But… but… we had a deal!

Looks like buyer’s remorse has set in.

At least four Penn State Board of Trustees members intend to file an appeal Monday afternoon with the NCAA over sanctions levied against the university after the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal because they say the NCAA did not give the school due process in meting out its punishment.

Trustees and a person with first-hand knowledge of the discussions said the move is a precursor to a federal lawsuit asking a federal judge to invalidate the sanctions, because trustees expect the NCAA to reject the appeal.

The trustees are also trying to determine whether university president Rodney Erickson had legal authority to sign a consent decree agreeing to the package of sanctions — a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban, scholarship losses and the vacating of wins from 1998 through 2011.

Erickson signed a consent decree with the NCAA after consulting with Board of Trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz and university counsel, but he did not bring the decree to the full board for review or a vote.

Sounds messy.  Which shouldn’t be unexpected when you’re in a hurry to push a settlement through.  As for the chance of success, it’s not like the NCAA doesn’t lose in court, but you don’t exactly have the most sympathetic plaintiff in the world either.  In any event, it’ll keep things in the public eye – which is what I thought the settlement was supposed to help avoid.

Advertisement

“We’re going to move him all over the place.”

Yeah, on one level this sounds all clever and mad-scientisty, but I can’t help but wonder how good Jadeveon Clowney is in pass coverage.

Sometimes, being the last conference standing can pay off.

If this story is accurate, that’s a knee to the nuts of Pitt and Syracuse, ain’t it?

Who’da thunk the only other conference besides the SEC with a national broadcast contract would be… the Big East?

Quarterbacks will be quarterbacks.

It’s a South Carolina tradition, y’all.

“Tanner’s back,” Spurrier said. “He’s been approved to come back to the team.”

So no game suspension?

“Do you know what he got arrested for?” Spurrier said. “He told me … I think South Carolina doesn’t have that law. North Carolina has that law (about underage people not being allowed to drink any alcohol at all before driving). He got arrested for it, and he’ll pay his fine. You want him suspended for having a beer and he’s underage? How many football players would be playing if they had a beer and they were underage? But anyway, go talk to coach Tanner (athletic director Ray Tanner) about that, if we’re going to suspend him, OK? I’m not going to suspend him for that, all right? But I don’t know if he’s going to play anyway.”

Hell, at this point, Spurrier ought to consider using this on the recruiting trail – “son, if you come to South Carolina, you can have a few beers now and then…”.  Kinda like making Mike’s Hard Lemonade out of lemons, so to speak.

Monday morning buffet

Clearing the decks with a bunch of stuff I didn’t get to over the weekend:

• Nick Saban is already in mid-season form in his media relations.
• Todd Grantham’s response to the question that is asked about the 1:00 mark in this clip is priceless.
• Mike Huguenin likes, but doesn’t love, Georgia’s chances this year.
• Jerry Hinnen, on the other hand, thinks the Dawgs will go as far in the SEC East as their offensive line takes them.
• Matt Melton makes a good point in his SEC preview:  if Vanderbilt has a successful 2012 season, how many people are going to knock that down because of its relatively easy schedule?
• Phil Steele looks at how often underdogs win their games outright.
• He also looks at home field edges.  Georgia is ranked 12th (fifth best in the SEC).  Georgia Tech is 41st.
• College Football by the Numbers is back with a bunch of stuff on a number of topics:  how much a kicker is worth (Georgia at minus-4.6 points last season is no surprise, but ‘Bama at minus-5.1 is; also, check out Missouri’s number); what a running back is worth; and average starting field position (Georgia last season was a surprising tenth, and tops in the SEC).
• The Mario Mathis/Ole Miss story sounds like it’s more complicated than what Michael Carvell was told.
• Good catch by Barrett Sallee about the Brandon Smith situation.