Linkbacker U. Dodges an NCAA Bullet

Leading off today is an update to a link we posted a week ago, to an eBay listing for a 2008 Big Ten Championship Rose Bowl Ring. Naturally, one gets suspicious of those kinds of sales, particularly when it's such a recent item as Penn State's conference title three years ago. After all, many of those players are still on the team now.

But fear not, Penn Staters, there won't be any scandals in Happy Valley over this bit of memorabilia, as I've been able to confirm that the ring belonged to recently-departed running back Shaine Thompson. Thompson left the team following the 2010 season, and is not currently listed on any official roster.

So no "Ring-Gate 2011." Whew...

Linkbacker U. is Representin' McWestside

What do you expect? I don't have
my computer with Photoshop
right now, so MS Paint
is all we get today.

Who knew Scranton turf wars were this intense? Matt McGloin, that's who.

"Whenever he says where he's from, he says West Scranton, not Scranton," Mr. Meyers said of Mr. McGloin.

For Mr. McGloin's father, Paul, there's a pretty simple explanation for that.

"He loves West Scranton," Mr. McGloin said of his son. "It's a part of town where people care about each other and take care of each other."

Can't you just picture the amber waves of grain and purple mountains' majesty in the background?

This yellow journalism is not worth a link. Mark Madden wrote Madden: Sandusky a State secret for the Beaver County Times last night. The whole thing is just rancid garbage, but this particular passage caught my eye as truly unethical:

HBO hits Auburn, Ohio State tonight at 10... and it's going to get UUUUUGLY

I'm feeling pretty good right now having not canceled HBO today like I was planning to do yesterday. Then again, had I followed through with those plans, this is the kind of thing that would make me pick up that phone and re-subscribe for the next 48 hours faster than you can say CHEETERZ!

Kremer voiceover: “But McClover says there were money handshakes from boosters at other football camps too. At Auburn for a couple hundred dollars and at Michigan State. All the schools denied any wrongdoing. And things really started heating up a few months later when he went to Ohio State for an official visit where schools get a chance for one weekend to host prospective athletes. McClover says there were money handshakes from alumni there too. About a thousand dollars. And something else to entice him.”

McClover: “They send girls my way. I partied. When I got there I met up with a couple guys from the team. We went to a party and they asked me to pick any girl I wanted.”

Kremer: “Did she offer sexual services?“

McClover: “Yes.”

Kremer: “Did you take them?”

McClover: “Yes.”

Sports By Brooks got an advance copy of the show, and it only gets better... juicier, to say the least. There's much more about Auburn, since most of the show focuses on what went on down south, figuratively and literally, if you get my meaning. For all of us non-Buckeyes, Tigers or Spartans, this should be like watching a horrible train wreck from 300 yards away; for anyone closely tied to those colleges--well, it could be like parking your butt right on the cowcatcher.

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