Oregon to Pac-12: DEAL WITH IT
Happy Humpday Cougs, and as always we hope things are well with you and yours.
So the twittersphere & message boards & such are blowing UP over the news about Oregon’s NCAA “sanctions”, if you will. The cocky Ducks are once again talking the talk after holding their collective breath the last few years over all this, but now it is over. There are some things that they got dinged for, but, in a nutshell:
• A reduction of initial football scholarships by one from the maximum allowed (25) during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years (imposed by the university).
• A reduction of total football scholarships by one from the maximum allowed (85) during the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years (imposed by the university).
• A reduction of official paid football visits from 56 to 37 for the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
• A reduction of permissible football evaluation days from 42 to 36 in the fall of 2013, 2014 and 2015 and permissible football evaluation days from 168 to 144 in the spring of 2014, 2015 and 2016.
• A ban on the subscription to recruiting services during the probation period (DUH!).
• A disassociation of the recruiting service provider. Details of the disassociation are included in the public report (imposed by the university).
So there it is. I guess the initial reaction is “that’s it??” But there are a lot of layers with what happened and how the investigations went down that we won’t go into on this site. It’s a long, drawn out story and you can find it all elsewhere if you so desire. Personally I did hear a couple of months ago a good explanation on KJR from an Oregon reporter who, believe it or not, was a UW grad even, say that he was hearing that this won’t be a huge penalty that some were fantasizing about/hoping for.
But using a paid recruiting service as an extra recruiter for your school? It’s kinda/sorta slimy, I guess, but whatever. It was always sort of a gray area, these recruiting services, and many schools in the Pac-12 employ them. And given the hyper-competitive world of college football and recruiting and all that you had to believe that someone was going to try and use that angle to sink their teeth into various recruits out there.
So the Ducks survive, and will likely continue to thrive after the so-called “wrist slap” that people seem to be labeling things at the moment. I do find it interesting on the cutback on paid visits though. One thing that helps seal the deal with a lot of recruits is the official paid visit, obviously, and from what I’ve heard Oregon really puts on a great show for recruits when they show up on campus. Chopping almost 20 visits per recruiting year might cost them some guys that they might normally land, if said recruit can’t make it to Eugene on their own. Of course there may be a back door, such as if they happen to visit Nike headquarters for some reason and take a trip a few hours to campus? But we’ll see how it all goes.
One of the biggest things that hurt USC anyway wasn’t necessarily the bowl ban. But it’s the thinning out of the depth over the grind of a 12-game BCS schedule that really takes it’s toll. SC paid big-time for the Reggie Bush stuff, and the bottom line is the fewer scholarship athletes you have on your roster, the tougher it is to bounce back from the inevitable injuries that mount over the long season. Oregon will only be down ONE scholarship player per year in new faces, and only ONE player per year on the roster, and that’s it. Combine that with the lack of bowl bans, well, how can today be anything other than a HUGE WIN for the Quack Attack??
Moving on…
Looks like the Cougs landed a new defensive back, as 6-1 corner Kevin Griffin gave a verbal pledge to WSU last night. Cougfan has the story (premium), but there is a free write-up on a site called Prepsbythebay.com. It sure sounds like he’s excited to go with the crimson-n-gray! Griffin didn’t have a star next to his name as he is currently “NR”, but the buzz is that he’ll eventually end up as a 3-star guy.
Note: Scout’s Brandon Huffman tells me that new Coug Kevin Griffin (unrated) will be a mid 3-star CB when new rankings are released #GoCougs
— Braulio Perez (@BraulioEPerez) June 26, 2013
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And while he had interest in schools like Arizona State, Cal and the LA schools, as well as attending BYU’s junior day, it appears his only other reported offer was from Montana. Who knows, maybe that will change as it’s still just June, but I like the sound of a little size at corner (6-1, 180 reportedly).
Meanwhile, SB Nation BLEW IT UP with a WSU preview so deep, I’m still dizzy after reading it and not exactly sure what just happened (sort of like the first 15-20 minutes of Man of Steel, it blew my flippin’ mind!). It’s a stats-heavy read, but is somewhat of a dire prediction heading in to 2013 (and it’s especially eye-opening on the lack of quality line play as well as why Connor Halliday just may never be a fit here for Mike Leach?).
Finally, Kevin Gemmell’s ESPN blog has some interest in checking out WSU and USC for the week 2 Pac-12 schedule. He’s not exactly calling the upset or anything but at least shows some interesting angles to what we might see that day.
All for now. Enjoy Humpday (*which quite honestly is STILL NOT THE SAME WITHOUT OUR HUDDY!), and of course, RISE & GRIND & GO COUGS!
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