“The university strives to ensure compliance with NCAA rules.”

Ordinarily, I’d say stuff like this shows Southern Cal belongs in the SEC, except the coaches in our conference are generally more careful than that.

Rick Courtright, USC’s defensive quality control assistant from 2016 to 2018, said in the lawsuit he overheard graduate assistants Brett Arce and Austin Clark discuss working with defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast to pay two students with low-level positions in the program to take online classes for the graduate assistants.

The lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court said Courtright later witnessed Pendergast, who is named as a defendant in the complaint along with the school, hand an unspecified amount of cash to Clark.

C’mon, man, that’s what cutout bagmen are for.

Advertisements

Mel Tucker’s guide to Pac-12 relevancy

It’s simple, really.

Step 1. Lobby to get every Power 5 champion a seat at the table.

Step 2. Stop beating each other up in November.

Step 3. Schedule “name” programs out of your league. And, you know, actually beat them.

Don’t worry about making the top conference teams better, just make it easier for the top conference teams to reach the playoffs.

… So what I’m selling now, I’m selling, ‘Hey, the Pac-12 is down, and now it’s our time to get it going.’ But I would love to able to say, ‘All we’ve got to do is win our conference and we’re in.’”

“Give me eight, right?” Tucker continued. “So we can get in and get three at-large (teams), and let’s go. And have the first round (where) you could go on the road (to campus sites) and play. And then, after that, do it like they’re doing it now. Because that really gives you a chance now to get in there. You could lose a game and still get in.”

Good news for Pac-12 coaches, anyway.  The road to hell is paved with Jim Boeheim’s intentions.

Friday morning buffet

Have a little nosh on me.

• You can get odds on Nick Saban’s retirement now.
• When Isaiah Wilson says, “I want to physically beat you,” I believe him.
• The Pac-12 has “multiple bids of at least $750 million in hand from companies looking to become equity investors in the conference.” If one of the conditions for purchase is that Larry Scott steps down, that might be a fair trade off.
• Maryland:  nobody could do a worse job than we did with Jordan McNair’s death.  Garden City Community College:  hold my beer.
• The majority of SEC coaches don’t sound that enamored with the Oklahoma drill.
• From sagging attendance and hefty debt service payments for their upgraded facilities to beer sales, a tale for our times.  Concerning a member of the conference generating the most revenue, to boot.
• More revenue woes:  when Mizzou is bleeding money, it’s the cheerleading coaches who must pay.
• Not a good look when three safeties, including both starters, enter the transfer portal on back-to-back days, West Virginia.
• A sign that you’re getting old:  Mack Brown has knee replacement surgery performed by a former player.

Today, in nice work if you can get it

Pac-12 revenues fell for the 2018 fiscal year, which means per-school distributions dropped about $5 million apiece, while Larry Scott got a bump in his compensation.

Those must be some compromising pictures he’s got safely tucked away, is all I can say.

The exact opposite

College football has seen plenty of stories over the last month about how major programs are suddenly beefing up their scheduling over the long term, so naturally, Larry Scott’s conference is looking at a different approach.

Since Division I split into two subdivisions in 1978, only three FBS schools have refrained from scheduling FCS opponents — Notre Dame, UCLA and USC. That number soon could drop to two.

USC senior associate AD Steve Lopes sat down for an interview with The Athletic on USC’s scheduling philosophy and said the Trojans could soon schedule games with FCS opponents.

“If you start looking at the teams that are available, it’s very limited,” Lopes said. “We’re looking at schools that might not even be FBS, which I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. We may get criticized if and when we do it, but everybody does it. …  Are you going to die on that sword? You can play very good FCS schools that are better than some of the FBS schools you’ll play, the directional schools you’ll play.”

Whatever gets you through the night, Steve.  As long as it doesn’t affect his equity stake plans, Larry’s cool with it.

Too good for their own good

This guy.

#Pac12 commissioner Larry Scott on the league's football scheduling approach, which is consistently the most aggressive in CFB but create tougher paths to the playoff: "It’s pretty apparent our schools do not singularly focus on how to skate through as easily as possible."

— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) May 2, 2019

I don’t think that’s the Pac-12’s big problem, Lar.

“Our time is coming…”

Just a reminder that when it comes to whistling in the dark, Larry Scott is a master.