NCAA Football Florida Atlantic Football

Ahhh, to be nicknamed Superman and the presumed Heisman Trophy favorite (muchas gracias to the torn ACL of one Dennis Dixon).

Ahhh, to have a suspect defense that forces you to play deep into games against even the gimmiest of opponents and pad your already Heisman-worthy stats.

Such is the life of your likely next Heisman Trophy winner.

Tim Tebow accounted for 4 touchdowns and nearly 400 yards in beating Florida Atlantic 59 to 20. After rushing for an SEC record five touchdowns last week, Tebow went to the air today in tossing three touchdowns and 338 yards (.714). He did toss an interception, but also was Florida's second-leading rusher (backup quarterback Cameron Newton bested Tebow 46 yards to 31) in a 369 yard afternoon.

Great job, kid. Just don't mess up against Florida State (or, possibly, the SEC Championship Game) and the trophy is yours.

We've been closely following this Wisconsin team in 2007. After an unexpected 12-1 season in 2006, the Badgers appeared to be in good position to make a run at the Big Ten title this season, as they had quality starters back on both sides of the ball.

However, the Badgers have miserably failed to live up to those expectations, especially on defense. Even in wins over Washington State, UNLV, The Citadel, Iowa, and Michigan State, the Badgers spent time playing from behind, and their defense spent time being run ragged by offenses that range from pretty good (MSU) to rather pathetic (UNLV) to I-AA (The Citadel).

Last week, the poor defense finally caught up with Bucky, as Illinois ran for nearly 300 yards in a 31-26 win. The road didn't get any tougher today, as Wisconsin visited Penn State. The Nittany Lions got the game off to a good start, forcing a P.J. Hill fumble on the first play from scrimmage. It took them three plays to turn that fumble into six points, and Wisconsin was quickly down 7-0.

The Badgers were down 10-0 when the offense put together a quality drive for a touchdown. Unfortunately for Wisconsin, it's the only scoring drive they've had all afternoon. The Badger defense has been manhandled throughout the half. The crowning achievement came on a fourth down play from the Wisconsin 19, as Evan Royster cut to his left and ran in the end zone untouched.

It was a lot closer than even the 35-23 score, but USF fought off a game Florida Atlantic team on the road. This was clearly a trap/letdown game for South Florida and it showed as the Bulls committed 4 turnovers in the game. Looking sloppy and a bit distracted for most of the game.

FAU's defense was solid against the pass. Playing solid fundamentals and not allowing the USF receivers much in the way of yards after the catch. It rendered the Bulls one-dimensional. The problem was that USF likes being one-dimensional on offense when that dimension is running the ball.

Mike Ford had been the leading rusher going into the game, but his struggles in holding onto the ball led to him not playing this game. Instead the former walk-on and last year's starter, Ben Williams tore through the Owls to the tune of 185 yards on 25 carries with 4 touchdowns. QB Matt Grothe had only 3 less yards running than passing (120 versus 123) to pile over 300 rushing yards in the game.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued subpoenas for 39 collegiate athletic departments in a probe of their relationships with student loan providers. At its most basic, this investigation is asking whether or not cash, kickbacks, gifts and other bribes or misleading measures were communicated between various student loan providers and the cited athletic departments.

Cuomo is investigating whether athletic departments at these universities agreed to promote SFS loans to students in exchange for kickbacks.

"Students trust their University's athletic departments because so much of campus life at Division I schools centers around supporting the home team," said Cuomo. "To betray this trust by promoting loans in exchange for money is a serious issue, especially when Division I schools already generate tremendous revenue from their student athletes. Today's action is an important new step as we continue to examine the unethical conflicts that pervade the student loan industry.

"The Attorney General's office is specifically investigating whether athletic departments evaluated UFS interest rates before recommending their federal loans, or if their endorsement of UFS was based purely on payments from the lender. Such an arrangement would constitute revenue sharing, which is a violation New York state consumer protection laws, as well as a violation of federal law.

D-IA football schools named (prominent schools in bold): Arkansas State, Auburn, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Colorado State, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Tech, Ohio, Oregon State, Rutgers, TCU, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham, UCLA, UCF, Houston, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, Pittsburgh, USF, UTEP. See link for complete list.

Of note: USC and Texas have also been scrutinized in a similar probe, but to my knowledge it has not been linked to their athletic departments but rather the university-wide financial aid offices of the schools.

It's good that athletic departments have an awareness of and working relationship with loan providers, but obviously there's a problem when that relationship gets too cozy and bad loan options are pressed upon students and student-athletes.

(Via: Yahoo!)