NCAA: pay no attention to the organization behind the curtain if schools misbehave.

The NCAA’s defense in the the UNC academic fraud litigation is flat-out embarrassing.

The NCAA reiterated there’s no “viable legal claim” against the association when schools break NCAA rules. The NCAA wrote that it “did not voluntarily assume a legal duty to ensure the academic integrity of courses offered by its member institutions,” and that its enforcement model “creates no legal duty to prevent NCAA members from violating NCAA rules.”

Which totally explains why Mark Emmert went medieval on Penn State’s ass.

Look, I get that lawyers gotta lawyer and all.  That’s not the NCAA’s problem.  The NCAA’s problem is that it’s fighting so many wars on so many fronts that it’s contradicting itself from court to court.  And that’s not the lawyers’ fault.  It’s the result you get when the client is stubborn to the point of idiocy.

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What if this year’s Big 12…

is the SEC?

The conference will still have its quality teams, with Auburn or Alabama or both likely to be in the preseason top 10 when the national polls are released this summer. And the schedule certainly still has the look and feel of the old SEC, a heavyweight bout awaiting each and every weekend.

But every SEC team has at least one potentially fatal flaw that could leave it a loss or two short of the playoffs.

It seems like every program is either breaking in a new coach or a new coordinator or two or a new quarterback. In the case of traditional SEC power broker Florida, it’s all three. The resulting deficiencies make it hard to handicap the Gators as a possible SEC East champion.

Though hopes of national glory may be endangered for the SEC this season, hopes of contending for the conference title will touch more corners of the league than in most years.

The SEC appears to be more wide open than it has been for a decade. In the West, everyone except Mississippi State, which returns Dak Prescott but suffered heavy losses elsewhere, could contend. In the East, Georgia will be the safe preseason favorite, but resurgent Tennessee is the trendy pick. No one expects Missouri to pull off a third straight division title, but those Tigers have as good a chance as anyone in the East.

The flip side to a bigger field of contenders is the prospect the SEC could wind up with its first three-loss champion since LSU in 2001.

And that won’t cut it as far as the CFP final four is concerned.

Boy, I bet that would lead to some major bricks being shit.

More parity can be a beyotch.

What is this talent drain you speak of?

So a player who wasn’t satisfied with his lack of time on the field has graduated and is moving from Florida to Vanderbilt in search of a better opp… wait, what?

Former Vanderbilt quarterback/receiver Josh Grady has landed at Florida.

The Gators announced Friday that Grady has enrolled in classes and will be eligible to play this fall.

Grady graduated from Vanderbilt last week, and the Southeastern Conference approved his transfer.

Grady could play receiver or provide quarterback depth for the Gators, who are down to just two scholarship signal callers following Skyler Mornhinweg’s recent transfer.

The 6-foot, 200-pound senior from Tampa, Grady played receiver and quarterback at Vanderbilt but didn’t see much action at either spot.

He completed 3 of 7 passes for 27 yards, with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He also caught seven passes for 89 yards, and ran 11 times for 20 yards.

I’m sure Boom can explain that if there’s room in the Gainesville Inn for this kid, it’s got nothing to do with him.  Probably it’s because he gets along with McElwain’s dog.

“You don’t have to motivate Nick…”

Swear to Gawd – Nick Chubb is almost too good to be true.