The University of Central Florida has had some trouble in the last year or so. Last year, one of their players died and another collapsed during drills and practice. As a result, the president of the university ordered a review of their procedures and their practice habits. The attorney hired to do the investigation has found that their training was rigorous, but that it is roughly comparable to the level done at many other Division I schools throughout the land. There are recommendations that the attorney has put forward to help improve the situation. They have recommended the hiring of an extra trainer specially for the football team. It has also been recommended that the team doctors, trainers and coaches open the lines of communication more so that they are on the same page.

This is what we see in the NCAA Football world during the offseason. If you look at any of the major sports sites that talk about the sport, they all have a variety of different scandalous stories. Everything from assault to the cheating scandal to drug possession to punching. It’s kind of annoying, because we’d like to see some real information about the sport during this time of year. If you’re really into it, you don’t need to hear about the collegiate antics that the team members are undergoing. They take things that happen to many kids in college and make it sound like news. It’s just kids being silly and we should perhaps lay off on them. Not my business anyway.

The Florida State controversy continued the rest of the week, so we’re going to devote a second entry to it. The Florida State coach, Bobby Bowden, came out with a statement to the effect that it’s not fair for these athletes to affect victories in 10 different sports. In particular, according to the university’s president, the coaches shouldn’t be held accountable for the mistakes of the students. Why the coaches in particular? Why not “we shouldn’t hold all athletes responsible for the misdeeds of the few”? Because Mr. Bowden is one victory shy of the NCAA’s winningest coach in Penn State. If the NCAA takes away 14 wins from the football team, as originally planned Bowden may not be able to retire soon as the NCAA’s best coach.

At Florida State University, they are in trouble. About 60 athletes cheated on a Music History class and got caught. Not only is that a problem between them and their professors, but also with their coaches and ultimately the NCAA. The organization has become charged with the duty of patrolling academic violations by athletes during the last few years. They imposed a big penalty on the university, taking away victories in at least 10 sports, including possibly 14 in the college football arena. The university is hiring outside counsel to help them appeal the decision, as they believe it is unfair to put the blame for that on several hundred athletes in the country.

The Missouri Tigers have once again promoted their own staff to coordinator. Their linebackers coach was promoted yesterday to the defensive coordinator position. Dave Steckel has been with the team for several years and will most likely do a great job at that job. This follows the promotion of Dave Yost to offensive coordinator this offseason, with coach Gary Pinckel deciding to take staff appointments from within the organization rather than looking to some other possibilities elsewhere. Since they’ve had to replace both coordinators this offseason, it’s going to be a rather big change from last year.

The NCAA Football world is very quiet right now. There are some more scandals, and I suppose that’s just normal at this time of year. Like we mentioned before, there aren’t that many things going on besides some behind-the-scenes dealing of teams trying to bring in the best high schools students around. It’s interesting, though, to see which names keep coming up in all these scandals and discussions. Not that all these teams are doing something wrong, but it’ll give you an idea of who is out there doing major scouting and recruiting this off season. We’ll be keeping an eye on it and let you know what the newest information is. Watch the CBS site to find information about your favorite teams.

Alabama got into trouble with the NCAA this week. Apparently that some of the players were give free textbooks in violation of the organization’s rules. It’s not clear how this happened, except that the procedures were not properly monitored. But does this make sense? If the rules were not properly followed, you’d think that there would be something clear about that. How do most college students get textbooks? They buy them. Exactly what were they supposed to be monitoring and what part of it allowed “free textbooks for certain people” to become a sin of omission? I don’t really get it.

Is Washington going to actually change the national conversation about NCAA Football. The biggest debate every year is whether the college football’s system is just or not. There are lots of people who really think that it’s a travesty that the BCS is such a system that often those who are supposed to win don’t actually end up doing so. Those who seem destined to compete in one bowl or another end up competing nowhere at all sometimes. Politicians have begun to present bills in committee to try to get the NCAA to change into a playoff system, and threatening to withhold money if it doesn’t change. Change going to happen? Doubtful.