I wrote it on the Internet, so it must be true.

Sometimes the problem with posting noxious stuff on message boards and blog comment threads isn’t that recruits will read it.  It’s that somebody will figure out who the author is.  And that’s not a good thing when the author is a sitting judge.

An Arkansas circuit judge has called off his campaign for higher office after he confessed to making what some deemed to be offensive comments under an alias on the LSU fan message board, TigerDroppings.

A political blogger first suggested on Monday (March 3) that Arkansas Circuit Judge Mike Maggio was behind the pseudonym “geauxjudge” in a post on his website, Blue Hog Report, according to The Associated Press. Maggio acknowledged the comments were his on Wednesday (March 5), apologized and ended his campaign for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

Sitting in his courtroom’s gotta be a blast.

“These comments are not a reflection of who I am.”  Is there an Internet troll who doesn’t believe that with all his or her heart?

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More fuel for the fire

Hey, the 10-second substitution proposal has already exposed one fault line among football coaches, so what’s another NCAA rule that might stir some bad blood?

If the NCAA moves forward with an early signing period in college football, it will be staunchly opposed by Stanford coach David Shaw.

“I might be alone in this, I think it’s terrible,” Shaw said following the Cardinal’s spring practice Saturday. “I think it’s terrible. The reason [for an early signing period], in my opinion, is coaches don’t like when kids commit and switch late.”

… “On top of that — and I’ll be honest here, which is rare for a football coach in a setting like this — but we have a lot of kids that don’t know if they’re going to get into school until after that early signing day,” Shaw said. “So we’re going to punish the academic schools just because coaches don’t want a kid to switch their commitment?

“People can make whatever argument they want, it boils down to that. … Coaches don’t want to keep recruiting an entire class all year.”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think there was a divide and conquer strategy in play here, except I don’t think the NCAA is devious enough to pull something like that off and I have no idea what’s to be gained by it in any event.  Still, I figure we’re one lobbying the Conference Commissioners Association story away from things getting really personal.  Again.

This is what short-sighted gets you.

Jeremy Foley, on the potential outcome of the O’Bannon suit:

“To spend a lot of time on what-ifs is not really my style,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who what they do is defend lawsuits and put together whatever arguments they have to put together. I get it’s a really significant issue, but it’s just a guessing game where it ends. I’m sure there will be appeals.”

The reason I give thought pieces like this credence, is because there aren’t enough folks on the defendant’s side of O’Bannon thinking like Vanderbilt’s AD.

“I’m a lawyer and there are times when you gamble and times you try to reach a settlement,” said Vanderbilt Athletics Director David Williams, who teaches sports law. “I don’t know all of the details that the NCAA lawyers know and certainly they know more than I know. But it seems to me this is one where you try to come to a solution and go on about our business because I do think it is a big gamble. The consequences could be very, very large.”

Instead, most of the population is made up of the don’t care types like Foley and the don’t know types like LSU’s Joe Alleva.

On the other side of the spectrum, LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva doesn’t think the NCAA should settle.

“I think the NCAA feels like they have a very good case, but who knows when you get in front of a court and judge?” Alleva said. “If star players could start selling their names themselves and making money off it — selling autographs, selling T-shirts — it could change the landscape significantly for those athletes. It would be market-place driven, obviously. I don’t know what the answer is going to be.”

Coincidently, it’ll be the Foleys and Allevas who will be shouting “why didn’t somebody warn us?” the loudest if things go south.

Of course Hutson Mason knows who Tee Martin is.

Why do you ask?

The art of gentle criticism

Really, David Paschall deserves some sort of mention for the… um, restrained way in which he describes the Hindenburg-like performance of last year’s Georgia defensive backfield here:

Pruitt looks to improve a secondary that was young last season and had to learn on the fly, which resulted in several disastrous moments.

So much for changing the culture

Penn State University Board of Trustees member Alvin Clemens announced his resignation Friday, the Associated Press reported, saying that the Board’s 2011 decision to fire Joe Paterno represented a “rush to injustice.”

At least Mark Emmert got ’em to pony up a few bucks.

For the Dawg snappy dresser…

If, like me, you’re a guy with a gaping hole in your wardrobe and you need something like this to fill it in…

Dockers can scratch that itch for you.

Even better, if you’re cheap like me and that $55 price tag feels a little rich, use the coupon code DOCKERS2012EMAIL should you choose to buy, and you’ll score a 20% discount and free shipping.  It should make for a timely arrival before G-Day.

(And, no, nobody’s paying me or giving me anything for the mention.  Just thought I’d share.)

Sympathy for the devil

See if you can spot the straw man Chris Low builds to better his argument that Nick Saban Will Survive, By Damn.

So regardless of what Saban’s agenda is or isn’t, saying he’s trying to create a competitive advantage for his defense through a rules change is a stretch.

The competitive advantage he has created goes back to the way he has recruited and developed players.

Nobody’s saying Saban’s trying to create a competitive advantage with the 10-second substitution rule proposal.  He’s simply trying to keep the one he’s already got – you know, the one Low references in his second sentence.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But the reality is that Saban’s advantage is hard to construct and expensive to maintain, which is why it’s one that few programs can match.  While that makes it worthy of a strong defense on Saban’s part, it also makes it harder to support if others lacking in Alabama’s resources are able to level the playing field on any given Saturday with greater strategic creativity.