By Brendan Loy

MERRY BARKLEYMAS, FELLOW TROJANS!!!!!

The arm of Matt Barkley shall throw in the Coliseum — one last time. FELL DEEDS AWAKE! Now for wrath, now for ruin, and a cardinal dawn!

FORTH TROJANLINGAS!!!

By Brendan Loy

The official trailer for The Hobbit debuted today. OMG OMG OMG:

By Brendan Loy

Today, the NCAA announced Ohio State’s sanctions for Tresselgate. They are, of course, far less severe than USC’s sanctions, despite the misconduct having been indisputably more widespread, with higher university officials (like, I don’t know, THE HEAD COACH) having been undeniably more directly responsible for what occurred.

Asked to comment, USC athletic director Pat Haden demurred: “My job is to move on. Not going to compare it.”

Here’s what Haden should have said:

Good afternoon. Today, the NCAA announced that it is imposing a 1-year bowl ban, and a reduction of 9 scholarships over 3 years, on Ohio State’s football program. These penalties resulted from an investigation which found that five football players had sacrificed their amateur status, sold merchandise illicitly, and taken illegal benefits from boosters within the Columbus community, and that head coach Jim Tressel knew about this, lied about it to the NCAA, and covered up his role, in large part so that the ineligible athletes could continue to compete for Ohio State, including in the 2010 Sugar Bowl.

As you know, USC is presently serving a 2-year bowl ban, and is about to suffer a reduction of 30 scholarships over 3 years, as a result of the NCAA’s findings that a single football player took illegal benefits, in San Diego, from a would-be agent. The NCAA found that USC had not adequately monitored this athlete’s activities or those of the agent, and had lacked institutional control in that the university “should have known” what was occurring, because “high-profile athletes require high-profile monitoring.” Crucially, however, the NCAA found no proof of actual knowledge by the school, still less of coaches or other university employees lying to the NCAA or engaging in a coverup.

We are gratified that, by imposing lesser penalties on Ohio State for what are indisputably more serious infractions that those committed in the USC case, the NCAA has tacitly acknowledged that its penalties against USC were far too harsh. It is unfortunate that the NCAA did not come to this realization sooner, such as when we appealed for a reduction in the penalties. However, the NCAA has obviously, if belatedly, realized its mistake, and for that we are grateful. All of college athletics is better off when the punishment for a given infraction fits the crime, as in the Ohio State case, rather than being grossly excessive, as in the USC case.

In light of these developments, we look forward to receiving an explicit statement of acknowledgement and apology from the NCAA. We also believe, although our appeals process has been exhausted, that a discretionary decision by the NCAA to reduce our scholarship penalties would be appropriate. But in any case, we are grateful that the mistakes made by the NCAA in our case will not be repeated going forward, and other schools will not suffer similarly unreasonable penalties to the ones we were given.

Thank you for your time.

But alas.

For the record, I’m genuinely glad Ohio State didn’t get hit harder. The fact that USC got royally screwed — a fact that cannot now seriously be disputed — is no reason to royally screw everyone else, too. That flies in the face of the concept of “precedent,” of course, but I’m looking at the bigger picture here. We can’t be giving Ohio State a three- or four-year ban, Miami the death penalty, and Penn State…what the hell would you give Penn State? No, we can’t do that, not if we want college sports to continue.

What should happen is an explicit renunciation of the USC ruling — the precedent being wiped off the books with an apology, a cancellation of the as-yet unserved sanctions, mass resignations from the Committee on Infractions, and a criminal investigation of Paul Dee (okay, kidding, I’m sure he’s done nothing criminal, but dammit, I can dream). That won’t happen, of course, because of the NCAA operates like a third-world kleptocracy, and third-world kleptocrats can never acknowledge that they were wrong about anything — it’s right there in the third-world kleptocrat handbook! So the USC ruling will remain on the books, a “widows & orphans” case that will never be used as precedent for anything, and USC fans will forever (or at least for the next decade or so) be pissed off when new rulings come out that are plainly unjustifiable when compared to our sanctions. That’s just how it’s gonna have to be, folks.

Meanwhile, I extend my sincere sympathies to any Buckeye fans who might be reading this. You’ll see no schadenfreude from this corner. It sucks to be you today. I know. I remember. But take heart: you’ll be back. Today is the low point. So fly your colors proudly today, as I did when USC’s sanctions were announced. Take your medicine, but have pride in your school. Tomorrow, the sun will rise. And Urban Meyer will still be your coach, you bastards. :)

By Brendan Loy

As noted in my post announcing Jacob Sommer as the winner of the LRT college football regular season Pick ‘em Contest, it’s bowl season, and that means it’s time for the 7th annual Living Room Times Bowl Pick ‘em Contest! The contest is now underway. Instructions for entering after the jump.

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By Brendan Loy

Jacob Sommer (@jasommer) of Washington, D.C., a.k.a. “The Commodore” a.k.a. “Irish DC,” won the 3rd annual Living Room Times College Football Pick ‘em Contest, finishing with a 298-87 prediction record (.774) and defeating Christopher Enger (@fuegote) of Harriman, UT, who went 296-89 (.769).

Enger missed just two games this past weekend, the Conference USA and ACC title games. If he had predicted the mild upsets by Southern Miss and Clemson, he would have won the pool on a tiebreaker, with a perfect final week. Instead, he finishes two points behind Sommer (who also missed the ACC and C-USA games, plus Texas-Baylor).

Jeff Freeze (@bigfreezer) of Burns Harbor, Indiana finished in a third-place tie with “FIGHT ON! CREW” (real identity unknown), with 294 points. Freeze was actually the last person mathematically alive to defeat Sommer in the contest: if Michigan State and Oklahoma had won their prime-time games on Saturday night, Freeze would have tied Sommer on points and beaten him in a tiebreaker. But of course, that didn’t even come close to happening. Although MSU was just barely edged by Wisconsin, OU was utterly demolished by Oklahoma State. The Cowboys’ Bedlam blowout didn’t quite earn them a trip to the BCS title game, but it did clinch the pool victory for Sommer.

That said, Freeze may have squandered his realistic chance to win last week, when he inadvertently failed to make picks for the first five Friday games (“#toomuchturkey,” he tweeted yesterday), thus got all five games “wrong.” That knocked him out of what had been a first-place tie with Sommer. Had he gotten at least 4 of those 5 unpicked games right, he would have won the pool. The favored team won 4 of the 5 games.

This was the second straight Living Room Times college football contest that ended with Freeze losing at the wire. He would have won last year’s Bowl Pick ‘em Contest if Oregon had beaten Auburn; instead, Randy Styles won.

Speaking of Bowl Pick ‘em, it’s that time of year — the 7th annual Living Room Times Bowl Pick ‘em Contest will soon be underway! I’m just waiting for OfficeFootballPool.com to post the matchups. Stay tuned!

Anyway, after the jump are the final standings of the weekly regular season Pick ‘em contest…

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