Yet another potential scandal. But it’s important information for all fans and followers of NCAA Football. USC might have broken a major rule of the NCAA. They have a guy who has coached professional teams and he has helped by watching the team and telling the coordinator or head coach what specific players need here and there. He’s not on the official coaching squad, so he might be an illegal advisor for the team. This makes things problematic for the team and we’ll have to keep our eye on what happens here. It does appear that they might be under investigation, though NCAA wont comment specifically on it. USC has been one of the most successful teams in the league over the last decade or so, but are the last few years going to be called into question because of having one coach too many.

Russ Huesman, coach of UTC, was a major speaker at the NCAA Youth Day in Chattanooga this last weekend. And he told the kids what he expects from a new recruit in college football. And he was very serious about it: he told them that they have to work hard in high school. If they were lazy and didn’t do homework or anything else, he and his coaches would simply leave without talking to the student. The same thing if the student talked back to his parents or anything like that. And they can’t be lazy and play video games all day. It was a talk about character and hard work when you’re in school. If all coaches in the NCAA did this, we would have a great crop of new players every year and I’ll bet they’d be more understandable during postgame press conferences.

Here in the NCAA football world, it’s always rather important to watch which teams and which groups of teams are the strongest in the country. This way you can get an idea who is most likely going to win next time around. The SEC has won the last 3 BCS titles and they are quite likely to win again. Florida is the favorite this year, though teams like Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee, they will be able to put forward some big challenges to others in the sport. Teams like Texas and Oklahoma will put their own challenges down, but it’s still looking like a good year for the SEC. They will be holding some of their first media conferences in the next few days, it will be good to see what’s going on.

When there’s not much going on in the sport, we can always turn to the video games, NCAA Football 10. The new game is also really good according to many players. But for the critics, it’s not the best version of the game. The manufacturer usually makes very good titles with great details; this new version isn’t the best, according to them, because the visual details aren’t as good as in previous ones. It’s still one of the best games available, because there are many options and plays that you can choose from. And for people who haven’t advanced beyond Sega or Ninentendo, the visuals will just blow you away! Some of the player movement isn’t quite as good as it was in previous titles. But it plays well overall.

In another sign of how realistic the video games are supposed to be, especially when compared to the game that you watch on TV, Erin Andrews is in the new NCAA Football 10 game. She is often a sideline reporter for college games but it’s still striking to find her in this position for a video game too. She spent more than 4 days in a recording studio laying down tracks for many different football situations and starting on the Road to Glory sequence, which tracks a player from freshman year to the pros. She will be doing the same kind of analysis and background reporting as you see her do every week on TV. She knows what she’s talking about when it comes to college football. It’s a lot like the Madden series of games, where John Madden discusses how good the last play was or how it just didn’t work out for the people on the team.

Now that Tim Tebow is starting his last year in the NCAA, he will be working his way forwards into the very elite levels of football. With his play so far, he’s one of the best quarterbacks at this point. Make sure that you watch this guy, because he’s already thrown 2 national championships and won a Heisman Trophy during the first three years of his career. He has become very competitive and has had a great time playing against the best in the league. But off the field, he is one of the most charitable figures in college ball, saying in an interview that he wants to be known as a person who will help others out with no trouble at all. He will be one of the best players this year, making Florida one of the teams with the highest expectations.

While the images of the players have been very controversial in recent weeks and there will be a flurry of court cases regarding it in the next few months, I decided that it would be a good idea to mention the fact that NCAA Football 10 is coming out this week. There are people planning midnight parties and all kinds of special first-day-of-release events. I’m certainly a fan of playing these games, because it’s like being right in the thick of the action. It’s not as good as being at a game, though you don’t get to decide what plays come next when you watch a real game. But get ready to check out the new video games as soon as you get the chance.

When an NCAA player sees himself in one of the video games that he plays, he might think that it’s pretty cool. He might see his face and playing style right on there. The games have sparked quite a controversy this year, as several of the games have been sued over their use of player images. College players aren’t allowed to profit from their images, but the NCAA profits from the games’ use of the images. The players in the lawsuits say that it’s exploitative to use the images without obtaining permission or anything. This will be decided, but let’s keep in mind that some retired NFL players have sued on exactly the same basis and won a jury award.

I hate to keep talking about scandals on this blog, but until the season begins, there wont be too much to talk about for the moment. This time it deals with Florida State University and the order they received from the NCAA to vacate several wins in various different sports. We have discussed it before, in which an online music course was botched and answers shared between people. That’s the simple response. The only thing new about this right now is that FSU has sent a second appeal to the NCAA, saying that the actions of the few should not allow for the punishment of everyone else. Anyway, this is how the system works and it’s good to see that the NCAA will hear it again and treat everyone fairly! We’ll be keeping up with all the details of this on the NCAA Football Review.