John and Ehud talk Jeremiah Masoli and the first week of the college football season

Ehud goes from celebrating all things Bill Simmons to celebrating the kickoff to the 2010 season:

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The NCAA is taking its sweet time to approve the Jeremiah Masoli transfer waiver *UPDATED*

The NCAA loves to take it sweet time on determining whether or not student athletes get cleared to play.  The instances of college football’s governing body waiting until the 11th hour (or later) to pass judgment are too countless to review here.

But in the case of Jeremiah Masoli’s transfer to Ole Miss, the delay is pretty damn curious to me.  Why the hell is the NCAA taking so long to approve this transfer request?

To recap, Masoli has already graduated from Oregon with a year of eligibility remaining.  Under the NCAA’s current set of rules, such an individual can transfer and play immediately at another school so long as the athlete in question enrolls in a graduate program not offered at the school he or she just left.  Alabama hoops player Justin Knox made essentially the same kind of transfer earlier this summer and will play his final season at North Carolina.

If I’m missing something or totally misinterpreting the rule then please, somebody get me up to speed here.  In my mind there shouldn’t be anything in the academic realm to review.  The diploma in Masoli’s hand makes that a moot point.

He’s been accepted at Ole Miss and he’s been practicing with the team.  Hell, if the school already has him on board, the problem wouldn’t appear to be on that end, either.

I’m thinking that either the notoriously slow NCAA has one hell of a backlog of cases to review or they’re trying to make a point here. It’s probably a little bit of both.

Masoli is no saint, that’s a given.  And he’s not entirely in the clear in regard to the traffic/possession charges in June that forced Oregon to kick him off the team.

So I’m not defending the guy’s propensity for knuckleheadedness, because that’s well established.   But I can’t find anything in the NCAA’s rule book saying that someone in Masoli’s position should be denied a transfer request based on previous brushes with the law.

If the NCAA is dragging its feet as a way of showing its dissatisfaction with the situation, then I have a real problem with that.  I’d like to think that they’re above that kind of passive-aggressive behavior.

Maybe the NCAA is taking its cue from members of the media, a good many of whom have expressed a negative view on the Masoli transfer.  For example, here’s Dennis Dodd’s take on the matter:

The SEC doesn’t look good as its image as a football-inclined league (at the expense of academics) is enhanced.  Ole Miss looks worse.  Notice that Vanderbilt, which we all know could use some quarterback help, didn’t, as far as we know, contact Masoli.  Neither did Kansas, another school in desperate need of a quarterback.

But at this school, in this league, there is always room for Jeremiah Masolis. (CBSSports.com)

I understand Dodd’s point and I’m not entirely in disagreement with it.  With that kind of sentiment floating around, any school that rolled the dice on Masoli was bound to take an image hit.

However, Houston Nutt and his bosses at Ole Miss are more than aware of the baggage that comes with taking in Masoli.  If this guy screws up again, some careers will undoubtedly be derailed.  Hell, Nutt might find high school coaching jobs hard to come by if Masoli gets arrested again under his watch.

But the burden of dealing with that potential time bomb lies with the Ole Miss athletic department, not the NCAA.  That’s because while he’s broken some laws in the past, Masoli’s transfer didn’t break any NCAA rules.

If the NCAA wants to change its tune and make this type of transfer more difficult in the future, then it has every right to do so.  But in the meantime, they should go ahead and honor the rules they already have on their books, regardless of how reluctant they are to do so.

*UPDATE* The NCAA finally made a decision this afternoon, Masoli can play football for Ole Miss…in 2011.  Strange stuff, man, strange stuff.

Former Mississippi State running back Nick Turner missing, presumed dead

Many college football fans, especially those in the Southeast, recognize the name Nick Turner, but can’t quite remember who the guy was. Here’s a refresher: Turner was a hotshot running back out of Booker T. Washington High in Atlanta back in 2002. He was named a Parade All-American and was wooed by all the major football powers.

However, grade concerns forced schools like Georgia to back off his recruitment. But Mississippi State stuck in there and signed him, and Turner actually ended up qualifying.

In a backfield that included future NFL player Jerious Norwood, Turner showed some flashes of brilliance early on during his time at MSU. But injuries and brushes with the law eventually derailed what had been a promising career. His troubles included an arrest for passing counterfeit money at a Starkville nightclub.

Once Sylvester Croom showed up to take the Mississippi State coaching reins, Turner’s days were done. Croom kicked him off the team in February of 2004 and Turner subsequently ended up finishing his career at Murray State.

His name popped up in the news again this week, but for all the wrong reasons:

Missing and presumed dead. Those are four of the most brutal words a mother can hear in regards to her son. In 2002, who would have thought it would come to this? Back then, I just took it for granted that by 2010, Turner would be fighting for a spot on some NFL team’s roster.

In addition to the shocking news, this aspect of the report also surprised me: Turner’s fall from football grace was so complete that the reporter doesn’t even reference his career. Not one word.

While a happy ending to this story would be wonderful, I don’t think that will come to pass. I hope Nick Turner’s family finds closure sooner rather than later.

** Thanks to MSU fan Carey Scott for bringing this one to my attention **

Ndamukong Suh gets medieval on Jack Delhomme

Remember all that good will that Ndamukong Suh had built up in the offseason after donating money to Nebraska and coming off like a genuinely nice guy? Well, with one 60’s throwback of a personal foul penalty in the Lions’ preseason win over Cleveland, Suh reminded us all that he’s still a bad ass:

I wonder if Suh is a die hard Panthers fan who wanted to express just how unhappy he was with Jake Delhomme’s play the last few years. Man, I think Conrad Dobler cringed after seeing that play.

How sad would it have been to have Delhomme’s fresh start in Cleveland get derailed because of an on-field decapitation? If that had happened, I think Suh would have casually tossed Jake’s severed head toward the Cleveland sideline and just walked back to the defensive huddle.

John and Ehud talk Twitter, Lady Gaga and Ehud’s man crush on Bill Simmons

Listen to a couple of guys profess their love for Twitter while wrestling with their loyalty to Lester Hudson:

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