Last Saturday, Terrelle Pryor held a pro-day in front of 17 NFL teams scouts and management. He ran a very impressive 4.36 40 yard dash which was the fastest of any player in either NFL draft this year. He worked out for 2 hours and threw a bevy of different passes to receivers he didn’t know, completing the vast majority of them. Many of the scouts came away with a better impression then they went in with. Would it be enough though to convince a team to draft him in today’s NFL supplemental draft (which was apparently held in some top secret location and couldn’t possibly be broadcast on any sports channel even though I currently have 40+ of them on my cable nor was it on NFL TV or NFL.com)? So I like everyone else had to wait for Twitter to erupt with clues or info.

The draft started at 1 PM and in the first 30 mins we had 2 rounds of nothing. I repeat it took the NFL 30 mins to do 2 rounds of NOTHING. In the 3rd round we got the news Terrelle was drafted by the OAKLAND RAIDERS!!!!! Are you fracking serious as if any of us couldn’t have guessed this would be the outcome weeks ago. At first all I could think was shame on the Cincinnati Bengals for not making a move and picking a guy with TPs athletic ability. I mean did anyone else see Andy Dalton on tv last night if he is the best they have to offer at the QB spot TP would have been at the least a decent back up. But alas Pryor is a Raider and he has few options either become the next Jemarcus Russell or the next Rich Gannon or be the first Terrelle Pryor. The future for him will be all his own making and it is time for him to step up and become the guy he always said he would be: an NFL QB starter.

College football has had its fair share of scandals lately but honestly they aren’t anything new to the NCAA. They have been happening since the first school decided to allow its name to be used to promote a football team. The problem is not confined to just football as every year in nearly every sport there are reports of allegations and rumors of scandals. I am choosing football as an example because in my eyes the biggest scandals happen in this sport because it has the most players and coaches and visibility to the public as a whole. It doesn’t help that my beloved Buckeyes have been entrenched in their own scandal going on 9 months now. So I want to tackle what I think is the problem and the solution and how I think College Basketball has got it figured out or at least they use to.

I need to start by saying this is a fix in general and not specific to any person or school. I don’t think every player in college football is breaking the rules or cheating. I do believe every school has their fair share of players that do that though but the vast majority are not.

Here is the problem as I see it. Not every person is made for college (I wasn’t). If you look at the football team as a microcosm of college admissions you will see what I am talking about. I read one time that something like 40% of incoming Freshman never finish their first year of college for one reason or another. The 2 biggest reasons were grades and money (both attributed to too much partying). Most of those who dont finish college most likely never should have went but fulfilled their parents dream for them as college is the only acceptable way to succeed in life according to society. Recently reports have come out that the amount of debt incurred vs. the extra money made in the future by college grads has put going to college as a detriment and not a good thing. I digress if you look at CFB graduation rates you will see CFB athletes as a whole are worse off than or equal to the general students at a given university. Why well a large number of CFB players aren’t prepared to attend college let alone graduate. Even with the huge amount of added help players get they struggle. A large number of those never wanted to really attend college and their actions show it by failing classes and getting arrested and doing everything they can to avoid getting a college education. So the problem is easy to identify some athletes are not college material.

Here is how I would fix this problem and it is an easy fix. The NFL needs to right this minute remove the “a player must be 3 years removed from their graduating class” rule. This rule has always been designed to keep the NCAA happy and keep the NFL from developing their own farm system. The NFL and NCAA have been in collusion with each other for a long time and every rule they make is designed to keep that agreement in place. If high scool players who had no interest in being an actual college student athlete were allowed to earn a real living right out of high school instead of forcing them to attend a school for a minimum of 3 years. It would easily weed out a large number of the kind of people who are tempted to receive extra illegal benefits. Would it solve every problem I am sure not but it would cut it drastically. The kind of kid who would take 5k bucks or a trip to Vegas would never go to State U. when he could go play football professionally for even 50k or 100k a year in the minors or millions straight to the pros. So to solve the problem I think they just need to give these players an option besides going to school they dont want to be at.

The scandals in CBB are far less and fewer on a whole. That was until recently when the NCAA and NBA started to collude again by forcing kids to go to college for 1 year or oversees for one year to be eligible for the NBA draft. Are their still issues and violations in CBB sure there are but on a scale of that in CFB it is much less and hardly as big.

Bottom line for me is give these kids an option other than CFB for 3 years where some of them will be tempted to take illegal benefits and let them earn a real living. It may not be a perfect fix but it is better than most I have heard lately.

Roger Lewis a 3 star 6’2″ 190lb wide receiver became the 12th verbal commit today for first year Head Coach Luke Fickell. Lewis who had offers from several Big East and PAC 12 schools as well as most of the MAC schools choose Ohio State today over all of them and had been getting heavy interest from other B1G schools and SEC schools since he started to stand out at this years summer camps he attended. Lewis said he ran a 4.42 40 yard dash at the Cincinnati Bearcats camp this summer received several inquiries and offers but knew he wanted to be a Buckeye from day one. He wants to follow in the lines of great OSU receivers like Ted Ginn Jr. and Santonio Holmes. I am sure Buckeye Nation would be ecstatic if he became one to be mentioned in that group of future OSU HOFers.

A perennial favorite of die-hard, stat-loving college football fans, Phil Steele’s preview magazine is arguably the most respected and certainly the most in-depth on the market.  His rankings and predictions are eagerly anticipated each year, and when the latest edition hit the stands this spring, Ohio State once again found itself atop the conference by Steele’s estimation.  Granted, this time it was in a three-way tie for the Leaders division with Wisconsin and Penn State, but still.

The only problem was, at press time our head coach was still Jim Tressel and the frustrating yet dynamic Terrelle Pryor would resume taking snaps by mid-season.  Steele acknowledged that things could change depending on what sanctions Ohio State faced, and yesterday he updated his outlook for the Buckeyes and a couple other teams that have had some significant shifts this summer:

While losing Tressel will hurt, the Buckeyes do have a veteran coaching staff that has spent several seasons together. The loss of Pryor is less of an issue because he already was going to be suspended for the first five games and I thought they would probably have QB controversy on their hands when he came back for the 6th game but now that major distraction can be avoided. They still host Wisconsin and Penn St late in the year after the suspended players return and provided there are no more players suspended or bowl bids being taken away, I still have the Buckeyes going to the first Big Ten title game.

Interesting take on the Pryor situation that I hadn’t really considered and could also be applied to the coaching side of things in a smaller way as well.  Continuity is important and while losing these two is not going to make us better, not having to slide them back in halfway through a campaign will avoid some awkwardness.

Also in the piece, Steele discusses Wisconsin’s addition of Russell Wilson, a move that led many to permanently elevate the Badgers above OSU for the Leaders title:

It’s been a long time since Wisconsin had a running/passing threat at QB and that will make them even more dangerous. But remember they have to travel to an underrated Michigan St team who beat them last year and also travel to Ohio St later in the year with the Buckeyes looking for revenge from their only loss last year. Even with Wilson I still have Wisconsin tied at the top of the Big Ten Leaders division.

So basically, no change, but it’s nice that a respected and generally unbiased analyst like Steele isn’t buying completely into the Wilson hype.  Personally, I have doubts about Bielema’s ability to effectively exploit Wilson’s athleticism in his old-school smashmouth offensive scheme.  It should be noted that Steele doesn’t even seem to believe that his presence will create enough separation between Wisconsin and Penn State to knock the Lions out of the three-way tie.

It doesn’t mean much, but it’s nice to get a little post-scandal vote of confidence from a solid analyst.

Even though the Big Ten coaches collectively chose to abandon making themselves look really stupid every year, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Doug Lesmerises was able to find a couple dozen reporters who were up the task (even though he could have easily snagged a few hundred).  So, what crazy, off-the-wall projections did this band of astute analysts come up with?

Nebraska and Wisconsin will play for the championship, and Nebraska will probably win.  Also, Denard Robinson is the best offensive player while Jared Crick is the best defensive player.

I know, my mind is blown too.

You can check out the full break-down here, but here’s the stuff you care about:  Ohio State got one vote to win the Leaders division and that’s not surprising since everyone assumes that either a) there will be a postseason ban from the NCAA (there won’t) or b) with all the turmoil, they won’t be able to compete at the same level (not unrealistic).  Still, the Buckeyes land the #2 spot, which should make Penn State feel really bad about themselves.

Michigan checks in at #4 in the Legends division, edging out Northwestern by a couple of votes.  That’s probably about right, although I might go with the Wildcats to make some noise over there this year.

Seventeen writers picked a Nebraska/Wisconsin title game, with 10 votes going to the Huskers to win it all in their first year.  I’m surprised that 71% of the pollsters did not even bother to look at Nebraska’s schedule.  There are two 3-game stretches that stick out to me and I’m going to go ahead and predict that Big Red goes 2-1 at best in both of those.

The first is @Wyoming, @Wisconsin, vs. Ohio State.  Going on the road is always a challenge and it will be nearly impossible for Nebraska to not overlook Wyoming even though this one should be a sure win.  But following that up with another road trip against a brutal and physical opponent that is predicted to win their division is about all you can ask of a team.  Unless, of course, you ask them to come home the next week to play another brutal and physical opponent that is expected to be just a notch below Wisconsin.  If the Huskers win all three of these games, then they’re my pick for National Champs.

Well, if they can also manage to navigate the season-ending @Penn State, @Michigan, vs. Iowa, that is.  Again, two consecutive road games in a stretch of at least decent opponents (who knows where the Wolverines will be at that point, but they’ll either be riding high or desperate to get to a bowl).  Again, I just don’t see how a team can pull off all six of these games without being the best team in the nation.

The only other Legends team selected in the poll was Michigan State.

As for the Leaders, Ohio State and Penn State each picked up a vote, but only to be chosen to get beat by Nebraska.  It’s Badgers Or Bust for these writers I guess.  Wisconsin’s schedule is a little lighter competition-wise than Nebraska’s, but the Badgers will be playing 4 of their last 6 games on the road, kicking off with a back-to-back of @Michigan State and @Ohio State.  This could be a spot for them to stumble, but a one-loss season (or better) is not out of the question.

I don’t have any major problems with the player selections, as Pryor’s departure and the remaining suspensions basically knocked us out of the running on the offensive side of the ball.  Brewster does check in at #9 on that list.  Defensively, John Simon lands the #6 spot and Nate Williams takes #9.

As with any pre-season poll, it’s totally meaningless, but hey, at least it’s not a scandal post.

Forget the constant soap opera outrage of ESPN anchors spewing laughably misinformed opinions.  Ignore George Dohrmann’s poorly sourced and almost instantly debunked Sports Illustrated hit piece that attempted to expand the scope of players involved and paint former head coach Jim Tressel as a complete sham.  And skip the numerous breathless local and national stabs in the dark (“Tressel gave a recruit a personalized jersey…”) that don’t bother to offer the complete story (“…after he died.”)

Instead, take some time to peruse the NCAA’s Case Summary and the much longer but incredibly interesting transcript of their February interview with Tressel.  Clear your mind of the clutter that so many have tossed recklessly at you for the entire spring and summer and look at the provable and admitted facts, then make up your own mind about what happened.

You’ll have time while you’re waiting for ESPN’s outrage over this that I’m sure they’re just about to get to any minute now…