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CFB AM: Watch baby cry every time she hears Michigan fight song
Want a little #ThrowbackThursday?
Let’s do a little #ThrowbackThursday.
Michigan State fans are just having their way with Michigan this week.
On Wednesday, Spartan fans vandalized an iconic Ann Arbor campus symbol. Today, they’re recycling a hilarious six-year-old video to agitate Wolverine fans even more before the two teams play this weekend.
The video is of a Michigan State baby crying immediately every time she hears the Michigan fight song. It has more than 2.1 million views on YouTube, and if you haven’t seen it before, you’re in for a treat. Enjoy a good laugh this morning free of charge.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. Time to eat my vegetables: On Wednesday, the Wainstein report, an independent investigation into academic fraud at North Carolina, was released and the findings were devastating to UNC. Over an 18-year period (1993-2011), more than 3,100 students were involved in a “shadow curriculum” with the African and Afro-American Studies department where they received good grades for classes they didn’t have to show up for and required only a research paper that was “graded” by a secretary. About 1,500 of those students were athletes. Counselors steered athletes to these AFAM classes, knowing they didn’t have instructors and were utilized to keep players eligible. It’s a damning, damning report, and there’s really no guessing what the penalty could be for it. I’ll spare you more details, but if you’re interested, click the link above, or read the Raleigh News & Observer’s story or read the entire report yourself.
Most reaction pieces I’ve read are in line with what Stewart Mandel wrote on Wednesday, which is that the NCAA must act strongly if it wants anyone to take academics seriously again. John Infante makes an interesting distinction on the “lack of institutional control” point that will be raised: The lack of control here is within the AFAM department, and the NCAA doesn’t require schools to have control over their academic departments, but this is a “slam dunk case” because of the involvement of athletic counselors.
Now, if you’ll indulge, a few personal thoughts for perspective and full disclosure’s sake: I played baseball at North Carolina during the time of this academic scandal and took an AFAM course, albeit a normal one, where attendance and work were required. I was a low-rung player in a non-revenue sports program, but I hung in the same circles as a lot higher-profile UNC athletes. Never once did I hear about paper courses or this rampant academic fraud. Today, sitting here shocked at the revelations, I’m trying to figure out how that’s possible and trying to digest the “culture of cheating” that’s now being ubiquitously assigned to UNC student-athletes.
It’s difficult, but here’s how something like this can run so wild for so long: Academic fraud is the white-collar crime of college sports scandals. It happens behind closed doors, with a few power players driving the business, and people don’t talk about it. The numbers on the whole are staggering – 3,100 students, almost half of them athletes – and the tendency is to believe this was everywhere, but it wasn’t. Over 18 years and 28 varsity sports programs, it comes out to about three athletes per team per year (obviously that’s just an average, as more football and hoops players than that were involved and some programs probably had none). Academic counselors don’t, in my experience, talk about other students’ course schedules, and getting free grades isn’t something players brag about. If they discuss it at all, it’s in tight, private circles. Nobody is flaunting a free B+ through the locker room, and nobody would think to ask about it. If a teammate is on the team, he must be eligible, and that’s where that ends for players.
The non-academic NCAA rule violations that get the bulk of attention in college sports are much easier to detect and expose, because they’re so visible. You know where you can get cheaper, if not free, food. You know which bar owners will pick up tabs because athletes bring crowds and are good for business. If you’re a pro prospect in a sport with a booming professional league, I assume you know where to get in contact with an “adviser.” You know which boosters hang around the program more closely than others and offer things. All of this is in the open and stuff college-aged kids are likely to brag to their friends about. Academic cheating doesn’t work like that.
North Carolina’s integrity is and will be crushed for the foreseeable future, and deservedly so, but I will defend the culture at large because what’s lost in instances like these is that the vast majority of student-athletes DO go to class and do their work and earn their degrees. There is not a ubiquitous culture of cheating at UNC – something can’t be contained to the underground and simultaneously reflect the culture of an entire university -- but rather a toxic sub-culture that’s now being painfully dug out.
I don’t want North Carolina to be let off the hook here. The penalty will be incredibly harsh, I’m sure, and we have to own it. What took place is indefensible, and I don’t really have an appetite today for anything suggesting otherwise. Like probably all alumni and former UNC athletes, I feel much shame in my alma mater today. Speaking only for myself, though, I’m not ashamed to hold a degree from the university or be associated with the athletic department, because in totality this scandal is not reflective of UNC student-athletes at large. It’s an ugly, ugly point in our history that will forever be represented, but anyone who cares about the school today won’t be running from it or touting the “everyone does it” excuse, whether that’s true or not. The vast majority of students and leaders in Chapel Hill want this handled appropriately, and it will be.
2. Want a positive NCAA story? Well you’ve come to the wrong place! We’re going total Grinch today. Georgia asked the NCAA to reinstate suspended running back Todd Gurley and will hold out hope he is available to play against Florida next week.
3. This is an odd story: Oklahoma State is suing Texas co-offensive coordinator Joe Wickline for breach of contract. Wickline used to be OK. State’s O-line coach and had a detail in his contract that said he’d pay a buyout of almost $600,000 if he left for an FBS job that didn’t include play-calling duties. Wickline is involved in play-calling at Texas, but co-OC Shawn Watson, who was Charlie Strong’s OC at Louisville, has the final say. Oklahoma State is trying to build a legal case around that clarification, saying Wickline lied about his new position.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
1. Here’s something that will get some buzz and almost surely be pulled out of context: Texas athletic director Steve Patterson said UT would pay each student-athlete $10,000 to cover expenses that aren’t covered in a normal scholarship. That doesn’t mean that’s likely to happen, though. Policies have to be passed in court and then a model needs to be worked out to determine how to allocate funds between a star football player, who generates a ton of revenue, and a low-profile athlete in a non-revenue sport, who generates none. The one thing this does indicate is times are changing, as schools recognize they have to continue to sweeten the pot for NCAA athletes in the wake of the Ed O’Bannon case.
2. Coy Wire wrote about Ole Miss’ defense and what makes it so good. The Rebels can ride it to a national title, because of this trend: Bo Wallace hasn’t thrown an interception since Sept. 27.
3. Things are going so well at Florida that the Gators’ head coaching job is now listed on Craigslist. In on-field Florida news, Will Muschamp named freshman QB Treon Harris the starter for the Georgia game.
THREE THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW
1. Oklahoma State is suing New Mexico State because the Cowboys believe the likeness of their mascot is being infringed upon. It’s a big country – isn’t there enough room for a couple different Cowboys?
2. Alabama visits Tennessee this weekend, which marks Lane Kiffin’s return to Knoxville, and Kiffin’s mother said she’s “scared to death” for her son’s safety. She wants him up in the press box and not on the sideline. I think everything will be fine, Mama Kiffin.
3. The Mississippi Republican Party may have unknowingly violated NCAA rules by using Ole Miss and Miss. State players in a campaign email to support an incumbent candidate. NCAA rules prohibit teams and players from being used to endorse a political party or candidate. A Mississippi GOP spokesperson said it was an honest mistake and that the photos of Ole Miss and MSU players were pulled from the campaign.
LASTLY
* Jon Solomon profiles Lane Kiffin – worth your time.
* Enjoyed this piece by Scott Cacciola on how everything you see in Hugh Freeze today started as a girl’s high school basketball coach.
That’s all I got today, and I’m now going to head directly to the bar. Have a great Thursday, all.
Teddy Mitrosilis is an editor and writer for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.
