The Syracuse scandal dropped from Yahoo! revealing the university had covered up some drug tests and failed to discipline kids. If you've read the piece I did on TCU and the school drug testing system you can probably guess that I'm not surprised and I don't care about this in so far as it being a "problem" goes. Ultimately it boils down to a non-story for people who've been around college athletics beyond cheering from the stands and quite honestly the only scary thing here is that if Charles Robinson is looking into drug tests then we're all going to get butt rammed because it happens everywhere.

So given that my immediate reaction to the piece was "meh" in regards to the information, I found Tommy Craggs angry man evisceration of Robinson over at Deadspin to be a bit much. While I agree that the story was a non-starter the actual work itself, as is always the case with Charles Robinson, was very good. That's what the man does, good work.

Now my colleague Allen Kenney over at Crystal Ball Run took his time to write a very solid piece in reaction to Craggs. Kenney, like myself doesn't see much of a big deal in the stories themselves, but he makes some great points regarding the establishment (NCAA) and the folks who report on the scandal within said establishment. It really boils down to "they're just doing their job" for guys like Robinson.

Here we go folks, this is March 7th and we stand just 10 days from the big Guinness St. Patrick's Day Party! That's right folks the party that we told you about a little over a week ago still needs your help to be the biggest St. Patrick's Day Party on planet earth. You're already making plans to knock out that bar crawl in town to celebrate on the 17th. You've already decided that next week you'll be stocking up on Guinness to celebrate this year's marvelously well timed Saturday affair. You've already decided to hit the bar with the best car bomb specials.

So go ahead and click it here and let Guinness know that you're going to party for St. Patrick's Day.

It takes about two minutes and you'll be doing yourself, this blogger and Guinness a favor all at the same time. For Guinness you'll be helping them assume their rightful place in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the true St. Patrick's Day kings. For this blogger you'll be helping me prove that my readers are what I thought you were, folks who love to enjoy a few beers while they're out getting weird. Oh, and there is the matter of the whole possible Bloggers in Ireland that you'll be helping out with too.

For yourself you'll also have a shot at the trip to Ireland. How about that? Just by plugging in a few quick answers you could be skating off to Ireland to enjoy a few days touring the Guinness facility and taking in all that the country has to offer, on someone else's dime.

Here's what you do once you get to Guinness.com folks:
-Prove you're 21 because this is a legal party.
-Put your First Name in the box. 
-Type the promo code BLEA into the promo code box.
-Get on with your day.

That's the process. It is merely five steps and the fourth one is quite optional because you can definitely stick around at Guinness.com and check out the details of the trip or just learn more about all that is the official drink of St. Patrick's Day. Just go to Guinness.com, be 21, type your name, type BLEA and keep it moving folks!

On behalf of myself and the folks at Guinness we truly appreciate you all signing up and helping to make this St. Patrick's Day awesome. Let's push In The Bleachers to the top of the list by getting the most people signed up. I party. You party. Sign up to party with Guinness and we can all party together. With St. Patrick's Day on a Saturday what we have here is a full day of delicious beer, hanging out with your best friends and just flat out having fun. Basically a fall Saturday with everything but the football. Make the most of it by registering!

By now, if you're a relative fan of the sport of football at all, you've heard all about the Saints "Bounty" system that has been uncovered by the NFL. There's the cover up at the top level that is going to be an interesting mess for the league to sift through. There's the involvement of Mike Ornstein the convicted felon in contributing money to the pot but no one knows why. There's the whole "bounty trail" that stretches through Gregg Williams career.

Yet, the thing that gets people going is the actual act itself. The idea of a "bounty" being placed. Cash being given for injuring, cart offs and such. The rhetoric behind "kill shots" and being rewarded for injuring the opposition.

After an entire weekend of hearing it debated, reading plenty of what folks were saying and mulling it over there is a pretty clear disconnect between myself, a handful of other writers, a lot of other defensive ball players and the rest of the writers and fans out there.

I've found that to be the biggest road block in having this discussion with other people. Just the absolutely "different side of the tracks" view of the situation. People hear "bounty" and they run off the deep end. The word itself is a bit of a misnomer for what's actually going on. Williams' reference of a pay for performance is far more accurate. A reward is probably the best way to describe it.

Before we I get further into explaining why I'm not anywhere near the Gregg Williams banned for life train we do need to be clear; punishment is coming and rightfully so. You lie to Goodell and you get banged on. You break the rules you pay for it. Pretty simple, straight up and down so there's no reason to say they shouldn't be punished or that they might escape the hammer. It's coming and because they lied the chances they can escape are the proverbial snowballs chance in hell.

Today is, I'm told, Dr. Seuss' birthday which oddly coincides with the release of the movie "The Lorax" which I'm sure I'll see when it comes on FX in a year. Was never a huge fan of the Seuss movie conversions but always enjoyed the books. I'm a "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Horton Hears A Who" guy myself but you know, as long as the kids are still reading them that's all that counts. Great books and great ideals behind said books.

We need to remind all of you Fetch Friday supporters to get on board with our Guinness St. Patrick's Day promo. It's easy, it might help your favorite blogger out and yes, you might could win something. As always with the Fetch Friday we keep you in the mix so here's some Katy Perry, one of our faves.


So we've got a little to discuss today as the thoughts surrounding the rule change have been nestled in my noggin for about a week and thanks to all sorts of behind the scenes business I didn't really get to talk about them.

It's leap day and while it only comes around only once every four years the conversation being had around our sport today is the same as it has been for the last several years. Players' rights, players' advocates, unfair treatment, scholarship gaps and athlete compensation is as pressing an issue now as it has ever been and yesterday a couple things happened that were on the plus side if you side with the athletes.

If you side with the system I recommend you brush up on the enemy; even though the fact that you think improving the situation of student athletes is something to rail against is bothersome for me. Both sides have their reason and yesterday struck a win for the pro student both in reality and in helping raise awareness.

We'll kick off with the big news that got a lot of folks jazzed up as the NCAA members elected to allow the giving up four year scholarships to student athletes. To explain it simply the issue was voted on late in 2011 and was approved by the member institutions, this month the institutions voted on an override, an override would kill the measure and not allow for the four year scholarships to be given.

As CBS pointed out above and thanks to the Chronicle we get a view of the schools that were all for the override measure including some 30 BCS or future BCS programs. Yes, Nick Saban's Alabama and Les Miles' LSU were two of the teams invovled in the 30. However, so was Wisconsin, the entire future Big XII a few other big boys including USC, Florida State and Clemson from a recruiting standpoint.

Then Saban sent the college football world into a tizzy by saying the Tide would be more than happy to offer the multiyear schollies.

Every now and then we get the opportunity to give back to you the readers as well as just have a little fun in general. Here is one of those type of moments as the fine folks at Guinness have dangled a trip to Ireland in front of us for doing exactly what we planned on doing for St. Patrick's Day; partying.

That's right people, with the seventeenth fast approaching we are all out there hammering down our plans for pub crawls and getting our responsible drinking on. Now, with Guinness looking to make their way into the Guiness Book of World Records we can all benefit with just a few quick clicks.

So without stalling around any further head on over to Guinness' website to start this process. You'll of course be prompted to prove that you're over 21, we can't just have all you underage drinkers breaking laws out there. Once you pass the "I'm 21" test you will be prompted to join the party. Drop your first name into the box, along with your zip code; and here is the kicker, drop the promo code "BLEA" into the box to make sure they know your buddy Michael Felder sent you.

It really is just that simple folks and once your signed up you'll see all the info about the chance to win a trip to Ireland for a tour of the fantastic Guinness brewery. Let's have a good showing for all you In The Bleachers folks because obviously we party. Who knows, if you guys show up for ITB we may end up taking the trip to Ireland together as I'm up against the other bloggers for a chance to sign up the most people.

Bloggers in Ireland. Wouldn't that be cray?

So pass the word on folks, sign up for the chance to win and help show folks that ITB knows how to party. We'll be helping Guinness set a Guinness World Record by drinking Guinness for a show to go visit Guinness. This has so much win all over it people.

After over a week spent not in my hometown, in my own house I'm making the trek back to The C today. The weather is breaking like crazy people, been in Fayetteville the last few days and I'm pretty sure we topped 80 yesterday. It was glorious.

Spring is in the air, if it isn't in the air where you live I'd definitely consider moving. Just don't move to where I am because we've already got plenty of transplants.

Move to Atlanta.

With spring slowly springing it takes me to spring ball which, if you didn't already know, is my personal favorite part of college football. So here's a little AC/DC because that is what you get to listen to when your strength coach loves it.


So it was the AC/DC catalog or, back in 2004-2006, something from the Lil Jon discography. As we get into this spring ball discussion, where several schools have gotten an early start to their work, check out the entire spring schedule for the nation.

We're just days away from the start of the NFL Combine for 2012's draft and the annual pilgrimage of the nation's elite college prospects to Indianapolis is starting now as guys make the flight to Indy. We'll be wowed by speed, amazed by agility and left shaking our head at some poor diet decisions by some of these guys. In the end we'll come away with a clearer picture of who some of these players are.

Some guys will remind us of why we're skeptical of their ability to turn college stardom into NFL success. Other players will make us think they deserve a shot because of off the chart measurables. In the we can slot some guys higher than before, some guys lower and all the draftniks will go back and forth over why what they saw counts more than what someone else noticed in the same player.

Last year we broke down some of the interesting terminology that you'll hear for the next week out of Indy as well as a little ITB Commentary from awhile back so you can read both of those and I won't bother rewriting what's been said.

As the combine gets going we'll hit on things as they come and of course we'll be on the twitter answering questions, for now I just wanted to do a quick run down of the workout section of the combine.

Friday, Fetch Friday is back y'all and we're going to hit on this TCU situation yet again as we've got a bit more information. Here's the article from yesterday where we got into some of the nuts and bolts of what might happen at TCU and taking a look at drug testing policy.

But first we figured now is as good a time as any to drop one of the greatest one hit wonder rap songs of all time.

So let's get into more TCU stuff as interesting tidbits have been revealed and we can further look to explain some of what's going on.

Middle of February; the games, hires and signing day are behind us while spring ball is still weeks away yet college football continues to find its way to the front page for us on a regular basis. Tuesday the story was all about West Virgnia's settlement with the Big East and the release of the new Big XII schedule. On Wednesday the eyes would again shift to the Big XII as another newcomer, TCU makes headlines and this time it isn't exactly good.

Four TCU football players were arrested Wednesday in conjunction with a six-month drug sting that netted some 18 total arrests including 15 current TCU students. The four players; linebacker Tanner Brock, defensive tackle DJ Yendrey, cornerback Devin Johnson and offensive tackle Tyler Horn were all brought in for selling marijuana as the sting itself caught the individuals selling everything from pot to cocaine and ecstasy.

The arrest isn't a football problem as the players were merely caught in a larger situation that police were investigating. In fact the arrests, by themselves, show little to me with respect to TCU's football program beyond some guys sell a little pot on the side. Not something remarkably eye opening unless you're the type of person of the mindset that this doesn't go on other places. The type who thought TCU was different.

However, we do get into some football related issues when Gary Patterson, the head coach, reportedly called for a team drug test to start the month of February after a recruit turned down TCU, telling Patterson it was on account of the drug use by the current players. After said drug test two of the players involved in the arrests, Brock and Johnson, both spoke candidly during drug sales about the amount of players who would likely fail the test. Johnson said some 82 players failed the test while Brock said at least 60 of the players would be screwed.

This is where it gets a bit interesting as there are some elements of drug testing that need cleared up and some questions that TCU has yet to truly answer with regards to policy and procedure.