Jeremiah Masoli Cleared To Play

Scholar! Athlete! What's his likely postgrad GPA? 3 to 5? Or 5 to 7?

 

Who cares. Mr Masoli runs the best zone read in college football today.

 

It's shit like this that makes me believe that what football in the states needs is a major junior division seperate from the NCAA much like hockey has in Canada and a few markets in the U.S. It gets rid of the farce that many of these kids are "student athletes", they get a small pay cheque, and you have none of this nonsense about transferability and having to sit out a year if you fall out of favour with your coach/school. I know this case goes beyond Masoli falling out of favour with Oregon, but in this case he would just be flat out released and free to sign with a new program, none of this trying to exploit loop holes and shit. Sure, this wouldn't be a fit for every player and the NCAA would be a more appropriate route for those players but I don't think the NCAA is going anywhere. Where is it written that the NCAA must have a monopoly on football's best young talent? The only change I would make from the Canadian Major Junior model is the age minimum would be jacked up to 18 as opposed to 15 or 16. I think it would take a few years to catch on, but if you set yourself up as a developer of premiere talent and are able to follow through on that, you're golden. You could even do what Canadian Major Junior Hockey does and provide scholarships for years spent in the program for that athlete to use once his football career is over if it doesn't pan out.

 

How big is college hockey in Canada?

 

Too bad he couldn't follow the rules to play for Oregon.

 

It's not Ole Miss' fault that the Pac-10's priorities are out of whack.

 

Plus, the kid did what he was supposed to: he graduated. Isn't that what we scream about all the time, that coaches don't "graduate" the kids?

 

It's not all that big in Canada as far as the CIS goes -- there is still the university leagues (CIS) and various college leagues in Alberta and Ontario, but those are true student athletes, those are players with virtually no shot at going pro. But you have a bit of an on going war between major junior and the NCAA over the recruitment of players. Players realize they will generally develop better in the major junior than in the NCAA. Players who realize they don't have a huge future in hockey and want the free education go the NCAA route. Now not to say you don't have players who drafted out of the NCAA, it's just the numbers aren't even close and those college players generally come out a little older and still in need developing -- in most cases.

 

I can't wait to see Masoli's schedule for the fall.

 

Exactly. He followed all the rules, except for the "stop getting arrested" one.

 

The best part will be when masoli drops out and isn't enrolled for the spring semester.
oh the hand wringing.
on the other hand the ncaa reg preventing this will be known as the masoli rule

 

That's not against NCAA rules.

If they played good cop and gave him a pizza to elicit a confession, he might have lost his amateur status, though.