@pumpkin-eater said:

My ONLY question in all this is WHY ON EARTH ISN'T USC ON PROBATION YET?

That's the biggest joke of all. I've been watching the NCAA pick and CHOOSE their favorite programs to target for punishment for decades. Back in the day, Nebraska's Tom Osborne used to shake all the right hands, grease all the right fannies and say all the right things. Underneathe it all his hand selected players were sexually assaulting women on and off campus, fighting at nightclubs, getting arrested for being intoxicated in public, and beating up students on campus. HOWEVER, there was a Jed Clampett type with a bullseye on his back acting as Head Coach at the University of Oklahoma with an outspoken Brian Bosworth that the NCAA could make their example of and did.

I think Bobby Bowden had a lot of similarites to Tom Osborne in how he diverted attention away from what was really going on. That said, some 20 years after the fact - he's lost wins nobody knows about especially the opponents that were certain they got their butts kicked. "Hey Joe, remember the day Florida State beat us 45-0 back in 1990? We won man. High 5!" Because they never got penalized scholarship volumes - that didn't prevent Florida State from spanking that same team just as brutally the next season.

The Reggie Bush nonsense was almost 5 years ago and now McKnight has come and gone so the NCAA mysteriously decides to put the USC basketball program on probation. The color of MONEY is doing some really shadey things here. So much for the purity of it all.

Aside from all that, guys like Pete Carroll, Jimmy Johnson and even John Calipari get REWARDED for cheating all this time with enormous contracts elsewhere. Seriously, what kind of message does this send to future generations?

One might not think this is relevant but you're just not going to have Kiffen thinking USC is his dream job if they remove all the scholarships, bowl opportunites and other things enticing kids thinking NFL. This all adds up to UT getting really screwed. I think the Memphis State Basketball fans got just as screwed over as John Calipari is being rewarded with happily ever after in Kentucky as we speak. Nothing wrong with CATCHING cheaters if you punish the RIGHT people; and you don't just pick and choose whom you want to punish. I think the win-win outcome that needs to happen in all this is for the USC football program to get the probation everyone in America is waiting for. It's funny how quickly they move to nail other programs.

- Tom F.

@yosemitejam said:

Not sure how it started. We have been playing Georgia since the teens and playing in Jacksonville since the mid 30's to the best of my recollection....no, I don't go back that far.

It just started on the docks not far from the Gator Bowl.....good weather, good football, nice location...maybe the first real tailgaters.

A lot of booze is consumed by the alum from both sides...thus the worlds largest cocktail party, though it isn't sanctioned as such anymore.....not politically correct anymore.

@ballpeen said:

I have held Gator season tickets for 30+ years....people in my section aren't standing the whole game, but again, it is the student side that stands the most. On the alumni side, we have learned what seats are for.

Tell me about "The Biggest Cocktail Party in the World" pappy Gator fan. How was it started?

@yosemitejam said:

I have no idea.....maybe more a student thing.

I have held Gator season tickets for 30+ years....people in my section aren't standing the whole game, but again, it is the student side that stands the most. On the alumni side, we have learned what seats are for.

@ballpeen said:

"

that may be pappy, but there isn't a thing charming about Coach P over in hog country or should i say "slick willy" country?

@ballpeen said:

is that why the fans stand the entire game???

@yosemitejam said:

Face it, the crappiest job in the SEC, which Arkansas might be is better than the best job in many other places.

By SEC campus standards, Arkansas is a pretty rinky dink place.

Houston Nutt made a huge upgrade when he moved from Hog country to Ole Miss.

Most people around the country might not know it, but Oxford, Mississippi is about as nice a place as one could wish to be...it's like a town out of a Tennessee Williams play....it's gorgeous.

When you think old southern charm, think Oxford.

@pumpkin-eater said:

ain't that the truth broham...the stinkiest, nastiest weasel coaches in fayetteville in charge of the razorbacks...i'd punch this shit bird in the ear if i ever came across him

@pumpkin-eater said:

USC needs a babysitter to get them through upcoming NCAA probe regarding Bush, et.al. he ain't no real coach.. Looks like he is a high school junior...i predict he might last a year or two

But if you're in his position and get handed one of college football's dream jobs ( plus where you get to haul your entire staff in) ..do you not take the keys the maserati and hope you don't crash?

I'm pretty sure I would.

@pumpkin-eater said:

No way. I have heard rumors he is going to take a RB in every round of the draft this year.

@pumpkin-eater said:

impossible

@clevelandfanforlife said:

haha. no. This does make Al Davis look a little less senile, though.

@pumpkin-eater said:

are you complaining. as a notre dame fan, and all around u$c hater, i am very excited about this hire.

@pumpkin-eater said:

Nothing, and I agree.

Lame is all smoke and mirrors.

@carolina-brownie said:

Says the Clemson fan.

@pumpkin-eater said:

Some just realize it takes a special breed to be a SEC coach.

No area of the country follows it's college football like the south.

Lame is a west coast kind of guy....you know, quiche and $75 haircuts.