying to game the system (see note on Rittenberg’s analysis below).
• If Gene Smith is really “surprised and disappointed” with the NCAA penalties, he’s just locked down the title of America’s dumbest athletic director (at least until somebody gives Mike Hamilton another shot).  These guys  – with the help of Jim Delany, remember – bullshitted the NCAA into letting the team play in the Sugar Bowl.  The win may have been taken off the books, but I don’t remember the Buckeyes or the Big Ten cutting a refund check. [Ed. note:  Ohio State did forfeit its share of the bowl proceeds.]  Now, in essence, they will.  As for, “This decision punishes future students for the actions of others in the past”, that’s like arguing you shouldn’t send someone convicted of armed robbery to prison because his spouse and children will suffer.
• Adam Rittenberg’s analysis of Ohio State’s strategy – calculated to the point of being almost cynical – is worth a read.  No doubt some lawyer somewhere is getting alternately chewed out and whined at by Smith and Gee as you read this.

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UPDATE:  Matt Hinton begs to differ with Rittenberg.

Mission unaccomplished.

Negative Grohmentum at work (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)

(Bonus) Shorter Mark Bradley:  Even Todd Grantham couldn’t fix what’s wrong with Tech’s defense.

Tuesday morning buffet

You know the drill – grab a plate and dig in:

• Lots of odds and ends stats on various game strategies in this post at MGoBlog.  Great read.
• Florida’s 2010 top-ranked recruiting class sure ain’t what it used to be.
• Urban Meyer thinks mistakes were made at Ohio State, but “Were they willful, intentful, violations? I don’t believe that.”  Now if only the NCAA agrees with him.
• “I like the way he plays,” Grantham said, grinning coyly.
• A good word put in for all those bowl games.
• Chris Brown manages to write a piece evaluating Alabama’s defense without mentioning Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
• Turn to page five of the NCAA’s Override Summary and you’ll find plenty of haves and have-nots talk from the 109 schools who voted to override Emmert’s pet $2000 stipend proposal.  As Southeastern Louisiana University succinctly puts it, “We are a “have-not.” This rule benefits the Division I “haves” and would widen the chasm between “BCS” schools and non BCS schools.”  Only two current members of Big Six Conferences objected.

Understatement of the season

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but Brandon Boykin, when you’re right, you’re right.

“A lot of things didn’t go our way on special teams this year…”

Warning:  the linked article is not for the faint-of-heart Georgia fan.

The coaching carousel’s next song

First off, sincere congrats to Ellis Johnson for apparently landing the Southern Miss job.  He’s hitting an age where it starts getting hard to grab a head coaching spot, so good for him.

Secondly, is Georgia having a good December, or what?  Almost every school in the East (plus Auburn!) is now having to deal with staff upheaval at a critical time.  I’d also argue that Johnson was as important to South Carolina’s success this season as Grantham was to Georgia’s.  Maybe Spurrier hits a home run with his replacement, but it’s certainly hard to see how he could do any better that what he had.

This is about as good as Charlie Strong leaving for Louisville, if you think about it.  If I’m Mark Richt, I’ll take my chances with that.

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UPDATE:  I’d say this qualifies as too much information.

https://twitter.com/#!/davidbrandtAP/status/149254270032691200

Who knew that being a nice guy was a secondary violation?

But once you cross that threshold, Mark Richt’s bound to be a repeat offender.

And Damon Evans – what a cheap bastard.  Not for refusing to pay out the penny ante stuff that Richt eventually covered (that’s probably Michael Adams’ sanctimonious politics), but for turning it down with the knowledge that Richt was going to go ahead and pay it out of his own pocket anyway.

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UPDATE:  This Gentry Estes piece is worth a read.