Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.There's an unnerving, repetitive theme to the first four items in this week's FanHouse Walk -- lawyers. Maybe its just the offseason or an odd week, but they seem to be everywhere related to college football right now. Today's headliner finds Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum threatening the NCAA and its president Myles Brand with a $1,000 fine or even jail time if it doesn't make public documents related to its confidential investigation into Florida State athletics.
McCollum is leaning on Florida law that appears to force sunlight into otherwise confidential processes involving public entities like Florida State University. Florida State has so far declined requests for documents citing NCAA policy asking member institutions not to release confidential details related to investigations. To which McCollum answers thusly:
A lack of physical custody of a document does not excuse Florida State University from its obligations under Florida law.
Any lawyers in the house care to assess the NCAA and Florida State's chances of keeping matters private here? Seems like a slam dunk victory for the state of Florida if they take this to court. I'm big on privacy but McCollum's got a point that when matters involve an entity like Florida State University serving at the behest of the public, some of that privacy is necessarily thrown out the window.
Good Attorney General, Bad Attorney General -- At the moment I'm sympathetic towards Florida AG Bill McCollum, but Utah's AG Mark Shurtleff (who claims to be a "true fiscal conservative" on his Twitter page) is just plain annoying. Whatever you think of the BCS, its clear he's overreached the bounds of his office in taking on the dominant presence in college football's postseason structure.
His latest antics include calling on the Department of Justice to waste its time and further taxpayer dollars investigating the BCS.
In an interview with KSL NewsRadio, Shurtleff said he plans to make a pitch to the Justice Department to bring the weight of its antitrust division into the probe. "Because they have the resources that Utah does not have," Shurtleff said. "Taking on the BCS is a huge undertaking financially."
Here's an idea, if its a huge financial undertaking, not really of high public priority and you're a fiscal conservative, don't bother. Anyone created one of those recall petitions yet for Mr. Shurtleff? I'll sign it.
Preventative Medicine -- Missouri will now test all athletes for sickle cell trait, which is linked to exercise-related fatalities. This move is seemingly related to the settlement of a lawsuit after the death of football player Aaron O'Neal.
While the official cause of death was listed as viral meningitis, several experts - including the chairman of Missouri's pathology department - suggested that a sickle cell trait O'Neal possessed was a contributing factor in his death.
Briefly reading up on the condition it seems extremely rare and not quite fully linked to exercise death, but it sounds like a worthwhile test if it can prevent death. Hopefully more universities follow Missouri's example here although perhaps the costs for such testing are generally prohibitive?
Florida's Get Out Of Jail Card -- Florida's point man when it comes to athlete legal troubles is one Huntley Johnson.
... Sentinel research shows that of the 23 cases handled by Johnson, 21 resulted in dropped charges, a plea deal or pre-trial deferment plans that help first-time offenders avoid charges after fulfilling court-ordered stipulations.
The remaining two cases are unresolved, including sophomore cornerback Janoris Jenkins' arrest two weeks ago on charges of affray and resisting an officer. Eight felony cases have been reduced to misdemeanors or thrown out of court.
"As far as the legal aspect, he's the [team's] MVP," said Cecil Newton, the father of former Gators quarterback Cam Newton.
He sounds a lot like Carmen Trutanich, who has been vilified by UCLA fans as something of a Houdini helping USC football players get out of trouble. Trutanich, by the way, is the newly elected Los Angeles City Attorney.
-- The Rose Bowl will now be televised by ESPN starting in 2011, meaning all the major BCS bowl games are under contract with The Worldwide Leader through 2014.
-- Meanwhile, the Pac-10 is looking into negotiations with the Alamo Bowl. Hopefully that works out as the Pac-10 could use a shakeup in their bowl arrangements and a chance to play some bigger teams out east.
-- Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer a star in race relations?
-- Priorities. The NCAA blog wonders if candy is good for athletes.
