Posts from the Ncaa Fb Scandal Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

I like Erin Andrews. She's blonde and pretty and as my colleague Brian Cook so eloquently put it, she's not terribly annoying. But to date I've managed to safely avoid the whole weird stalker thing if you don't count the whole "Why Did Herbstreit just call her Poopsie?" thing.

Others? Not so much.

If giving further oxygen to the "Erin Andrews + male admirers" phenomena is your bag, however, we've got great news: you can now own your very own Mr. Erin Andrews t-shirt.

How long before someone gets their mug wearing this shirt blasted all over SportsByBrooks, FanHouse, etc. doing something stupid in the presence of the poor Ms. Andrews? Or at least, Photoshopping themselves doing something stupid. My money's on: not long.

(Via: Hot Clicks)

As someone who's advocated for the summary execution of athletic directors who schedule eight home games, three against virtual or actual I-AA teams, and desperately pleaded for any sort of intercession from the NCAA that would stop the constant flow of exploitative non-games, this is my favorite sentence ever:

There is no way to legislate against this kind of escalation.

That's from Duke AD Kevin White, late of Notre Dame, and it's one of the centerpiece quotes in a USA Today story on the rising costs of screwing over fans by scheduling uncompetitive games against tomato cans.

All of us in the cheap slightly less preposterously expensive seats have so much sympathy. Almost as good is an unnamed but "top" athletic director claiming that the prices of non-conference guarantee games are rising at a "fairly alarming rate." Also rising at a fairly alarming rate: non-conference guarantee games that will have halftime scores of 56-0.

"No way to legislate against this kind of escalation." Here's a way to legislate: schedule actual home-and-homes against respectable opponents instead completing the "Tennesee-RANDOM CITY" tour. Here's some more "woe is me" from Georgia's athletic director:

"You talk about coaches salaries skyrocketing," said Georgia athletics director Damon Evans, "now the guarantees are just skyrocketing."

Hey, it's what the market will bear, right? Just like my $120 ticket to see Michigan-Toledo this fall.

Fans everywhere should be tickled pink by this article, as the skyrocketing costs of guarantee games will help encourage power teams to schedule each other or, failing that, interesting mid-level BCS teams. In conclusion, everyone quoted in this article can go to hell.

Strange, weird, disturbing news from Oxford, Ohio this weekend, as lineman Zachary Marshall is arrested for "aggravated burglary, burglary, and assault." Sure, those are strongly negative crimes to commit in and of themselves, but the details are of the sort of stuff you'd rather your kids didn't read. Observe:

Police at Miami of Ohio say [Marshall] has been accused of going into two unlocked dormitory rooms this month and holding a pillow over the face of a female student sleeping in one of the rooms.

Dude.

The level of perversion that must occur within a human brain before such a course of action even becomes considerable, much less actionable, is profound. For the sake of Mr. Marshall, we hope he seeks help. Rather quickly, at that.

One last detail that ought to delight fans of cosmic karma: the immediate aftermath of the incident. Cincinnati Enquirer, hit it:

The female victim "was really instrumental in putting this together," McCandless said.

Even though she is much smaller in stature than her alleged attacker, "she punched him and more or less chased him down the hallway," the chief said. "That should speak volumes for her tenacity."

And volumes more about Marshall.

[UPDATE: As the commenters have informed us, the landscape of this story has changed quite substantially. Read more here.]

Bobby Bowden is close to last on the list of people to know what's going on with his football team.

The last: his staff. Which obviously includes "Head Coach In Waiting" Jimbo Fisher.

And that doesn't particularly bother him.

As long as he doesn't know about it, and didn't have anything to do with it, the actions of his players are apparently of no concern to him.

Sound incredible? If you find it hard to believe that a head coach of a national football power could say such a thing, you're not alone. But you can easily imagine Bowden's familiar southern drawl as he speaks on FSU's academic cheating scandal:

Q: There was an academic cheating scandal at Florida State that involved a significant number of football players. As the head coach how did that affect you and did you feel responsible?

A: It didn't bother me because I knew there was no involvement by me or my staff. But I didn't know about it until the president told me. My staff didn't know about it until I told them. I know some people will say 'you're the head coach' but there are a number of things like this that the head coach does not know.

So many levels... so many layers. Where to begin?

(Former?) Florida safety Jamar Hornsby is in trouble. Trouble with the law, yeah. But you have to wonder about the soul of this guy -- this is pretty disturbing stuff.

Florida football players wear a black circle on their helmets with the word "Sunshine" on them. Purpose: honor the memory of fallen teammate Michael Guilford, who died in a motorcycle accident last October. That accident also claimed the life of his passenger, Ashley Slonina, who was reportedly the girlfriend of cornerback Joe Haden.

Somehow, in the aftermath of the accident, Slonina's credit card found its way into Hornsby's hands. EDSBS claims Hornsby stole the card when he was helping Haden clean out Slonina's apartment shortly after she died. Precisely however or whenever Hornsby managed to pilfer the plastic is not officially known, but what we do know is that Hornsby used the card 70 times, the first being the day after Slonina's death, and racked up $3,000 worth of debt for Slonina's grieving parents over the course of the past six months.

When a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, Hornsby surrendered himself, was briefly jailed, and subsequently released "own his own recognizance." His status with the football team is uncertain at this point.

To paraphrase the Great and Glorious Leader Josef Stalin* , "One NCAA violation is a tragedy. Twenty million violations is a statistic." Okay, maybe he didn't say that. But the sentiment is correct; after all, NCAA violations are like stab wounds: the first one is the most calamitous, and anything over five is overkill.

To that end, we present Alabama State University, located in Montgomery, Ala. The Hornets are a I-AA football program, part of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. They enjoyed a 10-2 season in 2004, but generally they hover around the .500 mark. So let's recap: lower subdivision, not particularly great, nothing much to see here move along move along off we go now. There is, however, one pesky detail about the Hornets that we neglected to mention: GIANT HONKING ILLEGALITY.

Indeed, the NCAA announced allegations of unholy amounts of misconduct at the University, to the tune of--this is actually true--668 violations. 24 different rules were broken, which has to be some kind of record. Among the infractions listed are hundreds of instances of ineligible student-athletes using training facilities and several grades changed without the professor's permission. Apparently you can't do that. Who knew? Oh, the entire world except for Dennis Erickson? Righty-o, then.

The NCAA, never one to miss the opportunity to state the blindingly obvious, also charged ASU with a "lack of institutional control." That's just piling on. That's like sitting here and accusing Michael J. Fox of a "lack of hand-eye coordination control."

In short, bravo, Alabama State. If SMU's misbehavior was a bottle of warm well whiskey, you have just opened up a case of Wild Irish Rose. Drink, Hornets! Drink from the foul spring of misconduct!

*In case you didn't know, we're all hardline Stalinists at Fanhouse. It's part of the entrance exam.

LSU's fantastic quarterback talent, Ryan Perilloux, has finally been dismissed from the team:

Head coach Les Miles says that Perrilloux "didn't fulfill his obligation as an LSU student-athlete." He is declining additional comment.

LSU said Friday that Perrilloux is expected to finish out the spring semester at the school.

Thus ends a tumultuous, occasionally brilliant, and often frustrating tour in the bayou for Perilloux, who led LSU to a victory over Tennessee in last year's SEC title game. Perilloux was slated to start in 2008.

What did Perrilloux in? Simply put, it was his nose for trouble. Perrilloux was suspended no less than three times in the past 12 months, and was becoming a major distraction for the team even in the off-season when he was late for team practice, suspended, and then reinstated.

Despite his talent, Perrilloux would have been a poor senior leader for LSU. FanHouse is pleased with Les Miles' decision: despite forcing Tiger fans to endure a season without one of their key playmakers, Miles is sending a signal that LSU football is more important than one player.

As for Perrilloux? He will probably land on his feet. Any number of college programs will be anxious to acquire the dual-threat quarterback's services despite his off-field transgressions. After transferring and sitting out a year, expect to see Perilloux pop up at another Div-IA (excuse me, FBS) program.

John 'Doc' Hussey, a longtime journalist in New Hampshire, died Friday at the age of 65.

Among many other items in a notable career, he broke the story that forced Notre Dame to ditch football coach George O'Leary just days after hiring him.

Hussey provided the Union Leader with one of its biggest scoops when he detected something was amiss in the public-relations biography of University of New Hampshire graduate George O'Leary, named head football coach at the University of Notre Dame.

Seeking to do a local-angle story on the new head of the world's most storied college football program, Hussey spoke with several players and the man who coached the UNH football team at the time O'Leary was said to have earned three varsity letters. None of the men remembered O'Leary playing football.

Hussey shared his information with colleague Jim Fennell, whose reporting ultimately revealed that O'Leary had falsified his resume, and the coach -- since named head coach at the University of Central Florida -- was forced to step down at Notre Dame. The Union Leader's coverage of the story earned numerous awards and national acclaim.

He may not have been a big player in national college football media, but his fact-checking thoroughly tarnished O'Leary's otherwise solid reputation and Notre Dame's football program has yet to settle on a reliable coach since.

This one does not feature Paris Hilton. Surprisingly. Or Bayern Munich goalie Oliver Kahn.

Arizona defensive end Josh Lewis has been "suspended indefinitely" after a video of him using his hand on a girl in what appears to be an uncomfortable and unwanted fashion. The kicker: it's outside during the day in the midst of a pool party. Which, like... geez, man.

Though Lewis hasn't been charged with any crime, at least not yet, he's a walk-on and his days as an Arizona football player are probably numbered. A warning on the video: though it's not particularly explicit, it's very uncomfortable to watch. Anyone with a tolerance for offense south of "heroic" should probably skip it. It's after the jump.

It was supposed to be so easy (good lookin', Mike Skinner). Heavily recruited out of Danville, VA, J'Courtney Williams was a 4-star prospect set out to cover two needs for the Cavaliers, the first being the heir apparent to brilliant if somewhat foolhardy linebackers like Ahmad Brooks and Kai Parham. The other, well, it should be obvious how he could replace D'Brickashaw Ferguson.

Well, to paraphrase something Homer Simpson once said, Al Groh would be lying if he said his men weren't committing crimes. Williams only manifested the "foolhardy" portion of the bargain, getting involved in a low-level credit card scam that wasn't particularly bright in planning or execution. According to reports, a student claimed his wallet was stolen at the Virginia's main athletic center, and...okay. Stop right there.

Now, I realize that Virginia students tend to have a reputation as being well-to-do, and maybe I'm just getting old, but it's probably not wise to nab some poor teen's card when a: his parents probably see the bill and b: it's probably not blessed with the sort of credit limit you'd prefer for your jag/spree. Worse yet, Williams couldn't even be bothered to buy anything cool with his ill-gotten goods. Supposedly, he was found out after making 19 purchases at a Tuttle dorm vending... That's not even Treehouse ballin'. Maybe you can help me out in the comments, but I mostly remember Tuttle having a computer lab and I dunno, maybe some snack machines. And an elevator. That was pretty cool. But otherwise, you're gonna risk your college career for that? Then again, maybe the whole snack machine thing relates to his marijuana charges as well.

Groh was swift with the guillotine, and Williams has been dismissed from the program; all things considered between Olu Hall, Parham, Brooks and Williams, I probably shouldn't be so quick to criticize Groh for recruiting seemingly nothing but linebackers and tight ends. It's been mentioned that Louisville, Kentucky and Mississippi State were among the schools Virginia beat out for J'Courtney, and if I were a betting man, I wouldn't count out the one that took a flyer on Willie Williams. No relation?