composite pre-season poll is out:

http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/Portal ... ePolls.pdf

USC on top...I love it!

Ol Phil Steele, drinking the Gator-ade again.

I haven't been less excited about a season in my life and I can't quite put my finger on why.

Opposite here. Dream scenario for me is to hammer Bammer in the regular season, then take down the "vaunted" Trojans in the BCSNCG while Musberger openly cries on air.

Arkansas at no. 10? Well, slap me, silly!



(With apologies to THEE Chadwick.)

it's that ring that's going to be on your finger

the Seminole ade even more to his liking

Phil Steele fucks kids.

Probably because we all know that in addition to being one of the 2 SEC teams (and only official, since the OSU/Ark game was nullified) to lose to the Big Ten in a bowl, I know deep down that there's pretty much no way we don't hand Mizzou a 1-0 SEC record and get shit on not just by the loss, but all other SEC teams, and that game alone probably loses us the division?

Gotta say that today was a good day...

PennState punishments:

1. Release all current players for immediate transfer.
2. Revoke all scholarships and make them play DIII for 30 years.
3. Names on the backs of jerseys, and Nike Combat uniform redesign with no more blank helmets.
4. Find/Replace all Paterno references in the state with "Barry Switzer".

5. Head Coach Arlen Specter.

I've been saying it since the beginning - fuck the football team, pull the state charter and declare degrees from there to be non-accredited (sorry Sketch).

Hey, it got me a job when I needed one. Shouldn't be an issue again unless I apply for grad school.

I think the NCAA punishments strike the right balance of penalizing the current institution and Paterno's legacy but not the current players. Apparently, none of the current player/recruits have requested a transfer yet, but they've got just over a month to play for someone else this season, and they can still switch next year. One of the bigger 2013 recruits is sticking around for now, and O'Brien is trying hard to "sell the resurrection." We'll see what happens.

I thought it was all pretty fair and warranted given the nature of everything. I feel for the players and their fans but one of the more reasoned things I heard was a comparison to a business. If you work for a company, and the upper management makes bad business decisions and runs it into the ground then everyone gets laid off. You feel for the worker but ultimately, everyone has to go find another job. Chalk it up to a "life isn't fair" life lesson. It is what it is.

I also think the demise of the PSU football program is being greatly exaggerated by many in the media who are making SMU comparisons, etc. Will this be a brutal 4-5 years? 6-7 years? Absolutely. But, there are people who live and die by the program and have probably been giving to the University for 50 years or more. Are they suddently going to become Pitt fans? They're already doing due dilligence to scrub things clean and start moving past this. I think they'll eventually take Paterno's name off that library as well.

Also, the American public can forget almost anything. Particularly in a world where news is forgotten almost after it's reported. In 4 years the college world will be completely different than it is now.

evidence the punishment was not severe enough.

I dunno, dude. I think a lot of parents are going to think "You could go to Rutgers, or you could go to the place where the legendary coach covered up the child rape" and advise against the scenario where even if you win, the first question from the media is "how do you think this makes the fans feel, what with the child rape and all?"

As spiderman's uncle once said, "with great power comes great responsibility." You get that much money, power and attention for so long and do something this monstrous, come what may. This should be pretty awful, and should last for a pretty long time.

I get that and this is all still so fresh. Do you realize that this has all happened in less than a year? That's pretty crazy.

Still, if you're a parent, and you're helping your kid decide on college, what's worse? Sending your kid to PSU the year after this scandal or sending your kid to Virigina Tech the year after the campus shootings?

All reports say that enrollment actually went UP at VT the year after that tragedy.

Dave Bliss conspired to cover-up a murder, by accusing the player whose palm he was greasing, of being Waco's biggest drug-dealer. Yet, Scott Drew has had Baylor in the Sweet Sixteen twice since.

Also: FUN DAVE BLISS FACT: he is now the athletic director at a Christ-focused charter in East Texas. WTF, Tejanos?

Also: also: Baylor '03 has already been the nearer analog to Penn State '11, as the violation of the public trust, while centered in athletics, was not about on-field conduct. SMU's violations directly affected game-play. PSU's & Baylor's were about biography.

The VT - PSU comparison doesn't make a ton of sense to me, other than in the blurriest of terms ("something bad happened"). VT didn't do anything to deserve blame for the shootings, and thus a theoretical parent doesn't really "blame" VT for what happened. PSU actively covered up rhythmic slapping, for years and years.

I agree that Baylor (or Montana) are better comparisons than VT. With the possible exception of Montana, my first association with each university is not their respective incidents. That said, they still pale in scope and duration to what Sandusky did and what Paterno, Curley, and Spanier covered up, and the media coverage has spoken to that in the short term.

I honestly don't know what happens next and will be more at peace if I don't guess. At least 25 current players verbally committed to stay and are saying the right things despite their lack of media training. Biggest question mark is junior tailback Silas Redd who rushed for over 1,200 yards last season and is getting wooed by the likes of USC.

I'm sure there are those that would not be satisfied for anything bar the death penalty, and that would have certainly brought a lot more clarity to answering "What would Penn State be without football?" Even so, the current sanctions are a gut-check for everyone involved and asking them what's the most important: education, integrity, loyalty, winning, revenue, et al.

May we live in interesting times...

The Montana Grizzlies Rape-parade did not last nearly so long as the PSU situation, true, & the victims have all been of-age, so I'll grant you not as bad as the Nittany cover-up. But somebody died at Baylor. Unless there's a suicide tied to Sandusky's abuse -- & for all we know, there might be (but not reported, so we don't) -- I still say Baylor is worse.

& on a football note, two things to remember about Bill O'Brien:

(one.) he's the most secure in his position of any coach in America (assuming the Lions don't play two, three seasons of 1-12 ball with margins of defeat in the 25-30 points range), & he runs a clean program off-field, he's not going anywhere (see also: Drew, Scott);

(two.) if he's smart, he'll look to make Penn State into Boise East, looking for lightly-recruited, hungry players who can compete in high-level D1 on the cheap.