Welcome to ‘Case of the Monday’s’ Crystal Ball Run’s weekly look at the good, the bad and the sublime of the week that was in both college football and the world of sports in general.
And while all the buzz this weekend was on the NCAA Tournament, we’re still a college football site, meaning that we’ll start you off with…
1. The NCAA’s findings on UNC: Given that Crystal Ball Run already touched on what happened at UNC earlier this week, we won’t get too much into it here. At the same time, it was the biggest headline in our favorite sport, and does warrant some further discussion.
Anyway, if you haven’t been paying attention, here’s what you need to know: On Tuesday, the NCAA finally came out with their report on the UNC football. It had a number of findings (none of which were all that surprising), including, the following violations: Academic fraud, players working with agents while still in school, an assistant coach (John Blake) working with agents, and thousands of dollars in extra benefits to a number of student-athletes. As punishment, the Tar Heels were banned from postseason play in 2012, and the school was docked 15 scholarships in seasons to come.
Given the seriousness of the findings, I thought the NCAA came off pretty lightly on UNC. And you know what? I’m actually ok with it.
The truth is that yes, what UNC did was bad. At the same time, while mistakes were made, the people who made them have already paid the price. Blake was hit with a three-year show cause, former head coach Butch Davis lost his job, and so too did Athletics Director Dick Baddour. Every player suspected of wrong-doing was immediately suspended in the fall of 2010, and not reinstated until they were cleared by the NCAA. The worst violators like Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn and Greg Little lost their eligibility entirely. From the time the allegations first hit, the three never played for UNC again.
Again, the worst perpetrators committed the crime, and for the most part, those people did the time. In the process, the people who are now at UNC- from new head coach Larry Fedora all the way down to the last guy on the depth chart- won’t see their experience ruined because of it. Yes a bowl ban sucks, and sure scholarship reductions stink. But this isn’t a penalty that the program can’t recover from. Chances are, they can do it pretty quickly.
I don’t say this often, but kudos to the NCAA. For once, they handled a situation correctly.
2. In more college football news: News broke this week that for the second year in a row, Michigan and Notre Dame will play each other under the lights, this time in South Bend. To which I must say, it’s time to get excited!
And while it’d be quick to say to criticize Notre Dame for not starting to play night games years ago, let’s not do that. The past is the past, and it can’t be changed. Meanwhile in the present, Brian Kelly is at least showing folks that he can be forward thinking and progressive, two terms that haven’t been used around Notre Dame very often lately. If ever.
Seriously, think about it. For my entire life, Notre Dame has been selling the school’s tradition and history, which would be all well and good if they were trying to convince a bus full of senior citizens to come to campus. Unfortunately, they’re dealing with 17 and 18-year-old kids, most of whom don’t have a single memory beyond last night’s episode of Glee, let alone from Notre Dame’s glory days. The Irish last won a National Championship in 1988, nearly a decade before high school kids were even born, which means that it’s time for a new approach. And whether college administrators like it or not, that new approach involves winning, getting guys to the pros, and having fun along the way. Feel free to take your tradition… and shove it!
Which brings us back to my point: It is my firm belief that winning will come during the Brian Kelly era, and when they do win, I also believe it’ll put plenty of guys in the pros. That whole “having fun” thing, well, as a credit to Kelly, he’s trying to implement that as well. He has added alternate uniforms for the Irish, has helped (although this isn’t all him) schedule games at Yankee Stadium and in Ireland, and will now play Michigan at night, just a year after playing USC under the lights last year as well.
Speaking of which, do you remember that USC game? Sure Notre Dame lost, but only Notre Dame (and people who may have… ahem… bet the game) remember the particulars. You know what I remember? That it was one of the biggest recruiting weekends in Notre Dame history, an evening where every 17-year-old kid that could punt, pass or kick a football at the college level was in attendance. None had a bad thing to say, and in the end, even with the loss, the weekend did much more good than harm.
Again, college football is supposed to be fun, and I’m glad Brian Kelly realizes that. And I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to Notre Dame and Michigan in Week 2 of the season.
3. Spring has sprung: We are slowly moving ourselves out of the February doldrums and into spring ball, and thankfully not a moment too soon.
And as has been the case for the last few weeks, Crystal Ball Run has you covered with the best spring previews you’ll find anywhere. This week we covered schools like Arkansas, Florida, to go along with North Carolina, South Carolina and Missouri. This year we’ll be bringing you a handful of others, including Florida State and Tennessee.
Stay tuned!
4. As for other news and notes around college football: Here are a few things that happened this week: Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy received a well-deserved contract extension… a naming snafu is underway with Penn State’s football stadium… Missouri will have to welcome itself to the SEC without quarterback James Franklin, who’ll miss spring ball with an injury… Same with key Arkansas linebacker Alonzo Highsmith who is out this spring with a pectoral injury… And finally, LSU coach Les Miles had to make one of his toughest cuts this spring, when he sent walk-on, female kicker Mo Isom packing… Isom will come back out for the team in the fall.
5. Now, let’s talk some college hoops: Given that there are a million outlets covering college round ball right now, it just doesn’t seem entirely appropriate that we spend all that much time here at Crystal Ball Run discussing it.
Still, here are four, super-quick takeaways from this weekend’s games:
A. If Kentucky is going to play like they did on Saturday night, just go ahead and hand them the National Championship. It’s one thing when Anthony Davis is blocking shots, it’s one thing when Terrence Jones is beasting dudes on both ends of the court, and it’s one thing when Marquis Teague has a big game. But when they happen on the same night? It’s over.
I’m not saying it can happen again, but if it does, there’s really no need to play the next four games.
B. It wasn’t the prettiest game on the eyes, but from an energy, effort and hustle standpoint, nothing beat Murray State-Marquette. When that game went final, it was the first time this tournament that I thought to myself: Man, neither team deserves to go home. That is of course, the cruel irony of March basketball though.
C. I can’t help but think that maybe the Big Ten isn’t so bad after all. After I spent all winter ragging on the conference (if only because that’s what I always do), incredibly, they comprise a quarter of the Sweet 16, with Michigan State winning and advancing on Sunday, joining Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio State.
They say sports are cyclical, and this is certainly a case of that.
D. Norfolk State: I don’t care what happened yesterday. I’ve never seen anything like I did Friday, and don’t know if I’ll ever again.
So good. So, quintessentially March.
6. Let’s go back to football, and head to the pro game: Where Mr. Peyton Manning will decide his football future any day now. Will it be Tennessee? Denver? San Fran? Maybe Arizona.
For sentimental reasons, I think it’d be pretty cool to see him end his football career where it all started in Tennessee. I mean seriously, what better way for the greatest quarterback of our generation (maybe of all-time) to end his career, than by returning to the place where he was a college All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist. Plus, from football reasons, it’s not like it doesn’t make sense. Manning would go to a manageable division, where a wild card (if not division title) seems likely, plus he’d get to play the Colts twice a year and punk Andrew Luck a few times, just to show him who’s boss too. Not to mention that when Manning finally did retire, we could all brush off our Tee Martin jokes from a decade ago, and have some fun there as well.
Of course with all that said, my gut tells me Peyton will end up in Denver. We saw what that defense could do last year, and we saw Tim Tebow- who, I think we can all agree isn’t Peyton Manning- get this team a division title. Plus, if Tebow could win eight games (including one on Wild Card weekend) with a cast of skill position players that could best be described as, umm, “below average” how could Manning do any worse? Even if he’s only 80 percent, nobody is better at making lemonade out of Pierre Garcon and Anthony Gonzalez than Manning is.
Point being, I think Manning ends up in Denver.
7. Speaking of wild free agent story lines: Did you hear that 49ers free agent quarterback Alex Smith was visiting the Dolphins this weekend? Of course you did. But did you hear how the story was broken?
That’s where it gets interesting.
Apparently the whole Smith-to-South Beach started on late Saturday night when a Seattle Seahawks blogger named Davis Hsu, boared his red-eye flight from San Fran to Fort Lauderdale, and happened to see Smith sitting in first class, fast asleep (like someone might be while watching Smith play quarterback these last few years, actually). And in the 24-hour, everyone-is-a-reporter culture we live in, Hsu, immediately took to Twitter, when he said:
I am on flight right now (red eye) from San Francisco to Miami- QB Alex Smith is sitting in first class- you connect the dots.
And after that, mayhem broke. Read Hsu’s timeline for the funny postscript questions he got, but he was indeed proved correct, when later that morning reporter Izzy Gould went to the airport, and snapped a picture of a well-rested Smith walking through the terminal.
To Smith’s credit, he handled everything in stride, telling the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:
“This is the NFL. I guess nothing surprises me anymore. I never thought a year ago (Peyton) Manning would be a free agent either, I’m never surprised by anything.”
Fair enough, Alex. But seriously, the circumstances don’t get much more unique than that.
8. Let’s start to wrap up: By quickly discussing the NBA Trade Deadline, Dwight Howard in specific, and his return to Orlando.
Everyone seems to be lauding Howard for deciding to stick around, but the more I think about the situation, I’m not entirely sure why people are so quick to praise him. This is the same guy who dragged his franchise through the mud for most of the last two years, and the same guy who spent the last 4-5 months openly talking about playing in Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Dallas and Los Angeles. Besides, it’s not like he re-upped out of the goodness of his heart, frankly there were no better options. When your best trade option is the Nets, something tells me that it might be better to stay exactly where you are.
Let’s also not forget that Howard has hardly committed to Orlando long-term, but instead, decided to use an opt-in clause, and stick around until the end of the 2013 season. That’s it.
Meaning, be ready for more Dwight melo-drama at this time next year.
9. Tennis time: Ok, ok, ok. I know I’m one of the last six people in the entire United States who actually still cares about tennis. But this is my column, and I can do whatever I want with it!
And as I flipped through channels during the NCAA Tournament this weekend and saw that Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets yesterday in the semi’s at Indian Wells, I couldn’t help but think one thing: How does Federer keep doing this?
The guy will be 31 in the summer, which is practically archaic in tennis terms. Yet here he is chugging along, and is virtually a guaranteed semifinalist in every tournament he enters. Again, at the age of 31. He made the final of the French last year, as well as the semis in Australia this year, and he had match-point on Novak Djokovic in the US Open last year before falling there too. Any of those tournaments he could’ve won… despite being one of the oldest guys in the field.
Simply put, there never has been, nor ever will be another player like Roger Federer.
Enjoy him while you can.
10. And finally: I always like to end with a TV, movie or book review, but this time, I’ll instead throw out a half-baked thought on one particular upcoming movie.
Has anyone seen the previews American Reunion? And is anyone as excited to see it as I am?
Until next time…
For all his opinion, insight and articles on college football, please follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
