Silver Bullet Points Looks For Heroes

Weekly updates and miscellany from around the world of college sports…

Buckeye 411

• Hoops, There It Is- #Hop2theRafters
  
• We’re Stars– With the Senior Bowl nigh upon us, we’ve been hearing good things about the former Buckeyes in attendance. Mike Adams, in particular, is getting rave reviews; his form and size have many projecting him into the first round. Mike Brewster has been, according to report, owning Michigan’s Mike Martin (what else is new?), and things are getting a bit chippy between the two. DeVier has been rumored to have a case of the dropsies, and we haven’t heard much from Boom as of yet.
• Don’t Just Take Our Word For It- From an article on the Cleveland Browns website about DeVier, it sounds a bit like he picked up with Tressel was laying down,

“To be able to lead, you have to serve first,” Posey said. “I feel like being on scout team, helping the younger guys and being in the meeting room and telling them the little tips that I have allowed me to understand the game more and it humbled me as well. That’s what I needed going into this process and going to the next level. Through this process, everything you hear is what you can’t do and everyone’s tearing you down. Going through the draft, you’re going to hear a lot of negative things and then, when you get into camp as well, you have to be humble as well. You have to serve the team and show them you can play. I felt like I learned all those lessons this past year.”

• Don’t Just Take Our Word For It, Part Two-  Again, from the Browns’ website, Mike Brewster said that his work at OSU prepared him well,

“Every day at practice was a challenge, so I definitely think that will pay dividends,” Brewster said of Ohio State. “It really comes in the preparation the last couple weeks and really, four years of college. Now, it’s just show time and it’s time to go out there and do it. Anytime you get a chance to go against the best, you want to measure yourself.”

• Crunching Numbers At Crunch Time– Even though we’ve hit a lull in the Urban Meyer Recruiting Cavalcade, there are still worries that Ohio State might have some issues when it comes to making the 2012 class fit under the 82 scholarship limit imposed by the NCAA.  The Dispatch takes a close look at the numbers, while the OZone’s Brandon Castel has some insider information on some of the attrition that usually happens when there’s a change in coaching. While we (and our friends at Oversigning.com) will be watching the numbers closely to see if there are any SEC shenanigans, it should be remembered that this is not something Urban’s been wont to do. Oh, and Cincinnati has over thirty current verbals. I guess Ohio’s BCS team is trying to become Ohio’s SEC team.
• You Will Comply- The Lantern has an update on the move to make athletic compliance a part of the larger University oversight.
• Urban Sez- Bonus material from the interview with the BTN-

World Wide Leader

• Where Credit Is Due- We had a great conversation on Twitter this week about ESPN and their supposed bias against Ohio State or the selective coverage that they have for certain programs. However, 140 characters aside, there was no way we could have nailed the position as well as Ramzy did at 11W,

There may have been a time when journalists could remove their biases to approach and prioritize stories without bias, but that era is not this one. When information dissemination and entertainment collide, there are emotions that end up shaping what we perceive as the facts.

Journalists are not robots that calculate the worthiness of a story prior to determining how important it is. They’re humans who sit in production meetings and agree with each others’ ideas, support each others’ projects and enable content chasers to successfully capture personal glory. It’s not always about the story. Often times it’s about the reporter; be it her career or his personal biases.

• Fuel For The Fire- If you want Exhibit A in the case for ESPN’s selective coverage, please draw your attention to Deadspin’s coverage of email correspondence from media entities to Auburn University during their national title chase and Cam Newton controversy. Compare that with the lawsuit against Ohio State to release documents that a) the NCAA has already reviewed and b) most in Higher Education believe fall within federal law.
• And A Little Napalm- Deadspin continues this week with a look at what’s the Four Letter Network chose to talk about on Sportscenter. Journalism or entertainment?

News From Eugene

• This Week In The FREEK– You just knew he was going to have something special for Coach Kelly’s decision to leave stay as the Duck’s head coach:

• Chip, You Broke My Heart- Is Kelly now on the hot seat for going against the family (Phil)? Our friend Paragon seems to think that might be a possibility,

Kelly has put a bit of target on his chest. If he doesn’t finish the business in a reasonable amount of time Uncle Phil may pull the rug out and look for someone who can. Loyalty is earned and in Uncle Phil’s eyes Chip Kelly just made a huge withdrawal from his account.

• One More, Just Because– This:

  

• Although… Anything that makes Brooks look even stupider can’t be all that bad, right?
• Wait A Minute- Didn’t the NCAA notify Oregon about their investigation? Wonder why no one has seen a copy of the Notice of Inquiry or Notice of Allegations?  Well, if you’d like to do some sleuthing, we’ve got your solution.

Finances, Education, Etc.

• Well, Sure-  According to a great piece in the New York Times, football and “big time” college sports are ruining higher education. The article starts with a look at Ohio State, and includes Duke, Nebraska, Penn State, and Oregon, and doesn’t talk (as you might expect) about the “scandals”. Instead, it attempts to see the impact that high profile athletic departments and teams has on the academic mission of the university; the “life of the mind”.  Some interesting quotes-

“Here is evidence that suggests that when your football team does well, grades suffer,” said Dr. Waddell, who compared transcripts of over 29,700 students from 1999 to 2007 against Oregon’s win-loss record. For every three games won, grade-point average for men dropped 0.02, widening the G.P.A. gender gap by 9 percent. Women’s grades didn’t suffer. In a separate survey of 183 students, the success of the Ducks also seemed to cause slacking off: students reported studying less (24 percent of men, 9 percent of women), consuming more alcohol (28 percent, 20 percent) and partying more (47 percent, 28 percent).

…

Dr. Clotfelter (Duke University), too, wanted to examine study habits. He tracked articles downloaded from campus libraries during March Madness, the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament. Library patrons at universities with teams in the tournament viewed 6 percent fewer articles a day as long as their team was in contention. When a team won an upset or close game, article access fell 19 percent the day after the victory. Neither dip was made up later with increased downloads.

…

“We no longer determine at what time we will play our games, because they are scheduled by TV executives,” (a report at Duke) laments, going on to complain about away games at 9 p.m. “Students are required to board a flight at 2 a.m., arriving back at their dorms at 4 or 5 a.m., and then are expected to go to class, study and otherwise act as if it were a normal school day.” And: “our amateur student-athletes take the field with a corporate logo displayed on their uniform beside ‘Duke.’ ”

• School Spirit- As Athletic Department budgets skyrocket, it’s important to note that not every one breaks even like Ohio State, Texas, Florida, Southern Cal and others do.  As such, student fees and tuition dollars are used to form the foundation for student athletics. That’s in spite of the fact that most students don’t support athletics where it counts- by attending games. Notes from USC and Duke seem to indicate that either everyone’s too busy or going to watch the teams is “lame”.
• Money Well Spent? If you’re one of our “on campus” readers, this spring when your school announces the annual tuition hike, remember that it went to a worthy cause… sending your school’s football team to a bowl game.
• Count the Cost As awesome as recruiting is, remember that there’s a cost involve. You’ve got to wonder, though, if Tennessee is getting their money’s worth.
• Change for Change-  A lot of talk about possible changes in the BCS and a potential playoff solution (woot!!). While it’d be great to think that the people in charge had finally come to their senses, the fact of the matter is that the cash cow ain’t givin’ milk like it used to do, so people are looking for a new one.
• Hard Dose Of Reality- If you’re a high school football player, you have a 6.1% chance of playing college football and a .08% chance of playing professionally, according to data from the NCAA. If you’re a basketball player (men’s or women’s), you have a 3.2% chance of playing at the college level and a .03% chance of playing as a career. There’s a longer discussion about education and exploitation and realistic expectations here, but I’ll save that for a later date.

Other Notables And Randomness

•  Wait, Billy Cundiff is Einhorn? Not scapegoating, but man… this is well done:

• Once you’ve killed five hookers, perjury ain’t nothin’ but a thang:  He’s running for office, so it makes sense that Craig James would get the lying part down early.
• Great day to be a Badger– Or, maybe not, as Wisconsin has their own “touching moment” in the spotlight.
• Speaking Of Which- Your “You’ve Got To Be Effing Kidding Me!” fact of the day: Joe Paterno’s memorial service is on Jerry Sandusky’s birthday.
• And finally- Ending where we started, with a reminder of a) how freaking old I am and b) how lame toys were when I was a kid: