The one year scholarship

This question was place on the Oversite.com website

I have yet to read a real argument why this practice is so bad. Your whole reasoning is based on the coach not explaining that a scholarship is for one year only and eventually may not be extended. Is there any proof that Saban (or any other coach) has removed the scholarship from anyone who wasn’t told this? You then say that it creates an unfair advantage. I disagree, it may well be an advantage, but only one created by the coach who makes fair use of the rules and is able to effectively plan for the future.

 I disagree.

Oversigning.com

As it says on my blog description, I am a infrequent poster on the O-Zone forums, a free website about Ohio State sports.  I love the information I find there but what brings me back is the forums.  Posts range from the rational well thought to the borderline insanity all which is seen through the rose colored glasses of the Buckeye faithful.  This site is probably a bit more overzealous in protecting their fans from outside opinions than most but I like it.  They make no apologies for this fact and it is a safe haven for all Buckeye faithful.

All websites have a few "celebrity posters" and one of them on the O-Zone is a guy by the name of 7NCs7Heisman.  He is a dedicated Buckeye fan that has an additional burdens to bear, he lives in Birmingham and is married to a woman that graduated from the University of Alabama.  Now don't get me wrong, I like Alabama.  My job has taken me to Birmingham many times and it I really like the area.  I actually like Mobile a bit better and have no dislike for Alabama in general.  It's the Bama fans I can't stand (Disclaimer - I'm sure people who come to Columbus feel the same way about Buckeye fans and they'd probably be right).  I think 7NCs7Heisman constant exposure to rabid Alabama fans during their recent success has sapped his sanity to the point he had to find a way to fight back against the Tide faithful.  I noticed in December that he started posting very frequently on the subject of oversigning.  During the month of January, I don't think a day went by without a post from him complaining about how Nick Saban  used oversigning to turn a program that had become a laughingstock into a national champion.  After a while it became a bit of a running joke but he took it to the next level and created a blog specifically dedicated to the subject.  After hearing his rantings for a few months I was a bit jaded on the topic because it is easy to mistake his criticisms for sour grapes as a result of the Buckeyes lack of success against the SEC.  But the more I looked the more I was convinced.  This "crazy" Buckeye exposed for me a dirty secret that I'm sure the NCAA would prefer no one knew.

What happens to the BCS if the Big Ten expands to 16?

The BCS is currently set up to give an automatic bid to the conference champion of the Big Ten, SEC, Pac 10, Big 12, ACC, and Big East.  Notre Dame also gets an automatic invite if they finish in the top 8.  Teams from the non-BCS conferences get an invite if they finish in the top 12.

The current payout structure gives every BCS conference $17.7 Million plus an additional $4.5 million if a second team is invited.  Notre Dame gets $1.3 million if they don't make the BCS and an additional $4.5 million if they are invited.  Non-BCS conferences get $9.75 million automatically, $9.75 million if one of their teams gets an invite, and another $4.5 if a second team is invited (the total is split based on a formula devised by the non-BCS conferences).  FWIW, an additional $1.8 million is given to the FCS conferences as well as $100,000 each to Army and Navy.  ((These numbers are based on the 2009-10 season and will increase proportionally due to the new ESPN contract)).

Is ESPNs latest gimmick poll (NFL pipeline) also its stupidest?

ESPN is ranking the top colleges in their ability to put top talent into the NFL.  The way they did the calculation is to give one point for each player who was named NFL most valuable player, defensive player of the year, offensive player of the year or All-Pro (first- or second-team) and one point for each Pro Bowl appearance.  They ranked all players drafted from 1979 to 2009.  Here are the results ranked from 1 to 16:

USC
Miami
Pitt
Florida State
Tennessee
UCLA
Notre Dame
Georgia
Penn State
Arizona State
Michigan
Ohio State
Florida
Nebraska
Oklahoma State
Clemson

A quick look at this list raises a lot of questions but I will focus just one. 

How can Pitt be ranked #3? and Ohio State #12?

The Big Ten with 4 Corners

I saw a comment on the ESPN Big Ten Blog the other day regarding a 16 team Big Ten with 4 divisions instead of 2.  I was opposed to the idea until someone started talking about two weeks of playoffs instead of just one.  Here's how it would work in my mind.

To get to 16 teams the Big Ten would need to add 5 teams.  For the purposes of this exercise let's assume it is Notre Dame, Missouri, Syracuse, Rutgers, Nebraska.  The divisions would looks something like this.

East	North	West	Central
Penn State	Iowa	Nebraska	Ohio State
Notre Dame	Wisconsin	Illinois	Michigan
Syracuse	Minnesota	Purdue	Michigan State
Rutgers	Northwestern	Missouri	Indiana