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"We're thrilled," Jones told NSN. "We got off to a little rocky start in conference play and ended up being the last team (at the conference tournament). We have 12 teams, and we were the eighth seed. They only take eight teams. We were the last one to qualify for our conference tournament, but our guys did a tremendous job of playing well over three days and put us in position to be at the greatest show on Earth, and that's March Madness." You can watch our full interviews with Jones and his assistant coach, Brandon Chambers, who spent three seasons at Nevada from 2016-19, below. read more: https://nevadasportsnet.com/sports/mens-basketball/ex-nevada-assistant-johnny-jones-aims-for-third-straight-season-with-ncaa-tournament-win

NCAA officials sent a letter to its membership Thursday noting its enforcement staff's pursuit of "potential violations" of the name, image and likeness compensation policy and emphasizing the need for schools to help investigations. The email came from Stan Wilcox, NCAA executive vice president of regulatory Affairs, and Jon Duncan, VP of enforcement. It said NCAA enforcement staff is "actively investigating potential abuses of NIL transactions and we'll allege any substantiated concerns as soon as possible." "We also constantly review new reports of tampering, recruiting inducements, impermissible benefits, impermissible recruiters and other related behaviors," the email said. read more: https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/34420323/ncaa-asks-member-schools-help-nil-violation-investigations

read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/19/one-year-later-nil-has-not-crippled-ncaa-football-because-nothing-will/

Documents and bank records obtained in discovery during the federal investigation into the underbelly of college basketball detail in meticulous fashion the expenditures of prominent former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports. They include expense reports and balance sheets that list cash advances, as well as entertainment and travel expenses for high school and college prospects and their families. Yahoo Sports viewed hundreds of pages of documents from the years-long probe that had federal authorities monitoring multiple targets and intercepting more than 4,000 calls across 330 days, providing a clear-eyed view into the pervasive nature of the game’s underground economy. While three criminal cases tied to the investigation may take years to play out, the documents viewed by Yahoo revealed the extent of the potential NCAA ramifications from the case. The documents show an underground recruiting operation that could create NCAA rules issues – both current and retroactive – for at least 20 Division I basketball programs and more than 25 players. The documents tie some of the biggest names and programs in the sport to activity that appears to violate the NCAA’s amateurism rules. This could end up casting a pall over the NCAA tournament because of eligibility issues. There’s potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools. The documents link some of the sport’s biggest current stars – Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter – to specific potential extra benefits for either the athletes or their family members. The amounts tied to players in the case range from basic meals to tens of thousands of dollars. NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement Friday morning to address the latest developments in the corruption probe. “These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules,” the statement read. “Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.” read more: https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html

An interesting and funny take on why UCF’s national title claim isn’t as goofy as it sounds. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/21954302/ucf-not-first-school-call-national-champion

Since I'm tired of reading everyone here bickering like an old married couple about the current state of UNT athletics, I had an interesting thought about the Harrell Passing School. With Harrell's current status as an OC and the NCAA ruling of no satellite camps, does this mean he will no longer be able to participate/evaluate those players? I see this as a potential leg up for recruiting but I am curious as to whether or not it violates any sanctions as far as recruiting those players and the satellite camp rules now in place.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/13556664/oregon-vernon-adams-florida-state-everett-golson-reignite-graduate-transfer-discussion I'm for the graduate transfer rule, but there should be something in place that forces/enforces the student to complete a graduate degree.

North Texas has one of the nation's quirkier schedules. The Mean Green begin the season with a bye, so they'll be at home watching while everyone else is playing after a nine-month wait. Then, after opening the season at Southern Methodist on Sept. 12, North Texas will play 12 straight games after adding a nonconference game at Tennessee on Nov. 12. "This is the first time I've gone 12 in a row; there's always been a break," North Texas coach Don McCarney said. "That won't happen again, but that's what we've got this season and we've got to play it out, hopefully find a way to be successful." Rich Rodriguez has a similar outlook. "We didn't choose 12 in a row," he said. "But as I said, I'm not going to complain about it after today unless we're not winning, and then I'm going to complain about it quite a bit." read more: http://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2015-08-19/college-football-late-start-season-cutting-down-number-bye-weeks

USC President C. L. Max Nikias was 1,400 miles from the Los Angeles campus, but he knew just how to appeal to his audience. In a swanky hotel ballroom, he told the crowd of alumni and donors that Texas had become the largest feeder of students to USC after California, and that students from their state scored significantly higher on the SAT than the average of all applicants. Then he introduced Texas' first lady, Cecilia Abbott, whose daughter will attend USC in the fall. That, he joked, could cause conflicts for the governor's family during football games. The three-day, three-city Trojan sprint through Texas was underway, one that could help USC raise the $1.8 billion it needs to reach its ambitious $6-billion campaign goal for scholarships, faculty hiring and building by the end of 2018. Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-usc-fundraising-20150621-story.html#page=1

STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State football program was put on one-year probation, fined $8,500, given self-imposed recruiting restrictions and had its student-athlete host program temporarily suspended following an NCAA ruling Friday that the university did not follow its drug testing policy or properly regulate its Orange Pride program. DRUG TESTING From January 2008 to October 2012, five football players who tested positive for banned substances participated in a total of seven games in which they should have been withheld, in accordance with the university’s policy. OSU athletic director Mike Holder told the NCAA in a January hearing he “mistakenly” believed he had “latitude” as the drug program’s administrator to make exceptions under the policy and approved those exceptions through coach Mike Gundy. Gundy admitted he was “guilty” in making decisions that contradicted the policy if he felt suspension was not in the player’s best interest. However, Holder was assigned to oversee the drug testing policy and he said “there is no question” he should have gone by “the letter of the law” and those student athletes in violation should have been suspended in line with the university’s policy. Read more: http://newsok.com/ncaa-announces-infractions-penalties-for-oklahoma-state-football-program/article/5413353

This from Dan Wolken from USA Today: "The difference between those two approaches highlights perhaps the biggest misperception about autonomy. Though it has been framed largely as a divide between the haves and have-nots in college athletics, there are enough financial differences among the 65 power conference schools to make the details sticky in almost any reform proposal, even if there is wide philosophical agreement. "There are probably 20 schools for whom this is like, no big deal, bring it on, whatever number you come up with we can handle it," Bobinski said. "The other 45, there is no wiggle room on an annual basis and were going to have to be creative, and raise additional revenues to help fund this, but we're not going to be left behind. If it's right, then we can do it." Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/08/06/ncaa-board-of-directors-vote-division-1-reform-autonomy/13674765/

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24610143/ncaa-releases-football-hitting-and-concussion-safety-guidelines

The Big Ten's presidents and chancellors on Tuesday issued a statement on the O'Bannon v. NCAA case being heard over the past three weeks in Oakland, pledging a commitment to guaranteed four-year scholarships that are binding even if an athlete leaves school early to begin a professional career. The statement also included a reiteration of the conference's support for cost-of-attendance scholarships and "improved, consistent medical insurance for student-athletes." "The best solutions rest not with the courts, but with us - presidents of the very universities that promote and respect the values of intercollegiate competition," the statement read. "Writing on behalf of all presidents of the Big Ten Conference, we must address the conflicts that have led us to a moment where the conversation about college sports is about compensation rather than academics." Read more: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/06/big_ten_issues_statement_on_ob.html

When interviewing a college administrator, coach or athlete, every sportswriter has at one time or another thought, "If only I could get these people under oath." That's exactly what has happened the past two weeks in Oakland, Calif., during the trial concerning the lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon against the NCAA over NILs, i.e. names, images and likenesses of athletes used by the NCAA in both television broadcast rights and marketing. O'Bannon believes student-athletes are entitled to the money that comes from those NILs. The NCAA argues paying players would violate the body's core values of amateurism. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken expects to wrap up the bench trial this week before rendering her decision at a later date. That decision is sure to be appealed. However, after the trial's first two weeks, news accounts have given us some interesting tidbits. Here are six: 1. The NCAA itself suspected that there could be a future legal problem with using players' names, images and likenesses. Read more: http://www.gogamecocks.com/2014/06/21/599952/john-clay-what-were-learning-about.html

When I read this article it is very discouraging and leads me to believe there is likely rampant cheating going on right now. North Carolina, Miami, Penn State -- to me there is still less risk in cheating and until they fix this with some steep penalties it will continue... read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24560341/all-quiet-on-the-violations-front-is-ncaa-enforcement-dead

The University of Tulsa, the American Athletic Conference and schools and leagues just like them would like two assurances coming out of last week's big NCAA announcement about Power Five autonomy: One is maintaining the football scholarship limit of 85. The other is continuing the current form of shared governance. If granting the ACC, the Big 12, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and the SEC legislative autonomy due to their expansive revenues means those leagues can add football scholarships, that would create a competitive imbalance with which schools in the AAC, Conference USA, the MAC, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt would not be able to keep up. And if the Power Five leagues are allowed to make their own rules while schools in other conferences are kept under a broader (stricter?) NCAA umbrella of governance, that could create a gap so wide that college athletics would be virtually unrecognizable. Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/johnehoover/john-e-hoover-smaller-schools-like-tulsa-want-assurances-with/article_b65ff912-51bb-5bdc-b3e9-8038afa5ee30.html

I think the concept of putting money aside that would be collected by the student athlete after they graduate and can be used for graduate school education etc is a pretty good one... Also it appears that the whistleblower Mary Wilingham at North Carolina is going to testify in front of Congress in regards to the NCarolina scandal and I expect her testimony to be pretty telling. It's an interesting controversy, on the one hand you have the greed of the power schools and their desire to separate legislatively. On the other hand, the LAST thing they want to do is move away from the student athlete model which this North Carolina mess indicates will happen when the need to win overrides academic integrity... READ MORE: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24554058/how-does-college-sports-solve-the-growing-players-movement

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-poised-to-create-separate-division-for-sec--big-ten--acc--pac-12--big-12-212725211.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory

Here's something cool to peruse: http://mode.github.io/blog/2014-01-16-football-hometowns/index.html# Where every single college football athlete hails from.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/passingYards You think he'll stay up there?

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/8/18/4633678/ncaa-marine-mtsu-steven-rhodes-eligibility

Looks like the judge is going to allow the players lawsuit to go forward. EA Sports was saying that they could use the players likeness due to 1st amendment rights...hogwash -- it was GREED!! But the problem is the NCAA doesn't allow them to get paid!! Norm said this could be a HUGE financial windfall for the players and the NCAA is already separated from EA... could get UGLY!

NEW YORK (AP) — The five power conferences are trying to redefine what it takes to operate a Division I college athletic program, with their commissioners calling out the NCAA at media days around the country. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby and fellow commissioners Mike Slive of the Southeastern Conference and John Swofford of the Atlantic Coast Conference have taken turns critiquing the NCAA over the last week, and it's likely Jim Delany of the Big Ten and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 will follow suit in the coming days. The schools in the most powerful and wealthy leagues want more freedom to be able to run their programs the way they want, without the less powerful schools standing in the way. Does this mean the end of the NCAA as we know it is near? Or will there be a new division of college football — Division 4 as Bowlsby calls it? Not necessarily. Former Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe says he thinks Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference can get the power to govern themselves without cutting off all ties to schools from the less powerful and wealthy FBS conferences. And NCAA expert John Infante, who writes the ByLaw Blog at athleticscholarship.com, says the best solution for the schools in those conferences is not leaving Division I, but reshaping it in a way where some smaller schools choose to leave. The lightning rod issue at the heart of this debate has been the proposed stipend to college athletes that would add about $2,000 to an athletic scholarship to cover the full cost of attendance. All the commissioners from the major conferences have pushed for it, but it could not be passed because smaller schools said they couldn't afford it. So, a possible solution for the powerful, wealthy schools is to set up a level of football at which all the participating schools gave players stipends — and let the smaller schools play each other. The programs that would be most affected by the big five isolating itself from the rest of college sports would be from the lesser leagues in college football's top tier: the Mountain West, the American Athletic Conference (formerly the Big East), Conference USA, the Sun Belt and the Mid-American Conference — aka the group of five. Those schools still want to compete against the big five on the field, cash in on the monster pay days that usually come with playing those games and capitalize on the attention that comes when they occasionally win one. Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2013/07/23/will-5-power-conferences-break-away-from-fbs

In Gilman School football parlance, it’s called recruiting fatigue. After guiding the Baltimore-based Greyhounds for 16 years, Biff Poggi can immediately recognize the symptoms. First, the college coach calls, wondering why Recruit X switched off his cell phone’s voice mail, or why his Facebook account lay dormant for several days. Poggi then approaches the player, asking about a broken phone. “No,” the player typically responds. “I’m just tired of talking.” Thursday, the NCAA Board of Directors will meet in Indianapolis to reconsider legislation deregulating communication between coaches and recruits. Seventy-five schools requested an override of the initial proposal, which eliminated phone call limitations and overturned periodic bans on text messaging. Last week, the board also suspended two other proposals that lifted restrictions on which staff members can recruit and which printed materials they can send to prospects. The issue has frustrated many since the Board of Directors initially tried to simplify the NCAA’s rulebook by passing 25 changes last January, including the contentious deregulation measures. Big Ten coaches and athletic directors issued a collective statement expressing “serious concerns” about their “adverse effect.” Maryland football coach Randy Edsall called it “ridiculous.” Towson’s Rob Ambrose appreciated the reform effort, but said he “hasn’t met a single person who’s in favor of it.” The Board of Directors can either “maintain its action on the proposals” or “rescind the proposals,” according to an NCAA press release. If it passes, most athletic officials and coaches forecast an unregulated environment in which recruits are bombarded with calls, letters and text messages. Speaking at the Football Bowl Association annual meetings, NCAA President Mark Emmert defended the action. Monitoring calls and text messages, he said, was virtually impossible. “I think the NCAA is going to find out that this is going to be a disaster with kids,” Poggi said. “However, they can’t control it anyway, which is why they’re opening it up. The reasons the rules are coming down is because they can’t enforce them, but it will wind up backlashing onto the kids, which is what always happens. The kids wind up getting the short end of the stick always.” Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/ncaa-recruiting-rule-changes-on-phone-calls-and-texts-spark-divisions/2013/05/01/057932ea-b28c-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors on Thursday suspended the relaxing of football recruiting rules after receiving more than 75 override requests from its membership. Adopted in January, the new measures would have allowed unlimited contact with recruits and would have increased the number and kind of athletics department staffers who could contact and engage prospects. Such a change would essentially have allowed the creation of "player personnel" departments in football programs that could afford such staffing. "We are supportive of moving as aggressively as possible while still studying the issues with due diligence," board chair Nathan Hatch, president at Wake Forest, said in an NCAA news release. "It's important to make sure all the pieces of the recruiting model work together to make the most effective change in the culture." The board suspended or tabled three other recruiting rules earlier this year that dealt with wider recruiting roles, earlier initial contact with recruits and the elimination of restrictions on printed materials promoting a school and its football program. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2013/05/02/ncaa-board-of-directors-recruiting-rules-initial-academic-eligibility-standards-football-bowl-eligibility-big-east-american-athletic-conference/2130781/