NCAA college football 2016-17: Official thread

Enix wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Burn that mother down.

Indeed.

The scary thing is, that's probably not the worst thing that's ever happened to a Baylor athletic team.

I'm well aware of that incident as well. The commonality here? Actual serious, sickening crimes, covered up by Baylor in the name of protecting their (historically sh*tty anyway) athletic program.

Btw I am fixing my above post. Five should have been nine. Sick, sick, sick. When they fire Art Briles, and hopefully Ken Starr (yep) too, they should never work again. I'm afraid what will happen is someone else will snap Briles up, because he wins games.

They always have their basketball program to fall back on.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Enix wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Burn that mother down.

Indeed.

The scary thing is, that's probably not the worst thing that's ever happened to a Baylor athletic team.

I'm well aware of that incident as well. The commonality here? Actual serious, sickening crimes, covered up by Baylor in the name of protecting their (historically sh*tty anyway) athletic program.

Btw I am fixing my above post. Five should have been nine. Sick, sick, sick. When they fire Art Briles, and hopefully Ken Starr (yep) too, they should never work again. I'm afraid what will happen is someone else will snap Briles up, because he wins games.

I wonder if it goes higher than just the athletic program. I wonder how much of this is because this is a private Baptist university?

Edit: Not that I am blaming the Baptist faith in any way, but I have to wonder if power has something to do with this, above sports.

Edit #2: I do feel that we have to see if an actual investigation will be performed (independent of the university) so that we can see who knew what and when, and get all of the facts out in the light. I, more than many, would caution not reading too much into the news stories without knowing/studying the facts. People love their clicks...

All that said, if even a fraction of the things that I have been hearing for the last couple of days are remotely true, then yes, many people should be losing their jobs.

I think this has less to do with Baylor's public/private status or any sort of religious affiliation and more to do with the fact that it's a corporation, which is all about blame-shifting and doing whatever it needs to do to keep the enterprise going.

A private religiously affiliated institution might be less likely than other schools to fess up to bad actions. But Penn State, Florida State and UNC-Chapel Hill have all had their problems in recent years, and all three are public universities.

You really have to read the details of how police covered up some of these stories, to say nothing of the villainous Art Briles and Ken Starr. In one example, they removed a case from a computer and kept it as a paper copy only, behind a locked door.

Anything anyone speculates might have gone down with Florida State's Jameis Winston non-investigation definitely happened at Baylor - many times, over many years.

The football player who was convicted of rape recently was a Boise State transfer. His former coach says he warned Briles about the guy's problematic behavior before he transferred. Briles now claims that he didn't know.

I'm usually a small government guy, but this is exactly the kind of situation we need federal investigations for. And I'm not ignoring that this problem goes well beyond Baylor - college athletics have so much pull in state and local politics that you have to get outside oversight in these cases.

Diana Moskowitz over at deadspin has great write ups on this stuff.
here

boogle wrote:

Diana Moskowitz over at deadspin has great write ups on this stuff.
here

But to read that you would have to go to Deadspin... no thanks.

Fed, I hear you. I read about that police activity as well. Ugh.

I know how much y'all love talk about how tough the SEC / SEC West are. A few years back, Bama won the National title without winning their division.

Well, that's how it is in baseball this year. The Fightin' Texas Aggies are now ranked number one in two polls, but didn't win the West.

You can go about your business. Move along.

Abu5217 wrote:
boogle wrote:

Diana Moskowitz over at deadspin has great write ups on this stuff.
here

But to read that you would have to go to Deadspin... no thanks.

Fed, I hear you. I read about that police activity as well. Ugh.

Don't understand the Deadspin hate.
Best sports coverage on the web and Moskowitz's deep dives on crime + sports are great.
And I haven't even pimped Howard's series on the human sleaze impersonation that is Kevin Johnson.

boogle wrote:

Don't understand the Deadspin hate.
Best sports coverage on the web and Moskowitz's deep dives on crime + sports are great.
And I haven't even pimped Howard's series on the human sleaze impersonation that is Kevin Johnson.

I used to LOVE Deadspin. Obviously I didn't agree with the bulk of the articles they released during the Winston stuff, (I thought they were heavily one-sided and were serving a particular narrative) and I had already noticed a pretty significant drop in quality of stories before that. I guess I just decided to go elsewhere for my hot taeks.

WRT Moskowitz, she had just started writing there when I was last a fan, and I am not so sure I enjoyed her style. Maybe it's changed, and maybe she's really good if I am able to remove the emotional context, but I have had no real desire to go back for a couple years now.

You don't have to be angry at deadspin anymore, Jameis is the Buc's problem now.

Eh, unless the entire Gawker network has really changed their bent, I'm not really interested. Like I said, I used to spend way too much time on their sites (also Gizmodo and, for a while, Kotaku) but their shtick just got tiresome for me. (oooh we are SO edgy!)

No big deal, and if others like the site, that's cool, just not my cup of tea anymore. Plenty of websites out there...

Baylor fires Briles

It's been a weird week. Still remains to be seen if Ken Starr keeps his job.

Abu5217 wrote:

Baylor fires Briles

It's been a weird week. Still remains to be seen if Ken Starr keeps his job.

Bye, Felicia.

Abu5217 wrote:

Baylor fires Briles

It's been a weird week. Still remains to be seen if Ken Starr keeps his job.

Starr no longer president, remains chancellor and professor of law. AD gets a wrist slap.

Now we'll see what scumbag school will try to hire Briles.

Briles should be done with college coaching forever. I personally wouldn't take him as an NFL coach, but at the very least, he should be done having responsibility for college students.

Jesus, just read the Findings of Fact (it's a PDF) from Pepper Hamilton. Damn.

I figured for Baylor to do what they did, the report had to be bad. No idea it would be this bad.

Critical passages regarding football:

In certain instances, including reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics. In those instances, football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct. As a result, no action was taken to support complainants, fairly and impartially evaluate the conduct under Title IX, address identified cultural concerns within the football program, or protect campus safety once aware of a potential pattern of sexual violence by multiple football players.

Another:

Football coaches and staff took affirmative steps to maintain internal control over discipline of players and to actively divert cases from the student conduct or criminal processes. In some cases, football coaches and staff had inappropriate involvement in disciplinary and criminal matters or engaged in improper conduct that reinforced an overall perception that football was above the rules, and that there was no culture of accountability for misconduct.

And for the school as a whole:

Actions by University administrators directly discouraged some complainants from reporting or participating in student conduct processes and in one instance constituted retaliation against a complainant for reporting sexual assault.

(Emphasis in all is mine)

Frankly, I am surprised that anyone is left in the football, athletics or administrative offices.

All that said, I will give credit to Baylor. I know for a fact that not all schools would have taken action this drastic, and it least appears that they are going all-in on fixing the problems. Here's hoping that they can change the culture on that campus.

I know for a fact that not all schools would have taken action this drastic

I have already seen one actual journalist rating Baylor's integrity higher than another university's.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
I know for a fact that not all schools would have taken action this drastic

I have already seen one actual journalist rating Baylor's integrity higher than another university's.

Heh, do I have to guess which university? Prolly not, since you are posting it. Not surprised.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
I know for a fact that not all schools would have taken action this drastic

I have already seen one actual journalist rating Baylor's integrity higher than another university's.

Yeah I saw you retweeting that

The Louisiana district attorney refuses to prosecute Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones...literally because they play football, it seems. No word yet on whether there will be internal discipline.

wifeofmanta wrote:

The Louisiana district attorney refuses to prosecute Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones...literally because they play football, it seems. No word yet on whether there will be internal discipline.

Yeah, that quote of his (the DA) was pretty tone-deaf. I can actually understand the concept of not wanting a (relatively) minor offense to permanently stain these guys' lives, especially for a first offense, but there are probably 12093429 different ways he could have explained it.

For those that missed it, here's the quote:

Tone Deaf LA DA wrote:

"I want to emphasize once again that the main reason I'm doing this is that I refuse to ruin the lives of two young men who have spent their adolescence and teenage years, working and sweating, while we were all in the air conditioning."

I know it must seem like the end of days if I am somewhat defending (or at least sympathetic) to anything Bama, but the wailing and gnashing of teeth around this are somewhat humorous.

wifeofmanta wrote:

The Louisiana district attorney refuses to prosecute Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones...literally because they play football, it seems. No word yet on whether there will be internal discipline.

This story is insane. I always think it's crazy when people act against their own best interests (not counting altruistic acts): How is this guy going to win another Louisiana election when he refused to prosecute Bama players?

Who knows? There are tons of speculative theories out there. Perhaps he meant what he said figuratively and was speaking on opportunity and upbringing. Perhaps he was literal and respects athletes.

Clay Travis at Outkick The Coverage had some thoughts that sparked anger amongst the Alabama team...and probably amongst all athletes. Someone more awesome than me can link the article if they would like.

I am a white collar professional and will be the first to say that I don't work as hard as student athletes. I completely disagree with his take.

There's a rumor that the search of the car was unlawful, or sketchy, so the DA didn't think the case would stick. Just a rumor AFAIK.

And here we go...

Big 12 expansion a near-certainty as it aims to avoid being left behind

A source familiar with the Big 12’s thinking told SI.com on Tuesday that it looks “nearly definite” that the league will expand by two schools and “highly possible” the league could expand by four schools. This is major news, sparked in part by the revelation on Monday that the ACC will be launching its own network, leaving the Big 12 as the only Power 5 school without some type of television network. The Big 12 was getting left behind, and Tuesday’s decision is another definitive step to attempt to keep up.

Not a fan, but at least a championship game makes sense with at least 12 schools. Having one with 10 schools was nonsense.

I'm going to say that BYU and Houston are the odds on favorites to be the 11th and 12th teams. If Big 12 goes to 14, it gets harder to pin down, but Memphis, Cincinnati, and UConn probably have the best chances. Coen of them are ideal, but then, we all knew that once Louisville went to the ACC, that there were no more non-Power 5 schools really worth adding.

Personally, I still think 10 teams makes sense. But, you know, money.

Oh, and to make it more interesting, Bill Snyder says there are two teams that want back into the Big 12.

Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder told Heartland College Sports that he knows of teams who want to return to the Big 12 Conference Tuesday afternoon during breakout sessions.

“I may be wrong and other people may see it differently, but I don’t think anyone could be in a better situation than the teams we have in our conference,” Snyder said. “I’ll tell you what. There are teams that left our conference right now that wish they could get back in our conference.”

Snyder did not mention which schools want to rejoin, but he did respond to a follow-up question by saying “Two I know of”.

I'm guessing Nebraska and Colorado is who he is talking about. I see no way Mizzou and A&M would want to leave the SEC, let alone rejoin the Big 12.

Why would BYU join a conference? They have such a national draw they can just play the independent game.

I have no idea. Reports are that they want in a conference, though.

http://www.vanquishthefoe.com/2016/7...

Well, through Twitter, BYU made it official they want in:

“We are obviously excited the leadership of the Big 12 has advised commissioner Bob Bowlsby to review potential expansion candidates. BYU is known for its academic excellence and I believe we have an exceptional athletic program. As I’ve stated before, I would like to see our student-athletes compete at the highest level.”

Memphis State and Cincy would be good for basketball.