We had a gorgeous double-rainbow over our neighborhood this evening:
It’d be overkill to get all “small and passing thing” about this: NCAA scholarship restrictions and bowl bans are not equivalent to the great Shadow of evil, beyond whose reach is much “light and high beauty” like this rainbow. Even so, it was a refreshing sight at the end of a sad day, and I couldn’t resist photographing it above our USC flag:
Speaking of rainbows… Beat the Rainbows! Er, Rainbow Warriors. Er, Warriors.
Now, pardon me while I drink some beer out of my USC 2004 National Champions cup.
You can take our scholarships… and our bowl eligibility… and our past wins… and possibly our trophies… but you can never take our freedom beer!!!
I haven’t heard much about this yet…but one of the provisions in the penalty is that USC does not get an exemption to play 13 games by virtue of its trip to Hawaii this year. So that means USC will have to cancel one game. Presumably a non-conference game. Those games are Hawaii, Minnesota, Virginia, Notre Dame. I don’t know the politics or legal issues involved…but if I had to guess, I would think they would dump the Minnesota game. The Virginia and Notre Dame games are home games. And why not give the players the chance to go to Hawaii this year since they don’t get a bowl game. This would leave the trip to Minnesota as the one to cancel.
Of course if USC really pursues an appeal…then the sanctions would be delayed. Personally, I would rather have USC accept a one year Bowl Ban and the other sanctions for this year and only appeal those sanctions that would go into effect in 2011 and beyond. That way they get this over with sooner. I don’t see any chance of the Appeals Committee actually overturning the entire decision anyway and little chance of any dimunition in the penalties at all.