NCAA Football FanHouse

Four Things Worth Reading: The Return!

Brian Cook — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:29:00 EST

Filed under: Alabama Football, Auburn Football, Iowa Football, Penn State Football, UCLA Football, Blogs

A regular trip through the college football blogosphere.

1. That list is how long? A list of Penn State malfeasance since 2002 has been kicking around message boards for the past few weeks and may have even spurred ESPN to sic Outside the Lines on the Nits. It has 61(!!!) separate incidents featuring Penn State players and the long arm of the law. Or, sometimes, the long arm of nothing in particular:

53. Joe Paterno - Road Rage - No Charges

As much as we all love the possibly apocryphal JoePa road rage incident, it resulted in no charges and, uh, did not involve a Penn State player.

Many of the other incidents are arrests that resulted in acquittals or college kids getting busted for holding a half-full Natty Lite, which is punishment in an of itself. The list is overstated. But how much?

Run Up The Score breaks it down for you. The general conclusion:

All in all, the Penn State Nittany Lions don't have a widespread, 1988 Miami Hurricanes style criminal gang disguised in plain football uniforms. They have a drinking and fighting problem. Players aren't shooting guns or selling drugs. They're getting loaded and brawling. While I take modest comfort in the fact that the football roster doesn't double as a suspect list from The Wire, there is still a rather obvious behavioral problem within the program.

This is probably because the man they should fear more than any other is kind of ancient and "works from home."2. Bruins Nation is well-known around the college football blogosphere for one thing: blinding hatred of Karl Dorrell. And ridiculous expectations. Bruins Nation is well known around the college football blogosophere for two things: blinding hatred of Karl Dorrell, ridiculous expectations, and... incredibly soft lambswool kid gloves that apply silky lotion to the backside of Rick Neuheisel?

It is apparently so. Sunday Morning Quarterback takes a dryly hilarious look at a certain... difference in outlook now that a coach not universally regarded as incompetent has taken over. It's not in the direction you might imagine.

3. I object, dear sirs. It's one thing when the mainstream media derides all bloggers as mother's-basement living illiterate troglodytes. That's such an old saw now that it communicates more about the lame-stereotype proprietor than actual blogs. But what's with Paul Finebaum exalting the Capstone Report, the most mouth-breathing Alabama blog on the planet, one that accused the 'Bama players of being "without pride" and said they "didn't even want to know how to be champions" after last year's Louisiana-Monroe loss?

Finebaum is a cynical, joyless person who manufactures outrage for money, but exposing the Capstone Report to a wider audience only makes blogs look like sports talk radio, and that's too far. Auburn blog The Joe Cribbs Car Wash says this aggression will not stand, man, and fisks righteously.

Zinger incoming!

The point: if you've ever wondered what the hell kind of people would look at a manatee and come away telling everyone they'd seen a mermaid, the answer is the ancestors of Paul Finebaum.

Pow.

4. Don't mess with Gary Barta, Iowa Athletic Director, if you want to keep all your organs. (Language warning.)

Four Things Worth Reading: The Return! originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:29:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Des Moines Register Hates Flood Victims

Brian Cook — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:50:00 EST

Filed under: Iowa Football, NCAA FB Media Watch, Blogs

On Sunday, Iowa blog Black Heart Gold Pants posted some stunning pictures and video of the floods currently ravaging Iowa and provided some links for anyone who wished to donate to disaster relief efforts. The next day they got this from the Des Moines Register, which was the source of the video:

It has recently come to the attention of the Des Moines Register that you have improperly posted a video, the rights to which are held by The Register. A copy of your unauthorized use can be found at www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2008/6/15/552422/the-flood.

As the copyright owner of that video, The Des Moines Register has the exclusive right to its reproduction and distribution. We therefore ask that you immediately remove the posted article from your website and cease any and all further use of the material. Any continued posting or use will be considered willful copyright infringement.

This seems an exceptionally bad time to go all AP and exercise stupid copy "rights" that probably aren't even rights, right? Well... how do you think Black Heart, Gold Pants got the video in the first place? If you've ever been to youtube, you know:

An embed video link ON THE DES MOINES REGISTER WEBSITE. We have a new leader in the "Mainstream Media Asshat of the Year" competition.

The Des Moines Register Hates Flood Victims originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Billy Packer: Blogosphere's Least Popular Man

Michael David Smith — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:03:00 EST

Filed under: NCAA Basketball Media Watch, Blogs

You may have seen Deadspin's media approval ratings, where blog readers pass judgment on on the members of the mainstream media. They're an opportunity for those who prefer to get their sports news and opinion in the blogosphere to have their say about those who provide the sports news and opinion on TV and in print.

And in a stroke of genius, Ballhype has taken those approval ratings and condensed them into one handy Media Approval Leaderboard. The Leaderboard is a great thumbnail of the way blog readers view the members of the mainstream sports media, and it was interesting to see who comes in dead last, with an approval rating of 10%: CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer.

Why Packer? Deadspin commenter Signal to Noise summarized what many in the blogosphere think, and this is the portion of his comment I can reprint:

Packer commentates on a sport that I can only assume he hates, based on what he says during games.

Packer does, indeed, offer up a healthy dose of criticism and complaints during his college basketball commentary, and that's not the way to win popularity contests. Fortunately for Packer, he'll never know he's disliked online, because he doesn't own a computer.

Billy Packer: Blogosphere's Least Popular Man originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:03:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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