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Thursday night live blog: Get your double entendre on [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 4:13 pm] True, South Carolina's opening-night shindig with N.C. State last year was an unmitigated disaster, limping in on a final score of 7-3. And yes, South Carolina's opening-night shindig with N.C. State in 2008 was also something of a clunker, featuring zero first-half touchdowns and just 10 total points through the first three quarters before the Gamecocks piled it on a little late for a 34-0 shutout. And of course South Carolina's opening-night shindig with Mississippi State in 2006 was an ugly one, too, ending 15-0 for the Gamecocks. You see the pattern: Carolina hasn't allowed a touchdown in three straight Thursday-night wins to open the last four seasons, but it hasn't scored many of its own, either. But scoring isn't the point, necessarily. The late-breaking absence of a pair of South Carolina starters still under NCAA scrutiny isn't the point. Football is the point. What: Thursday night live blog. Southern Miss at South Carolina and Pittsburgh at Utah on the early shift, USC at Hawaii possibly bringing it home for the insomniacs. As always the late slot is a game-time decision. When: Gamecocks-Golden Eagles kicks at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN; blog kicks roughly simultaneously. Pittsburgh-Utah fans, watching another 7:30 kickoff on Versus, are encouraged to interlope. USC and Hawaii do their thing at the ungodly hour of 11 p.m. ET, which may require more midnight oil than we have to burn. Who: You and all your rowdy friends. Come loud, proud and resolved to giggle like a 13-year-old every time Rece Davis refers to South Carolina as "the 'Cocks." (Don't worry: Jesse Palmer will be giggling, too.) How: Hit "Watch Now," enter comments into the available box and do your part to bridge partisan gaps in your community. Why: Because lobbing snarky barbs at earnest adolescents never gets old. And after eight long, looooooooong months ... it is time, grasshopper. It is time.<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_m Shockingly, West Virginians oppose Nike campaign exploiting deaths of West Virginians [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 1:54 pm] Whatever you think of its, uh, progressive fashion sense, you have to give Nike this: Thematically, this year's batch of alternate "Pro Combat" uniforms don't lack for ambition. It wasn't quite enough to give each of the individual designs – most of which will only be worn once this fall, twice at most, by the ten teams selected for the line – its own slick webpage and cinematic voiceover. A couple of the pages, like the anachronistic "tribute" to the future World War II veterans on Ohio State's 1942 national championship team, almost have the trappings of a trailer for Oscar bait. All in the name of moving brashly colored cleats. The other token nod to heroism in the line accompanied the coal-themed design West Virginia plans to break out for its Thanksgiving weekend date with Pittsburgh. Openly referencing the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine that left 29 dead earlier this year in the worst U.S. mining disaster in decades, the voiceover on the Mountaineers' page informs listeners that the Mountaineers' unis were designed to honor the coal miners who "put it on the line for their families" with "a toughness you have to live to understand." Specifically, the uniforms embody said toughness with a "smudged black" effect on the back of the helmets and gloves and a gold stripe on the helmet and pants that "represents the canaries used long ago to test toxicity in mines." That may not strike hardscrabble miners or their advocates as the most fitting tribute to their fallen comrades. And for mining opponents, it's an outright disgrace: MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Activists trying to stop mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia are furious over a Nike Inc. promotional ad for a new West Virginia football uniform designed in tribute to the 29 victims of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. The problem is not the color of the gear — off-white that appears coated in coal du Big controversy over Nike campaign exploiting deaths of West Virginians [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 1:54 pm] Whatever you think of its, uh, progressive fashion sense, you have to give Nike this: Thematically, this year's batch of alternate "Pro Combat" uniforms don't lack for ambition. It wasn't quite enough to give each of the individual designs – most of which will only be worn once this fall, twice at most, by the ten teams selected for the line – its own slick webpage and cinematic voiceover. A couple of the pages, like the anachronistic "tribute" to the future World War II veterans on Ohio State's 1942 national championship team, almost have the trappings of a trailer for Oscar bait. All in the name of moving brashly colored cleats. The other token nod to heroism in the line accompanied the coal-themed design West Virginia plans to break out for its Thanksgiving weekend date with Pittsburgh. Openly referencing the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine that left 29 dead earlier this year in the worst U.S. mining disaster in decades, the voiceover on the Mountaineers' page informs listeners that the Mountaineers' unis were designed to honor the coal miners who "put it on the line for their families" with "a toughness you have to live to understand." Specifically, the uniforms embody said toughness with a "smudged black" effect on the back of the helmets and gloves and a gold stripe on the helmet and pants that "represents the canaries used long ago to test toxicity in mines." That may not strike hardscrabble miners or their advocates as the most fitting tribute to their fallen comrades. And for mining opponents, it's an outright disgrace: MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Activists trying to stop mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia are furious over a Nike Inc. promotional ad for a new West Virginia football uniform designed in tribute to the 29 victims of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. The problem is not the color of the gear — off-white that appears coated in coal du At West Virginians' request, Nike alters campaign exploiting deaths of West Virginians [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 1:54 pm] Whatever you think of its, uh, progressive fashion sense, you have to give Nike this: Thematically, this year's batch of alternate "Pro Combat" uniforms don't lack for ambition. It wasn't quite enough to give each of the individual designs – most of which will only be worn once this fall, twice at most, by the ten teams selected for the line – its own slick webpage and cinematic voiceover. A couple of the pages, like the anachronistic "tribute" to the future World War II veterans on Ohio State's 1942 national championship team, almost have the trappings of a trailer for Oscar bait. All in the name of moving a few brashly colored cleats. The other token nod to heroism in the line accompanied the coal-themed design West Virginia plans to break out for its Thanksgiving weekend date with Pittsburgh. Openly referencing the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine that left 29 dead earlier this year in the worst U.S. mining disaster in decades, the voiceover on the Mountaineers' page informs listeners that the Mountaineers' unis were designed to honor the coal miners who "put it on the line for their families" with "a toughness you have to live to understand." Specifically, the uniforms embody said toughness with a "smudged black" effect on the back of the helmets and gloves and a gold stripe on the helmet and pants that "represents the canaries used long ago to test toxicity in mines." That may not strike hardscrabble miners or their advocates as the most fitting tribute to their fallen comrades. And for mining opponents, it's an outright disgrace on all fronts: MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After angry environmentalists objected to a Nike promotional ad for a new West Virginia University football uniform, the athletic apparel giant said Thursday it will modify a graphic depicting a mountaintop removal mine. Nike issued a statement through the university, repeating what the school had said earli Final takes: Fisher lights Florida State's fire [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 12:33 pm] The last word on the season's most pressing topics. It's a testament to the thoroughness of Florida State's dominance in the late eighties and early nineties that the national perception of the 'Noles has consistently been colored at least as much by that decade as by the one that just passed. But these are the grim facts: FSU hasn't finished in the top 10 of the final Associated Press poll since 2000, hasn't won 10 games since 2003 and hasn't won an ACC championship since 2005. It hasn't beaten Florida since Ron Zook's second season in Gainesville, in 2003. With the old ACC dominance shriveling away and Urban Meyer's Gator Death Star at full strength, the highlight of the last four years was a blowout of Wisconsin in the Champs Sports Bowl. That came on the heels of a three-game losing streak against Wake Forest, and amid three 7-6 finishes in those four years, which were largely stricken from the books, anyway, by a widespread academic cheating scandal. Over the years, that decline has been laid at the feet of a string of middling and occasionally scandalous quarterbacks, injury-ravaged offensive lines and epic flops by the once-highly-touted likes of Fred Rouse, Callahan Bright, Adrian McPherson and Brandon Warren. Other big-name recruits, like Antone Smith and Justin Mincey, finished mediocre careers with little fanfare. But looming over all of it, just as he had in the scorched-earth years, was the titanic scapegoat, Bobby Bowden. There's no need to recount Bowden's rise and fall as the legendary, back-slapping overseer of one of the most dominant runs of his or any era. But as much as he was the common link between the golden years and the slowly fading 'Noles of the last decade, by the end he had become an ossified, out-of-touch, nepotistic liability, a doddering figurehead overseeing a geriatric coaching staff beset by generational squabbles between Bowden's old guard and the up-and-coming replacement that had been foisted on them by the university, Jimbo The Dregs: Demon Deacons get religion, beat up on it [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 9:54 am] Welcome back to our weekly countdown of the most godawful offerings of the week. Worst of the Worst • Presbyterian College at Wake Forest. In and of itself, this game isn't a crime against humanity. Plenty of BCS-conference programs play lower-division tuneup games early in the season. But the timing of tonight's kickoff – 6:30 p.m. ET, a full half-hour before your Southeast Missouri State at Ball State, your Rhode Island at Buffalo, your Hampton at Central Michigan – makes this the inaugural game of the 2010 season, and it's only going to make the hour wait until the good stuff in primetime more painful. That, and watching the Deacons break in a brand new quarterback against the Blue Hose (seriously), a former Division II outfit that finished 0-11 last year in its first season as an FCS/I-AA "transitional program." The Rest of the Worst...• Minnesota at Middle Tennessee State. This one had some intriguing upset potential, right up until MTSU quarterback Dwight Dasher got himself a gambling problem and an indefinite suspension last week. Our interest level in watching the Golden Gophers jog to victory in the absence of the most exciting player in the Sun Belt isn't so much "waning" as "plummeting." • Miami (Ohio) at Florida. Nobody could have known when this game was scheduled a few years back that the Gators would be coming off its second straight SEC Championship Game berth and a Sugar Bowl win while Miami would be attempting to rebound from a 1-11 descent into the MAC cellar. But guessing something along those lines wouldn't have been unreasonable. • New Mexico at Oregon. The Lobos' history of coach-on-coach violence meets its match in the Ducks' legacy of player-on-player and player-on-coach violence. We take it back, this one might actually be fun.• Tennessee-Martin at Tennessee. The once-brave Vols' first date with a I-AA/FCS team since 1983 is just another sad indicator of the demise Tide art: Terrence Cody in the rearview mirror may be larger than he appears [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 7:57 am] Today's reminder that Alabama fandom is basically a religious cult comes from Friends of the Program, which points us to this veritable cathedral on wheels – a Toyota Scion in Birmingham with the iconic "Rocky Block," Terrence Cody's swatted field goal attempt on the final play against Tennessee to preserve the Tide's perfect season en route to the BCS championship, serving as a kind of stained-glass window: More proof of the cornucopia of American capitalism: If you've got a picture, you can put that picture on anything, even if the subsequent accidents and rising insurance rates resulting from obscured vision . (Although we won't truly be living Adam Smith's utopian dream until you can fill your rear windshield with this.) Bonus points awarded for the bumper sticker, in this case serving as the equivalent of the marquee beneath the church sign: "If I'm wearing a turban it means Auburn is playing Iraq." And they say Islamophobia is on the rise. - - - Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday. Headlinin': Heels leave their heart, entire defense in North Carolina [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 6:51 am] Making the morning rounds. • There goes the neighborhood, part one. Embattled defensive tackle Marvin Austin remains the only suspension, but North Carolina is preparing to play LSU Saturday without up to 16 players whose eligibility is in question in ongoing NCAA probes into agent-related activity and widespread academic fraud, according to ESPN's Joe Schad. That number includes the offense's best player, wide receiver Greg Little, who continues to practice with the second string, and seven defensive starters who remain relegated to the scout team. There are at least five projected draft picks in the latter group, one of whom, junior defensive end Robert Quinn, is specifically cited by Schad as a target on both fronts, for allegedly interacting with an agent and working with the former university tutor who allegedly wrote papers for UNC players. [ESPN] • Ve know nothink. While we're on the subject, Georgia fans are still holding their breath over A.J. Green, though the star receiver has said he's not in any trouble and nothing has surfaced to the contrary since he spoke with NCAA officials in July. All forecasts say "clear with a chance of absurdity." But neither Green nor coach Mark Richt will confirm or deny anything either way. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] • There goes the neighborhood, part two. UTEP is awaiting MRI results this morning on All-Conference USA running back Donald Buckram after he was carted off the field with an apparent knee injury during Wednesday's practice. I'm not that kind of doctor, but the combination of "knee injury" and "non-contact drill" does not bode well for Buckram or the Miners, who suddenly have to figure out how to replace the most productive back in the country. [Associated Press, El Paso Times] • Nice knowing you. Missouri has "permanently suspended" running back Derrick Washington, effectively ending the senior's college career after he was hit with a felony sexua Game day: Out of the wilderness, at last [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 2, 2010, 4:54 am] If for some reason you're having trouble mustering enthusiasm for tonight's kickoff, welcome the official motivational speaker of Dr. Saturday, Ed Reed, for a brief word: I'm assuming South Carolina and Southern Miss will kick off the season with more panache than last year's 10-point, 13-punt debacle between Carolina and N.C. State on opening night, or the Gamecocks' equally uninspiring debut against the Wolfpack the year before that. But even if they don't, will that mute our enthusiasm? Hell nah. After eight months of harsh, directionless, subsistence desert living, the thud of a foot hitting synthetic leather alone is milk and honey. It's football. That counts. For today, that's shangri la. Let's go, man! Programming note: We be live bloggin' – come around for kickoff of USC-USM at 7:30 p.m. ET for the Web's most irreverent live chat directed at earnest adolescents. - - - Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday. Surprise! Robert Bolden is Paterno's first opening-day freshman QB [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 7:04 pm] If you were handicapping Penn State's quarterback derby at the start of spring practice, you would have clearly begun with sophomore Kevin Newsome, the once-hyped heir apparent who won the top backup job last year as a true freshman and seemed to have a clear path to becoming a three-year starter. If Newsome somehow failed to assume his destiny, next in line was third-year sophomore Matt McGloin, a former walk-on whose name surprisingly (or perhaps disturbingly) wouldn't go away in practice reports. You might have even taken a flier on true freshman Paul Jones, a big, well-regarded signee who turned heads when Newsome and McGloin were struggling through the spring. But when the Nittany Lions line up Saturday against Youngstown State, the first option under center is going to be the last man in line a month ago, true freshman Robert Bolden, who's so new to campus his official bio page on Penn State's website doesn't even have a picture yet. As of this afternoon, though, he's apparently beaten them all out in a little under a month: Penn State coach Joe Paterno has named true-freshman Robert Bolden (Orchard Lake, Mich.) as the Nittany Lions' game one starter Saturday when Penn State takes on Youngstown State in a 12:00 p.m. kickoff at Beaver Stadium. Paterno expects multiple quarterbacks to see action in the game that will air live on the Big Ten Network. "Based on what we have seen to this point, Bolden has a slight edge right now, but we are confident all three quarterbacks are ready to go and hope to give them an opportunity to play until we settle on the one that gives us the best chance to win," Paterno said. Paterno said his three young quarterbacks: Bolden, sophomore Matt McGloin (Scranton, Pa.) and sophomore Kevin Newsome (Portsmouth, Va.), would be listed 1A, 1B and 1C on the depth chart at this point and all still have the opportunity to earn the starting nod on a regular basis. Bolden comes with exceptional size at 6-foot-4, 208 pounds, and his Get used to it: The OSU-Michigan split and other notes on the new Big Ten order [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 6:29 pm] The divisions are set, the split is on and the schedules have been released for the next two years. The structure for the revamped Big Ten when Nebraska comes about as the league's 12th member in 2011 is in place. Now to figure it out: • There are no names yet. The divisions will not be called "X" and "O," obviously. And I'm not sure the other ten teams would appreciate the "Woody" and "Bo" thing. Leave suggestions in the comments. • The divisions are football-only. Commissioner Jim Delany said "basketball will "chart its own course," and may not split at all.• The divisions are balanced. Wisconsin may not like being separated from Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, but it's hard to argue anyone comes out of the divisional split with an overly generous or unfair shake. "Protected" games across the divisional divide (see below) mean Michigan and Ohio State, as well as Penn State and Nebraska, will see one less cupcake every couple years than they would if they didn't have to see each other every year. But ask those fans whether they prefer the marquee rivalry game or a couple extra shots a decade at Indiana and Minnesota. • Ohio State and Michigan will continue to play on the last weekend of the regular season. As expected. The conference never really considered an October date for "The Game," as widely feared last week. (Tom Osborne said Ohio State and Michigan fans sent hate mail to Nebraska on this point.) The annual rivalry will stay where it's been for the last 75 years: In late November, when there's only the hate and the urine in Mirror Lake to keep you warm. Besides the Buckeyes and Wolverines, the other "protected rivals" who will play every year across the divisional divide are Penn State-Nebraska, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana-Michigan State and Purdue-Iowa. Get excited, Hawkeyes. • Nebraska is going to play Iowa, Michigan and Get used to it: The OSU-Michigan split is official, and other notes on the new Big Ten order [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 6:29 pm] The divisions are set, the split is on and the schedules have been released for the next two years. The structure for the revamped Big Ten when Nebraska comes about as the league's 12th member in 2011 is in place. Now to figure it out: • There are no names yet. The divisions will not be called "X" and "O," obviously. And I'm not sure the other ten teams would appreciate the "Woody" and "Bo" thing. Leave suggestions in the comments. • The divisions are football-only. Commissioner Jim Delany said "basketball will "chart its own course," and may not split at all.• The divisions are balanced. Wisconsin may not like being separated from Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, but it's hard to argue anyone comes out of the divisional split with an overly generous or unfair shake. "Protected" games across the divisional divide (see below) mean Michigan and Ohio State, as well as Penn State and Nebraska, will see one less cupcake every couple years than they would if they didn't have to see each other every year. But ask those fans whether they prefer the marquee rivalry game or a couple extra shots a decade at Indiana and Minnesota. • Ohio State and Michigan will continue to play on the last weekend of the regular season. As expected. The conference never really considered an October date for "The Game," as widely feared last week. (Tom Osborne said Ohio State and Michigan fans sent hate mail to Nebraska on this point.) The annual rivalry will stay where it's been for the last 75 years: In late November, when there's only the hate and the urine in Mirror Lake to keep you warm. Besides the Buckeyes and Wolverines, the other "protected rivals" who will play every year across the divisional divide are Penn State-Nebraska, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana-Michigan State and Purdue-Iowa. Get excited, Hawkeyes. • Nebraska is going to play Iowa, Michigan and ESPN, Notre Dame already making independence worth BYU's while [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 2:55 pm] Amid the swarm of Big 12/Pac-10/Big Ten expansion-and-contraction drama this summer, there ran a thin filament of idle speculation that Texas and Notre Dame should just break free and form their own media megalith of a mini-conference. That tiny nexus of saturated coverage will indeed come to pass next year, but it will be a newly independent BYU, not the Longhorns, taking up weekly residence alongside the Irish in front of a national audience instead. Whatever the rest of the Mountain West and WAC think of BYU's chances striking out on its own, ESPN's got faith: The network announced a deal today to broadcast every Cougar home game for the next eight years, in the same vein as NBC's longstanding partnership with Notre Dame for the Irish's home games. And like the ND/NBC alliance, every aspect of the BYU/ESPN contract cited by university officials today translates into "lots and lots of money for us," – money that just isn't there in the far-flung cable and satellite destinations mandated by the Mountain West: BYU is leaving the Mountain West Conference for two reasons, according to athletic director Tom Holmoe. "It comes down to two pillars," he said. "Access and exposure. ... Independence increases access to our games for fans everywhere and it increases the exposure of our student-athletes." Yes, precisely. Pillars made of shiny, shiny ducats. The deal guarantees at least three BYU games per year on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 and at least one more on ESPNU beginning next year, when the Cougars are scheduled to blow the popsicle stand they helped found more than a decade ago. It also gives ESPN right of first refusal on neutral-site games. The school's even got its own HD truck on hand for the in-house byuTV network, which already reaches 60 million households worldwide. Also included in the goodie bag: A six-game series with Notre Dame, already dubbed the "Battle for the Holy Grail," on Twitter, with an indeterminate start UNC puts Marvin Austin on ice, and the countdown begins to defensive Armageddon [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 2:04 pm] To the surprise of absolutely no one who has followed college football over the last month, North Carolina has officially suspended defensive tackle Marvin Austin for Saturday's season opener with LSU. You might be surprised to learn, though, per Carolina coach Butch Davis, that the decision to put one of the most coveted prospects in next year's draft on ice had nothing to do with the NCAA's investigation into the infamous South Beach party trip Austin took with other pro prospects over Memorial Day weekend, and whether agents may have played in a role. Or the NCAA's investigation into whether Austin broke any rules by driving an SUV owned by former teammate Kentwan Balmer, now with the Seattle Seahawks, or by staying in Balmer's apartment. Or the investigation into who paid for Austin to travel and work out at a California gym owned by an agent with a close relationship to Austin's position coach. Or UNC's own investigation into whether Austin broke any rules in the wide-ranging academic fraud scandal the university began investigating last week. No, according to his coach, Austin will be sitting because he broke some other rule (emphasis added): CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – University of North Carolina announced Wednesday afternoon that head coach Butch Davis has suspended defensive tackle Marvin Austin indefinitely. "This decision is not a result of the ongoing NCAA review," says Davis. "Marvin has violated team rules and has neglected his responsibilities to the team." Austin will not play Saturday vs. LSU. Even Rivals' North Carolina site, CarolinaBlue.com, doesn't buy that, going to write that the suspension "is centered around the NCAA investigation and the fact that UNC will not allow itself to face retroactive sanctions if Austin is deemed ineligible by the governing body." Austin (along with wide receiver Greg Little, the only consistent playmaker on the offense) has been practicing with the second team in anticipation of bein Verdict is in on the new Big Ten: Brace yourself for the Michigan-Ohio State split [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 12:12 pm] Unexpectedly good news today for Big Ten traditionalists worried that the conference's expansion to 12 teams next year threatened the sanctity of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry in its traditional guise: The Buckeyes and Wolverines are expected to continue playing in the regular season finale after the league splits into two divisions, according to Detroit radio reporter Doug Karsch, preserving the 75-year run of "The Game" at the end of the schedule. Now, the bad news for those of you who (like me) argued that preserving the rivalry also meant keeping OSU and Michigan in the same division: They're splitting them up. When the conference announces the new alignment tonight at 7 p.m. ET, ESPN says the new divisions will break down like so:• Division 1: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern. • Division 2: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin. That gibes with the only other clue we had as to what the new divisions might look like, when Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez confirmed the Badgers would be separated from Iowa last week. But if you're looking for any particular pattern there in terms of rivalries or geography, don't bother: It could almost pass as a North-South divide if you swapped Nebraska and Wisconsin, but otherwise this look remains entirely beholden to "competitive balance." Well, and also to the extra million or two the conference can squeeze out of networks for the prospect of an Ohio State-Michigan rematch in the Big Ten Championship Game every few years. We'll wait until it's official before resuming complaints about how that rematch – in back-to-back weeks, no less, in years that it happens – will do its part to undermine the intensity of the rivalry for no good reason, or how Wisconsin is totally screwed here regarding both its traditional rivalries (the Badgers are separated from Iowa and Minnesota) and the new one it wanted to start wi Nike's 'Pro Combat' unis are awesome and/or a mockery of Western civilization [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 10:49 am] For the second year in a row, Nike will meet the formidable demands of both the 21st Century gladiator/athlete and its own stockholders with an alternative "system of dress" for 10 select schools, unveiled this morning in a Manhattan fashion show MC'd by ESPN mainstay Chris Fowler and featuring ex-Miami great Michael Irvin committing roughly 20 NCAA violations during his presentation of the 'Canes' alternative look. Each school (Alabama, Boise State, Florida, Miami, Ohio State, Oregon State, Pittsburgh, TCU, Virginia Tech and West Virginia) will debut the duds in a big game, some of them against a traditional rival. Click here to "explore" all 10 designs in depth, with customized soundtracks.Like last year, the "Pro Combat" line ("Born of tradition. Built for speed.") goes to great lengths in its claim to honor the past while simultaneously leaving it grasping for dear life onto the bumper of a blinged-out Escalade designed specifically to appeal to teenaged recruits who consider Jay-Z a retro act. "Traditional" elements include hints of a Bear Bryant-inspired houndstooth design in Alabama's otherwise straightforward look; an old-school motif inspired by the Oregon State "Giant Killers" that upset No. 2 Purdue, tied No. 2 UCLA and upset No. 1 USC in a four-week span in 1967; and the inscription of a 70-year-old quote by former TCU coach Dutch Meyer, "Fight 'em till hell freezes over, then fight 'em on the ice," which explains the inscrutable Antarctic motif designers chose for the Horned Frogs. It has nothing to do with the uniforms, but it's certainly no coincidence that West Virginia's model is dropped into the middle of a quarry just months after the deadliest U.S. coal-mining disaster in decades. Otherwise, the details are attention-grabbing oddities like the ludicrously oversized Bronco logo on Boise State's alternative helmet and pants and the Tron-inspired design on Virginia Tech's number Headlinin': Houston WR goes to court for his pound of cartilage [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 6:28 am] Making the morning rounds. • I'd say he's proven the "pain and suffering" part. If you've ever seen the following clip, the image is already burned into your mind. But just as a reminder, this was the unnatural result when Houston receiver Patrick Edwards' knee met a poorly-placed injury cart at Marshall back in October 2008: Edwards miraculously returned last year to catch 85 passes for 1,021 yards in the Cougars' light-speed offense, but all is not forgiven: Edwards filed suit Tuesday against Marshall, Conference USA and head game official Gil Gelbke for "failing to maintain a safe field" under NCAA rules. He's seeking unspecified damages. [Houston Chronicle] • Journalistic Stockholm Syndrome, Part One. Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, demonstrating a remarkably warped understanding of how beat reporters view their relationships with the people and institutions they cover, bestowed the first-annual "Iron Vol of the Media" awards to reporters who met with his approval during preseason practice. Six scribes deemed sufficiently diligent and "respectful" over the last month will be allowed in to report on tonight's "mock game," otherwise closed to the public. Any of them who take advantage of a selective reward based on institutionally-approved behavior should turn in their "independent/objective" cards first thing Thursday morning. [Knoxville News Sentinel] • Journalistic Stockholm Syndrome, Part Two. Pete Pelegrin, the former Florida International beat writer who torched the Miami Herald for lack of journalistic objectivity toward FIU in his last blog post for the paper in July, has boldly resurrected the blog for FIU's official website. On behalf of J-school grads everywhere, I'd say this pretty much sums it up. [FIUSports.com, via Deadspin] • Well, it worked out, so let's call it perseverance. All-Big East linebacker Greg Lloyd Jr., spawn of the former Pittsburgh Steeler great, is pencil Video: Helmetless Hawkeye head over heels in head-on collision with truck [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: September 1, 2010, 4:53 am] Iowa senior Josh Koeppel, a backup center and long snapper, will likely miss the Hawkeyes' season opener Saturday against Eastern Illinois after his motorcycle was hit head-on by a pickup truck at an intersection on Monday morning. That's not "allegedly" or "reportedly" hit by a pickup truck, or hit by a pickup truck "according to police." No, he was very clearly hit head-on by a pickup truck: Incredibly, after having his 6-foot-2, 273-pound frame knocked completely head over heels, Koeppel was treated and released from a university clinic and walked away with "just scrapes and soreness," according to coach Kirk Ferentz. With any luck, he'll be back in the lineup in time for the rivalry match with Iowa State on Sept. 11, and quietly laughing to himself every time he hears someone compare playing on the line to being in a car crash. - - - Hat tip: Hawkeye Lounge, via Black Heart Gold Pants. Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday. BYU drops Mountain West, forms hip West Coast indie label [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 5:21 pm] BYU officials have kept up a pretty rigid silence lately about the fate of the Cougars' affiliation (or lack thereof) with the Mountain West. But their official withdrawal from the conference tonight to become a football independent makes it pretty clear that breaking the chains of the MWC's lame television contracts and outsider status in the BCS was at the top of their agenda long before the rumors began breaking on rival schools' hacked Twitter feeds two weeks ago.At that point, the Cougars' exit for the WAC in non-football sports looked like a done deal. If the Mountain West hadn't swooped in to poach Fresno State and Nevada at the last second, rendering the WAC a hollow, six-school shell whose survival was suddenly in question, BYU's defection really would have been a done deal. By all rights, that smackdown should have sent the Cougars running back to the Mountain West, which would then need to add just one more school to the new arrivals from the WAC to split into two six-team divisions and stage a championship game.Instead, with one day left before the deadline to leave the MWC for the 2011-12 school year without major penalties, the search for an escape route has taken the BYU brass to the far-flung West Coast Conference, an eight-team, non-football league composed entirely of small, private, religious institutions (all but one, Pepperdine, are Catholic) that, before today, hadn't added or subtracted a member in 32 years. The Cougars will move 11 sports under the WCC umbrella and set off on their own on the gridiron.They've got three reasons to give the indie thing a go: a) To keep some semblance of a pace with rival Utah, which dramatically increased its national profile and bank account when it accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 this summer; b) To establish BYU as something like "the Notre Dame of the West," a large, flagship religious university with enough clout to negotiate its own television and bowl agreements outside of a Six months later, the Jeremiah Masoli saga still ends on the bench [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: August 31, 2010, 3:26 pm] I realize six months is an ice age in Internet time, but fans who can still remember as far back as six months may recall a time when Jeremiah Masoli was considered a somewhat serious Heisman contender. If the trophy was awarded for "Most Outstanding Destroyer of Expectations," he'd have had it sewn up months ago, beginning with the theft arrest and subsequent suspension that knocked Oregon from the ranks of potential championship favorites in the spring. The traffic stop citations that led to his outright dismissal from the team in June clinched the title. So the startling announcement today that Masoli has been denied permission by the NCAA to take the field for Ole Miss this fall, after he and the university went to such great lengths to get him enrolled in grad school in Oxford in time to join the team for the start of fall practices a month ago, is just the bitter cherry on top. Not that the Rebels have any intention of swallowing the ruling without a fight: OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — The NCAA has denied Mississippi quarterback Jeremiah Masoli's request for a waiver that would allow him to play immediately, meaning the former Oregon standout won't be eligible until 2011. Mississippi officials announced Tuesday plans to the appeal the ruling, with a response expected in less than one week. "I'm just shocked and disappointed," Masoli said. "I've done everything I can to follow the rules." Mississippi athletic director Pete Boone said the decision was "subjective" and expected a successful appeal. "There is no question in my mind Jeremiah is in the right place," Mississippi coach Houston Nutt said. "We're in the people-helping business. I want to plead with that subcommittee. He's done nothing but what he's supposed to do."Well, nothing except that time he went along with a teammate committing theft in January, or the time he was caught behind the wheel without a valid license less than six months later, |