ND - becoming control freaks?

[Boom_70]

Interesting story by Greg Couch today:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg18.html

 

[dixiehack]

A very interesting column. A misleading headline on your part. And leave it to the NCAA to bless a Notre Dame tight end becoming a pro boxer while putting the screws to Jeremy Bloom.

 

[Starman]

Notre Dame has been built on promotion and hype, since the days of Rockne.

Most of it, who cares? Like we're all Capt. Renaults who are shocked, shocked to find there's media hype and pandering going on here.

But associating an NCAA football team with professional boxing, as corrupt an activity as there is in the world of sports, is definitely pushing the envelope.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

A very interesting column. A misleading headline on your part. And leave it to the NCAA to bless a Notre Dame tight end becoming a pro boxer while putting the screws to Jeremy Bloom.

Just for the record - he's a safety not a tight end and the Bloom thing had more to do with sponsors than anything else. Zibkowski (sp) does not have any sponsors.

 

[dixiehack]

A very interesting column. A misleading headline on your part. And leave it to the NCAA to bless a Notre Dame tight end becoming a pro boxer while putting the screws to Jeremy Bloom.

Just for the record - he's a safety not a tight end and the Bloom thing had more to do with sponsors than anything else. Zibkowski (sp) does not have any sponsors.

My mistake on the position. Good catch. But the NCAA trying to make a distinction on the sponsorship thing is patently ridiculous. It wasn't Bloom's fault that the financial structure of the two sports are is different (damn World Cup announcers). Is taking cash from a boxing promoter really more pure than taking cash from, say, Atomic Skis?

forkabunchamylesbrand

 

[Starman]

A very interesting column. A misleading headline on your part. And leave it to the NCAA to bless a Notre Dame tight end becoming a pro boxer while putting the screws to Jeremy Bloom.

Just for the record - he's a safety not a tight end and the Bloom thing had more to do with sponsors than anything else. Zibkowski (sp) does not have any sponsors.

My mistake on the position. Good catch. But the NCAA trying to make a distinction on the sponsorship thing is patently ridiculous. It wasn't Bloom's fault that the financial structure of the two sports are different. Is taking cash from a boxing promoter really more pure than taking cash from, say, Atomic Skis?

forkabunchamylesbrand

About 97% of the shirt the NCAA does is patently ridiculous.

The prohibition of agents, for instance. The entire reason for this prohibition is to attempt to ensure that college athletes do not have access to informed or competent representation. For a variety of reasons, the NCAA does not, not, not, not want that.

The attorney-client relationship is one of the most sacrosanct in our legal/social system. If I, Quentin Quarterback of Humungous State University, as a U.S. citizen, decide to hire an attorney, it is none of the NCAA's God Damn Mother forking Business, what he/she and I talk about -- whether it's to get me out of a parking ticket, defend me on a rape charge, negotiate with a professional franchise, sue the university and the NCAA for illegally restricing my right to earn a living -- None Of Their Business. In fact, they can't even ask, and the attorney can't tell them, under threat of being disbarred.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

The NCAA originally was not going to sanction the fight because Zibikowski was going to bill himself as "the Fighting Polack" and they had issue with the nickname.

 

[hockeybeat]

Two thoughts on another well-written Greg Couch piece:

1) Notre Dame football is the single biggest money-maker for the NCAA, so Myles Brand was going to let The Little Catholic School In Indiana (TM) do whatever it damn well pleases.

2) The reason Notre Dame is whoring its legacy out:

What have we seen? A high school recruit, Jimmy Clausen, held a news conference at the College Football Hall of Fame, arriving in a stretch white Hummer with an entourage and a police escort, to announce that he would play at Notre Dame.

We saw athletic-department officials send letters to several national football writers inviting them to sit down with quarterback Brady Quinn. And while it was done without gimmick, it was clearly a way of kicking off a Heisman Trophy campaign. Everyone runs Heisman campaigns of some sort. Notre Dame used to think that was tasteless.

We saw Weis singing at Wrigley, which was fine. And what did you make of the hype surrounding Zbikowski's fight, a quick knockout victory?

In all, it's nothing gaudy, other than the stretch Hummer. But Notre Dame used to sniff at anyone who did things like this. And while that always looked to be a little arrogant, it also was classy.

But it had to be clear to Weis that the Notre Dame mystique thing wasn't working the way it used to. It's still there, but 16-year-old recruits today can't be expected to know much about Notre Dame's grand history. And while having its own TV network, NBC, is a big sales pitch, Notre Dame had fallen behind Florida, Florida State and maybe even Miami, not to mention USC and Texas, in the eyes of recruits. These guys make big fusses, big shows about everything.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has obvious advantages, from national TV games to movies made about its heroes, and Weis apparently decided to put Rudy back to work. Well, that's not quite right. That would be a way of playing on the old name. Weis moved up with modern stuff, including flashy news conferences for high school kids.

What's a legacy when there's a National Championship to be won?

 

[Mutah]

A couple of points: ND had nothing to do with the Clausen presser. If they did, it was an NCAA violation. That's the reason why you don't see kids at college press conferences signing their letters. It runs afoul of NCAA rules. Also: The invitation for national writers to speak with Quinn. What's the big deal? Couch reaching a bunch.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Jeff Samardzija also making headlines

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2490178

 

[BYH]

ND BECOMING control freaks? They're a long way past control freaks.

fork Charlie Weis, who would still be coaching HS football somewhere in Joisey if not for Parcells, whom he threw under the bus when Belichick bolted to the Pats in '00. Asshole.

 

[ChicoTheMan]

A couple of weeks back, a player at Iowa took part in some charity golf outing at the university course, sank a hole in one on a aponsored hole and was in line to collect $25,000 toward the purchase of a new car. He couldn't collect, because the NCAA said the only reason he was playing in the golf event was because of his status as a football player. He even offered to collect the prize and then donate it to charity. Denied.

How is this different than the football player/boxer at Notre Dame?