MASOLI-IPPI
Let's just say a hypothetical quarterback -- Keremiah Nasoli
It must be hard for a site like OleMissSports.com -- "The Official Site of the University of Mississippi" -- to cover the Jeremiah Masoli thing. So when the site ran a Q&A with Houston Nutt on the quarterback situation in Oxford, the most interesting part was watching them say everything but "Jeremiah Masoli." Rev. Nutt, what are the pros and cons of some TOTALLY UNSPECIFIED quarterback transferring to Ole Miss with only a year or two left in his career?
The pros are that they can directly help your football team, because they fill a need you have. However, we've signed the maximum number of players we could sign. It's unlikely we would use a scholarship on a player with just one year of eligibility. But if the player were willing to join the team as a non-scholarship player, we would bring them in on an official visit, get to know the young man and put him in front of our team.
This is what I think is the most serious catch for the Masoli-to-Mississippi chatter: Will he go to Ole Miss if they can't offer a scholarship? Can he afford to?
Brandt: Everyone at Ole Miss appears to be on board
Athletics Director Pete Boone "and possible others" have apparently joined Houston Nutt in deciding to recruit this mystery quarterback.
A consensus has built that Masoli is worth pursuing. More research is being done into the former Oregon quarterback’s background and the necessary steps it would take to get him enrolled into an Ole Miss graduate program and eligible to get on the football field.
That's not a small amount of paperwork to get done and quickly if they want Masoli to actually, you know, play this year.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WATCH: 2004 (REALLY)
But will Alabama fans say it doesn't count?
For a school whose fans normally mock Alabama's claims of retroactive national titles, the idea of one for the 2004 Auburn team sent Tigers beat writers into a frenzy. The only likely opportunity comes from the Football Writers Association of America, whose executive director Steve Richardson didn't say yes but didn't say no Tuesday.
"I wouldn't say we're definitely going to do that, but it's a possibility," Richardson said. "As we survey the scene, we have an opportunity to consider for the first time of vacating, in the modern era, a national championship."
New talk of giving the 2004 title to Auburn was kicked up another notch not just by Richardson's talk, but a new round of speculation about the fate of the BCS title prompted by Series boss Bill Hancock.
They always have the AP title (again)
Hancock didn't exactly mince words about the future of the crystal football currently in Los Angeles.
"If USC loses the appeal, the [2004] championship will be vacated," Hancock told reporters. "And the feeling is in our group, the commissioners group, is that there was not a game, no game happened."
Hancock added, "They will vacate, they will not elevate anyone," referring to the 12 school presidents who make up the BCS Oversight Committee.
"The presidents could decide to do something else, but I think it's most likely that they will vacate it."
Which kind of makes sense. Listen, I understand the argument that Auburn fans are going to make about this -- why not go to the No. 2 team and make it the champion? But the BCS Championship is awarded to the winner of the BCS Championship Game. Last time I checked, that was Southern Cal. If the game is vacated, then there is no winner -- not Auburn, Oklahoma or anyone else.
Surprisingly, Tommy Tuberville doesn't agree
Or maybe not so surprisingly.
"People don’t realize what they went through. I had to look at a bunch of guys all year long and tell them all they could do was keep winning. Then you come up short at the end. Now, a team is out but you’re not going to revote it because it happened five years ago? That’s not right."
I think he might have a point on the AP vote, since it's not specifically tied to an individual game that's being vacated. But the AP has already made it clear that it has no interest in holding a revote. Not that I don't understand why Tuberville is continuing to lobby about this; you don't get many chances for a national title as a coach, and Lubbock isn't exactly a prime location to launch a quest for another.
OTHER NEWS
The Bryce Brown saga gets a lot weirder
Of course.
"Bryce left town without a face-to-face request (with UT football coach Derek Dooley) for a transfer," a school official told the News Sentinel on Tuesday evening. "There’s still no news on where he wants to go."
My guess is that it doesn't involve orange. But that's just a hunch. Rocky Top Talk draws on a story that Brown told Derek Dooley of his intentions via text to say "good riddance." What does he think this is, Ole Miss?
Even if it isn't fair to define him fully by the text message, it does serve as validation to a thought that many of us had coming into today: we're tired of this, and maybe it's just not worth it. Brown, no matter how talented, would've been a distraction on a team that's led the nation in that category over the last two years.
I don't really know what to say about this
On the list of things I would expect Tim Tebow to endorse -- well, underwear would not be at the top of the list. Or anywhere on the list, really.
I’m excited to represent the Jockey brand and to work with such an innovative company.
Innovative? How much innovation is really possible with boxers, briefs and white T-shirts? I didn't know there were untapped avenues to take those products down.
Chad Jones back home from hospital after accident
But he's not done yet. New York Giants VP Ronnie Barnes:
All has gone well thus far for Chad, and he will return in probably six to eight weeks for another surgical procedure.
Thoughts, prayers and best wishes.
Kiffin was 'surprised' by Tennessee lawsuit
Of course, accountability tends to do that to people who aren't familiar with it.
Pat Haden is delusional
The new Southern Cal athletics director actually said this.
"I don’t think we’re going to have a problem with compliance with Lane," Haden said. "He knows where we’re coming from."
But that's not part of the plan, Pat.
Narcissism much?
At least it won't be difficult to figure out what year the media guide is from, even if the top of the cover gets torn off.
It will be the Pac-12
Westerners will continue to join Southerners in this stubborn insistence on "counting," with the Pac-10 changing its name once Colorado and Utah join.
"We will be mathematically correct going forward," Scott said Monday at a news conference at a Manhattan hotel.
The Big Ten will apparently continue to think numbers are for dummies.