There are many programs that must replace successful quarterbacks this fall.

A number of these schools have recruited so well that the starter in 2011 is pretty clear.

Virginia Tech is going with Logan Thomas. Clemson will turn to Tahj Boyd and North Carolina is likely to start Bryn Renner.

That's just in the ACC.

Spring is a great time to check out a good quarterback battle, and for a number of reasons, the following have the potential to be some of the best.


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/639053-college-football-2011-10-most-anticipated-quarterback-competitions-this-spring

Only two things seem to be consistent lately in the Iron Bowl, where Alabama and Auburn meet for state bragging rights.

The first truth is records don't matter.  The other is that Bama wins big and Auburn squeaks by.

Since 1970, Alabama has won 13 times by double digits and Auburn has won by double digits only three times.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/638067-football-2011-predictions-why-alabama-rolls-over-auburn-in-the-2011-iron-bowl

Jim Tressel to miss 5 games


Sounds like posturing to still attempt to make a strong Big 10 run if nothing else. But, the NCAA will most likely add more games for the HC in the end.

Matching the players suspension is better but still not proportional. The players did something dumb for free tattoos or whatever they received (rumors are still lingering of goods for drugs).

CJT is not an 18-21 year old kid. He is in charge of setting the standard for the organization around which the entire culture of the program is based. He ignored his duties to act and follow through with his obligation to enforce a standard, he lied either directly or through omission during the initial investigation, and his combined efforts looked to be part of a cover-up simply initiated to protect his star players, the season, and later their bowl game.  I guarantee that had it been a different group of players involved they would have been set and tOSU would have continued to lead the league in self-reporting (when the known impacts will be minimal to team success).

In my mind, CJT's actions from last April (or whenever he found out) through the discovery of the emails that proved his knowledge of the event and led to the current issue at hand were much worse than the actual deed that was done...and (bias aside) definitely much worse than scamming some textbooks through a loophole in the system to help out friends.  Especially, when those events were self-reported and appropriate action was taken to correct the oversight issue and punish the players involved.

tOSU laughed in the face of the NCAA with the 2 game suspension which covered some real powerhouse teams in Toledo and Akron. Now, they have decided to up the ante only after the media backlash revealed it for the BS that it was. I think they know now that the NCAA is going to further increase the punishment.

I assume their hope is that by further increasing the self-imposed penalty  that NCAA verdict will be somewhat less than it would have been had they maintained the laughable 2 game suspension.  5 games is a start, but the whole thing is still  a PR stunt above all else on behalf of CJT and tOSU to feign remorse and try and make it seem as if CJT suddenly wants to "handle this adversity together " with his players.

I’d expect a couple more games tacked on and the vacation/forfeiture of wins from 2010 before it is all done.  I doubt they lose schollies or receive a post-season ban, but probation is easily in their future.

Bowls (and conference revenue sharing programs in general) are big business and are wealth generating machines for both the individual  teams and the conferences as a whole.  The system does seem to favor the weaker schools which contribute very little money, but still get a big payday from their equal share of the final pot of money.  But, over the course of a year and over time, it generally works out well for all teams as they gain access to much more money than they could otherwise attain on their own year to year through multiple sources of income as they are protected from the ups and downs that come with most programs over time. 

I believe that it is misleading to say that a school attending a BCS bowl actually incurred a loss.  Yes, the final payout from the conference shared revenue plan may be less than the total expenses.  But, that is not a loss in a real sense as expenses are paid by the school before its monies are added to the shared pot.

Not to forget, in addition to bowl monies, teams will draw additional sources of shared revenue over the full course of a fiscal year from all football television contracts, the conference championships, basketball television contracts, Conference and post-season Bball tourneys, etc.  Plus, most conferences provide that revenue “derived by the institutions from its local media packages as well as from other conference initiatives are not included” in the shared wealth, so it creates more opportunity for conference members to gain wealth both from the sharing plans and through their own initiatives.

It would not make sense for a school to commit to a conference income distribution plan that divided its bowl payout monies before expenses were paid.  If that were the case, the schools attending the higher end and BCS bowls would always have a loss as it much more expensive to attend those games as the promotion costs involved are much higher (shared advertising costs, obligation to share in expense of ticket sales, etc).  So, some of these teams that have been on long BCS bowl streaks (USC, tOSU, etc.) would be in a hurt locker by now as they would have been bleeding money for much of the last decade every bowl season.

Obviously that is not the case as the universities attending bowls are allowed to retain money to cover expenses.  So, if University X generates 17 million for playing the Rose Bowl and his expenses were 3.5 million.  The amount added to his collective conference distribution pot would be 13.5 million to ensure all expenses are paid.  Then University X is set to receive an equal share from all the after-expense monies gathered from the income of all other conference teams in bowl games.  The final payout to University X may only be 3 million from bowl game generated money  after providing an initial 17 million for the conference which would appear as a 500k dollar loss for playing in a major bowl game, but it is not a loss as expenses are already paid from the initial bowl payout money.  Again, this is my understanding of it (which I believe to be correct and common to all conferences) as any other method wouldn't pass the common sense test from a business perspective.

Joe was never what you'd call a humble person, but most of his talk was lighthearted and quick.  Street talk, really.  A Vanderbilt tackler hit him pretty good when he was a sophomore and, according to our players, said, "Hey, No. 12, what's your name?"

Joe said, "You'll see it in the headlines tomorrow."  On the next play he threw a touchdown pass.

Years later some New York writer tried to get a rise out of him about his studies at Alabama.  He asked Joe if he had majored in basket weaving.  Joe's quoted answer was, "Naw, man.  I majored in journalism.  It was easier."

---

This excerpt was taken from the book "Bear:  The Hard Life & Good Times of Alabama's Coach Bryant", by Paul "Bear" Bryant with John Underwood.  It is available here at Amazon.  If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it.  This story about Joe Namath is found on page 184.

I have to believe the next Twitter will be AD Mike Haamilton is quitting for personal reasons. I guess Pearl will be the scapegoat for all the problems at UT, including Lame Kiffen.



http://twitter.com/withrowzone/status/48161132850069504#



UPDATE

For $5 you get to BE ON THE FIELD, in the locker room, in the press box, etc and BRING YOUR CAMERA!
Tour is M-F 10:00 a.m. or 12:00 a.m.  I think your $5 is given back to you for a frozen yogurt.  The yogurt stand is at the south end zone.
 
Go to:
rolltide.com
 
Click on the tab @ top:
Fan Central
 
Go over to:
Stadium tour request
 
Type in your info and you will receive a confirmation on your email.


http://www.rolltide.com/facilities/bds-tour-request.html

link


Jake Locker has given me reason to question the validity of a Udub edumacation...

Unless this link has some validity: Click here for link   

This is a three page article, so be sure to click the numbers after the page.


Click here to read the rest of the article