Ladies and Gentlemen –
Anytime you can begin an article on College Football by quoting the late great Warren Zevon then you have to know you will be going on a ride. This will be one of those times.
Get comfortable if you can and enjoy the trip
Enjoy….
“The floodgates are open
We’ve let the demons loose
The big guns have spoken
And we’ve fallen for the ruse”
“Disorder in the House” – Warren Zevon
Before some of you begin rolling your eyes and saying; “Here he goes again”
Let me begin this commentary with this statement; we have become a nation of imbeciles who can’t or won’t think for ourselves.
EDITORS NOTE: In the context of my last statement I will stick to the topic of college football. I don’t have enough time or energy to discuss that statement in terms of politics and mainstream media but suffice to say the statement fits those parties to a damn tee.
Please continue….
For too many people if ESPN say’s it then it MUST be true.
Conversely if they “don’t” mention it then it must NOT be important.
EDITORS NOTE: I am certainly not referring to my loyal and well informed and educated readership with the above statement. You all are far too sophisticated to fall for such sophomoric shenanigans. So let’s continue….
Before the BCS National Championship game…
ESPN and the NCAA stated emphatically that Auburn Quarterback Cam Newton “was cleared of any wrongdoing” in the Investigation surrounding his Father (The Right Reverend Ceil Newton) of shopping his son’s football services to at least one university.
Despite the fact the NCAA “rules” state the following…..
“If at any time before or after matriculation in a member institution a student-athlete or any member of his/her family receives or agrees to receive, directly or indirectly, any aid or assistance beyond or in addition to that permitted by the Bylaws of this Conference (except such aid or assistance as such student-athlete may receive from those persons on whom the student is naturally or legally dependent for support), such student-athlete shall be ineligible for competition in any intercollegiate sport within the Conference for the remainder of his/her college career.”
And of course prior to the above announcement
(I apologize in advance for the Freudian slip)……
ESPN and the NCAA stated emphatically that Ohio State Buckeye Quarterback Terrell Pryor
and his tattoo loving teammates would be punished “next” year for offenses that occurred “this” past season.
It seems that no one wants to report that honesty; integrity and hard work in college football have been replaced with big money, bribes and back room deals. And to make matters even worse (if that’s possible) it seems too many of us don’t seem to care either as long as “we get ours”.
Does that sound familiar?
I am not so naïve as to believe that back room deals and big money haven’t always been a big part of college football. After all, I remember Coach Bryant and the University of Alabama getting screwed out of both the 1966 and 1977 National Championships.
But when the NCAA makes a statement defending their decisions by stating:
“The NCAA defended its recent rulings in violations cases involving Ohio State and Auburn, saying it does not play favorites or make decisions based on financial considerations.”
With an opening statement like that and ESPN, CBS and Fox Sports don’t jump on it with both feet?
No commentaries on the NCAA statement, nothing?
Instead we are treated with talking heads from the above networks playing to the “party line” and quickly moving on to another subject. And we are supposed to believe that garbage?
We don’t or can’t think for ourselves anymore? Is that where we are today?
“The floodgates are open
We’ve let the demons loose
The big guns have spoken
And we’ve fallen for the ruse”
“Disorder in the House” – Warren Zevon
“The NCAA doesn’t play favorites or make decisions based on financial considerations.”
R-E-A-L-L-Y?
So theoretically speaking…..
If Cam Newton and Terrell Pryor would have been suspended for the respective games we (the public) are too believe that viewership and sponsorship would have been the same as well as the final outcomes of the games? We aren’t that damn stupid are we?
And adding insult to injury….
It was insulting (or should have been to you) for the Sugar Bowl to name Terrell Pryor MVP of the game, when he shouldn’t have been allowed to suit up in the first place.
This was done in an effort to add legitimacy to an illegal and illegitimate act and make the public “believe”.
Then the NCAA stated…..
“Money is not a motivator or factor as to why one school would get a particular decision versus another.
Any insinuation that revenue from bowl games in particular would influence NCAA decisions is absurd, because schools and conferences receive that revenue, not the NCAA.”
Money isn’t a motivating factor? And we are expected to believe that one, really?
I got news for you; money is a damn motivating factor in “everything”.
And to prove my point…..
The NCAA gets a cut of every ticket, officially licensed merchandise, television revenue and lets don’t forget selling the “amateur” student –athlete’s image to video game companies for millions of dollars.
Therein lies the problem, underneath it all there is greed.
The good people at Auburn have stood by for years and let University Trustee Bobby “I have more money than God” Lowder run roughshod over school administrators and athletic directors alike in a quest to satisfy his obsession to best the University of Alabama and garner national attention for the Tiger athletic programs. Those few brave souls who have spoken up have been run out of Auburn on a rail by Bobby and his gaggle of idiots.
And there are those college football fans and alumni that don’t care what they have to do to win, as long as they win. They are the same ones that don’t want to believe what I am writing….
They are the same ones that point fingers at other programs….
They sound like so many others that have sold their collective souls to “win” at all costs.
They sound like some Southern California Trojan fans a couple of years ago….
They sound like some Tennessee Volunteer fans under the Fat Phil Era….
You can say it isn’t so War Eagle faithful, but in your hearts you know it’s true.
Paid players and thugs roamed the campus while never visiting a classroom, while off the field incidents and other crimes and misdemeanors never see the headlines or light of day.
Sound familiar?
So to paraphrase Warren Zevon
“Now that the flood gates have opened and we’ve let the demons loose and the big guns have spoken”….Have you all fallen for the ruse?
The reason I ask is this……
Immediately following the BCS Championship game………
Auburn Quarterback Cam Newton’s Father (The Right Reverend Ceil Newton) was seen hugging his son in a throng of fans in a touching moment of love between a devoted father and son.
So what’s the problem with that you may ask?
Here you go….
Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs said that Cam Newton’s father (The Right Reverend Ceil Newton) did not go against a mutual agreement with the school by appearing after the BCS Championship Game.
“My understanding is he actually came in after the game was over for the celebration,” Jacobs said. “Now, I haven’t spoken to Mr. Newton. But based on what his attorney said, that’s my understanding. As far as I’m concerned, he didn’t go against anything we mutually agreed upon.”
EDITORS NOTE: The reason I raise the question of the validity of this statement is simply this: You cannot enter or reenter the stadium without “special” permission from either the Bowl, the respective universities, conferences or the NCAA. So who gave the Right Reverend Ceil Newton “special” permission to enter the stadium in the first place?
The “mutual agreement” the Auburn Athletic Director mentioned in the above statement was this: as punishment for Cecil Newton soliciting money from Mississippi State for his son to play there, the NCAA announced in December that Auburn had limited Cecil’s access around the program. Auburn has never publicly defined what the limited access means.
EDITORS NOTE: So Auburn can’t define what “limited access” means? And the NCAA doesn’t require Auburn to define it either? Interesting, wouldn’t you say?
Assuming by the picture “limited access” includes frequent visits and photo opportunities in the Tiger locker room.
Now on the day of the BCS Championship Game, Jacobs told The Associated Press that Cecil would not be in attendance. The decision was “mutually agreed upon,” Jacobs said then. “Out of the highest respect that Cecil has for Cameron, he won’t be here today.”
EDITORS NOTE: May we then assume that the Right Reverend Ceil Newton miracled his ass to Arizona from Georgia? Or did someone (Trustee Bobby or another “booster”) fly the Right Reverend Ceil Newton to Arizona?
So the world shared the touching moment as Cecil and Cam shared a hug in the stadium after the game. Cecil’s attorney later told USA Today that Cecil watched the game off-site and came to the stadium for the celebration, but couldn’t say how Cecil got in.
EDITORS NOTE: I vote for “miracled his ass” to Arizona from Georgia
(I bet the NCAA would buy that theory too)
“I would imagine, just like at our place, when the game is over the door is open and there you go,” Jacobs said Thursday. “I don’t have any idea.”
Jacobs said he is not surprised Cecil’s presence turned into a national discussion.
“Because if people thought he was at the game and we all had agreed that wouldn’t happen, it stands to reason it would blow up,” Jacobs said. “Anyway, best of luck to him.”
Jacobs declined to comment on the status of the NCAA investigation into Newton’s recruitment.
EDITORS NOTE: Wait, I thought the NCAA cleared Cammy Cam of any wrong doing?
So why won’t the Auburn athletic director just repeat the same worn out phrase that the “NCAA cleared Cam Newton and Auburn of any wrong doing”.
My friends it’s gets back to what I was saying…..
“Have you all fallen for the ruse?”
So on the eve of what was once a real Super Bowl between two professional football teams but has instead been biodegraded into the “Two hand Touch, don’t smack me in the face, argue every call and instant replay something to death while nobody has to wear knee or thigh pads because you can’t touch me there, Super Bowl”
I want to leave you with another line from Warren Zevon….
“It’s the home of the brave and the land of the free
Where the less you know the better off you’ll be”
“Disorder in the House” – Warren Zevon
So I ask you all…..
Do you all want to continue to bury your heads in the sand and pretend that “it’s all good as long as you get yours”? Or do you want to return integrity back to college football?
Then it’s time to succeed from the NCAA…..
It’s just that simple….
RTR
THE CFB WIZARD