The NCAA has rounded up as many innocent participants and bystanders as could be found to have had anything to do with Penn State football between 1998 to the present and said, “Hang ‘em all.”

With the impunity of a Middle Eastern theocracy, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has fined Penn State $60 mil, docked them four years post-season play, a number of scholarships, and has ruled that the Nittany Lions will vacate all their wins since 1998.

Vacated wins are not the same as forfeits, according to reports. They don't count as losses or wins for either school.

So Penn State didn’t win all those games they won, nor did they lose them, they only “vacated them.” And the teams that originally lost the games didn’t win them nor lose them.

Nobody won, nobody lost. So ... the games weren’t played?

This is a criminal matter. If Jerry Sandusky has been charged, tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity, then the head coach, athletic director and any university officials who had knowledge of Sandusky’s transgressions and did nothing about them should be charged and tried as well.

The death penalty was discussed as an option for Penn State football. Joe Paterno has already received his death penalty. It remains to be seen what will happen to the AD, university president and other officials who buried their heads in the sand and ignored this tragedy.

But players and coaches who had nothing to do with this situation or any knowledge of it should not be punished.

Somehow, the NCAA just never gets it right.

"They can't wait for that first SEC game against Vandy." 

—Sportscaster Brent Musberger on Texas A&M's second half crash against Arkansas 
and 0-7 record against SEC teams in recent years

Grapes of wrath avoided?

It didn’t happen, the 21st Century version of Steinbeck’s novel, with OU leading the wagon train west to the PAC12, followed by Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma state. The Big 12 will remain in tact for the time being, with one notable exception.
    Texas A&M made their shift official: They’re leaving home and abandoning decades of traditional rivalries to join the SEC. The Big 12’s mission, now, is to keep Missouri home and add a couple new members. Mizzou has flirted with the SEC but may be smart enough to know they can’t win over there.
    Good additions to the Big 12 would be Houston, SMU and TCU, assuming the latter has the juevos rancheros to pick up the gauntlet and come back to Texas now that their new nirvana, the Big East, is substantially diminished with the loss of Pitt and ‘Cuse, who have membered up with the ACC. UConn and Rutgers are talking about leaving the Big East, too, so TCU will be leaving a strong mid major to join what soon may become a mediocre mid major. From penthouse to outhouse.
    The arms race, riddled with hyprocrisy and infidelity, continues. Texas A&M accuses Texas of upping the ante by starting their own network, but the Aggie move to the SEC could end up hurting other programs which, in effect, is what they’re accusing Texas of doing. Baylor, KU, KState and Iowa State, all of which have invested fresh millions in upgrades, could be hurt the worst if the Big 12 is downgraded.
    But for the time being, the Big 12 Conference, the grandchild of the old Southwest Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference (aka Big 6, Big 7, Big 8) will remain as is.
    And Nero fiddled while Rome burned. In this case, Nero is the NCAA.


Ags await Vandy
The Texas State Boys and Girls Home for Farmers and Mechanics at College Station was rudely introduced to the SEC Saturday when they saw Arkansas come from behind to win the contest 42-38. The Cadets led 35-17 at the break.
       The Ags have been outscored 52-12 in the second halves of games this year. They have lost seven in a row to SEC squads and haven't beaten one since 1995.          
      "They can't wait for that first SEC game against Vandy," said sportscaster Brent Musberger.


From the sketch book:
Ft. Hancock, Texas. Six man football. Friday night lights in heart of darkness far West Texas between El Paso and Van Horn. School buses and wooden bleachers and the whole town turning out for every game. 
   No band because every boy in school was on the football team. Scores in the 70s every game.
   Ft. Hancock won a number of titles in six man but when their population grew and they had to join a larger division and start playing 11 man, they disappeared. Lost a lot of games. 
   But the water tank out on the interstate still boasts the glory days and in big letters says, "Ft. Hancock, state champs in six man football, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991."
   I was coming out of Mexico after running a tour through Copper Canyon. Timed it just right and drove into Ft. Hancock in time for a hot dog, a Frito pie and a Coke and to watch "The Fort" maul their neighborhood rival Sierra Blanca.

DDT the old school, out of touch rag that thinks small and dreams the dreams of better days in college football

From a reader: You’re an old Gringo living in Taos, New Mexico writing about football at a small, private Catholic school in Minnesota that plays DivThree non-scholarship football. 'Sup wit dat?

DDT: Don’t forget the FCS, aka DivOneAA and the service academies. DDT is writing about them, too. All of the above are closer to the more honest, non-corporate game we grew up with. Put another way, they have lower budgets and the coaches make less money, but there’s still an innocence and authenticity there that has been lost in the big college game.


Winningest coach wins another

Gagliardi

Johnnies take opener
The St. John’s Johnnies of Collegeville, Minnesota started the 2011 campaign with a 34-0 win over Northwestern College of St. Paul. The Johnnies, coached by John Gagliardi, the winningest active coach in college football, are picked to finish third behind St. Thomas and Bethel in the DivThree Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAA). 

Gagliardi, in his 59th year in Collegeville, has 479 wins, has led St. John’s to four national championships, and has the winningest overall record in DivThree.

With a crowd of 7,800 looking on, the Johnnies opened up a 27-0 halftime lead over NW, added another touch in the second half and coasted to the 34-0 final.

Junior running back Stephen Johnson led the way for St. Johns with 111 yards on 19 carries, including 81 yards in the second quarter alone. Johnson had a 27-yard TD run and five receptions for 20 yards on the day.

The Johnnies host the Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugolds next Saturday, Sept. 10. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Clemens Stadium in Collegeville.

DivOne Bubble coaches:

Pac-10

Jeff Tedford, Cal. Tedford has perpetuated Cal's tradition of bridesmaidmanship, finishing in the middle of the PAC10 (now the PAC 12) every year, but Cal fathers don't even know it. It's Cal/Berkeley. They're still marching around with placards protesting the war in Vietnam. Football? They don' need no stinkin' football. Except up on Tightwad Hill, which overlooks the Cal stadium, where  freeloaders can watch a contest at no charge and partake of vast qualities of enchanted herb that's passed around during the games (“Yeehaa, Jane Fonda! Free Angela Davis!”) If Cal’s admin ever wakes up, Tedford could be in trouble. 

Paul Wulff, Washington State. Wulff got Eastern Washington to the Top Ten in DivOneAA, which got him the Wazoo job. EW remains in the Top Ten in DivOneAA while Wulff and Wazoo are in the Bottom Ten in DivOne. 


Rick Neuheisel, UCLA. The mission: Replace USC as number one in L.A. Say no more.


The whole state of Arizona:
Mike Stoops, AZ, has made it to the base of the mountain but has not made it to the summit and has not “seeeen the promised land.” 


Dennis Erickson, AzState, could probably care less. He has been to the promised land with a couple programs and has coached in the NFL. AzState is just a postlude. If he wins, fine. If he doesn’t, he was going to retire, anyway.


Mountain West:
Mike of Locksley, UNM, has the worst record in DivOne (2-22) and has established the Lobos at the bottom, as in a rating of number 120 (out of 120 DivOne teams). Whew. If he makes it through the season, DDT will be surprised. 
First casualty. Locksley a goner on Sept. 25.


Steve Fairchild, Colorado St. Lot of promise at the outset. But, now, lot of empty seats. And more players in trouble as well. Saturday, with fourth and one on his own 40 and less than a minute to go, Fairchild called a run and got stuffed. Ball over to UNM, giving the Lobos a short field and a chance to win. Fortunately for Fairchild the Lobos couldn’t capitalize and ColoSt. survived. Fairchild may not. 


Whoever is coaching at UNLV. What’s his name who replaced what’s his name. They don’t win in Vegas, they just change coaches every other year or so. In Vegas, football is just another lounge act at Motel Six. 


Conference USA:
Bob Toledo, Tulane, hasn’t really done much since he got there but he stuck it out through Katrina so that probably bought him some respect. But the clock is running. 


Mike Price, UTEP. Price was filling up the Sun Bowl and winning a respectable number of games a few years ago. But attendance has dipped by about 20K per home contest in the last couple seasons, and the Miners have only been to one bowl game in six years, which was the New Mexico Bowl, last year, where they got blown out by BYU. 


Neil Callaway, UAB. Give anybody credit who takes a head job in the state of Alabama where you have to compete against the two big dogs, but Callaway is 15-33 in five years with no bowl games. 


MAC:
That great stepping stone in the Midwest: Urban Meyer, Bowling Green to Utah to Florida; Brady Hoke, Ball State to SDState to Michigan; Turner Gill, Buffalo to KU; Jerry Kill, Northern Illinois to Minnesota; Butch Jones, Central Mich to Cinncy; Al Golden, Temple to Miami. The trick is not to stay too long. Couple winning seasons in the MAC, then make the leap. 
•Golden may be making another move, soon, if Miami gets the death penalty. None of the current violations under investigation happened on his watch, so he’s clean. But he could wind up in the unemployment line. DDT thought he might be the next head man at Penn State if JoePa retires after this year or next. That possibility may open again.


The Indies:
Brian Kelley, Notre Dame. It goes with the territory at South Bend. Step on to the field, step on to the bubble. There’s not enough Prozac to settle the fans and alums down at ND. Of course, winning a national championship would buy coach a year—but only a year.


WAC:
Everybody. The whole conference should down-size to DivOneAA. The WAC is a boring book and everybody disappears in the end, or, if they’re lucky like Derek Dooley (now at Tennessee), steps up and out quickly.

Sun Belt:
Everybody. The whole conference should down-size to DivOneAA. The SB is a boring book and everybody disappears in the end. 

Preseason mascot trivia: Among the 120 DivOne college football squads, "Tigers" is the most popular nickname. There are five. Memphis is the least Tiger-like of the group, having been a doormat in Conference USA for years. The rest play a decent brand of tackle football. 

Of Wildcats there are four in DivOne and three each of Bulldogs, Huskies, Eagles, Cougars and Aggies. There are a couple each of Cardinals, Cowboys, Broncos, Owls and Spartans. The rest fall into individual categories of their own.

LSU, Auburn, Missouri, Memphis, Clemson

Kentucky, Northwestern, Arizona, KState