Week 10: NCAA Ruminations - A Sad Day Indeed

Here I sit, in the early morning of November 6th. I was fully prepared to write about my impressions of the Game of the Young Century, heretofore to be known as the Field Goal Battle of All time. Truth be told, it was a fantastic weekend for college football - two top ten battles from the same conference, some terrific Big 10 and Pac 10 match-ups, baseball is done and there is no NBA. The LSU/Bama game was bringing more attention to the fact that college football is as big and popular as ever.

Unfortunately, it is going to turn out that the LSU Bama game was not the biggest story of the weekend - not by a long stretch. As of this writing, Jerry Sandusky, the architect of the defense at Penn State for the better part of three decades under Joe Paterno, sits in a jail somewhere near State College, accused of sexually assaulting at least 8 young boys. The details of what is alleged is stomach-churning to say the least. Additionally, the details of alleged behavior within the Penn State organization, going all the way up the chain to Joe Paterno, are going to bring some serious heat on the program and the university in general. One week ago, Joe Pa surpassed Eddie Robinson in total victories and was the epitome of grace in acknowledging Coach Robinson while recognizing his own achievement. This week - he's going to be answering questions about how, if the allegations are true, his conscience allowed him to do what he did, or didn't, do.

Of course, at this point, no one, but Jerry Sandusky knows if the allegations are true. Additionally, no one, but the people involved, know what happened. It does seem clear that somewhere along the way, once given an indication that something horrible might have happened on University property, the powers that be within Penn State didn't see fit to discuss the matter with law enforcement - and this is something I simply don't get.

Maybe the picture will get clearer over the coming days an weeks. But if it comes to light that the interests of a high generation athletic program really rated above the reporting of a possible sexual assault of a minor, I'd say the scale has definitely tipped way too far. Maybe the money is just too much nowadays.

I say this not to slander Penn State and its contribution to the greater good of the world. This was the act of individuals within the university and, Lord knows, as a Virginia Tech fan, I am not particularly appreciative of broad-brushing the whole with the actions of the few. We even have some great PSU alum among our BUCFP brethren. The point here is that, if indeed a cover-up or simply ignoring the act occurred in order to protect the program at Penn State, one could see it happening anywhere. During a week when it was alleged that 4 tickets for Bama LSU went for $23,000, it is clear that there is simply no recession hitting college football. The money is there and it is at insane levels.

Hey, I understand we don't come into this little world of BUCFP every week to weigh in on the world's woes.  Heck, the appeal of college football is partly escapism - we aren't worried about our own work week when we are watching behemoths in the SEC bash each other's brains in for an extra yard on a Saturday night. And, indeed, I welcome the escape too - in fact, I enjoy it so much I turned it into this little hobby and community of like minded people. I enjoy it so much that I type out whatever nonsense comes into my head each week to share with you - whether you read it or not. I promise, next week will be better.

This week - not so much.