IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A LOSS FOR MICHIGAN

 OF ALL COLLEGE THINGS: 

---- THE LAUGHTER you hear comes from SEC Haters of the World now that new LSU football coach LANE KIFFIN has brought such chaos that the league has scheduled a meeting Thursday with the possible outcome removal of the school from the conference … unlikely though it may seem.

With the recent attempt by a handful of NFL rejects, with remaining college eligibility, to return to their respective schools of greater learning ... being seen generally as against the greater good, the SEC presidents, who allegedly control such things, voted 15-0 (with one abstention) to ignore a court order and tell them they would not be welcome.

Kiffin, meanwhile, decided he knew better and said he would use a couple of former team members … who were placed on the roster but did not appear in the season-opening 51-10 rout of Clemson. Now, despite the presidential ruling, Kiffin continues to milk the situation by, to this point, refusing to bid them adios.

By the way, LSU’s WADE ROUSSE was the president who abstained … and The Great Defender of SEC Football, PAUL FINEBAUM, blamed him (among others not named GREG SANKEY) for the entire bruhaha. “He is Kiffin’s boss. Why didn’t he step in and tell Kiffin, who is an entertainer after all, what to do?” said the once-well-intentioned newspaper columnist-turned hey-look-at-me proprietor of ESPN’s popular daily The Paul Finebaum Show.

In a filing holding the school responsible for not following conference rules, the SEC also points a finger at Kiffin (for remarks made at halftime to ABC’s national audience) as well as Rouse whose continued silence on the matter “confirms the lack of institutional control over the athletics program at LSU that is required ...”

Finebaum gives Sankey, the SEC commissioner, a pass because “... the presidents tell him what to do.” Wonder if Sankey would agree? Probably.

“The presidents are not going to kick LSU out of the conference Thursday,” Finebaum told a caller who said the “SEC is in a pickle.”

Of course, Finebaum disagreed. “But,” he added, “They could suspend Kiffin.”

---- CALL IT, if you will, “a scandal of major proportions,” which is how several media outlets are referring to the end of the Western Michigan-at-U of Michigan football game ...when time actually stood still ...long enough for the heavily-favored home team to mplete the second of back-to-back Hail Marys for the winning touchdown as time expired.

Naturally, Finebaum took advantage of the golden opportunity to rag on The Conference That Still Calls Itself Big 10 Despite Having 18 Members. “Everyone in the country knows how clearly foolish this is,” he said. “This is supposed to be the best league in America … and they can’t get their stories right. It’s like some political operative who got caught then said: ‘I wasn’t even in the country.’

“You can’t make garbage like this up. What the Big Ten is saying is: ‘What you saw isn’t what we had’ … like they had a secret clock. Tell me I’m wrong ... the Big 10 made this up as they went along.”

Initially, MAC commissioner JON STEINBRENNER went along with the Big Ten’s finding … that Michigan did indeed need fewer than two seconds to take the snap from the Western 47, drop back and loft a pass for the first Hail Mary that was incomplete. The game officials huddled and decided to put a second back on the stadium clock that ran down to :00 while the ball was still in the air.

By Monday, Steinbrecher had changed his mind – or had it changed for him, was more like it … announcing the mid-major conference was appealing the loss … expecting what? To have it overturned? Good luck with that.

---- DID YOU SEE where Nebraska piled up 523 yards and won 49-21 over Ohio U., and got no respect because it was close at halftime against a prohibitive dog? ... And did you know the Huskers’ new transfer quarterback, who threw for 275 yards (18 of 32) and four touchdowns was? … none other than ANTHONY COLANDREA, now two years and two teams away from Virginia, the university of, by way of UNLV. “He impressed me,” said HOWARD GRIFFITH on the Big 10 Network … Last question: Who is Griffith? Well, he won two Super Bowls with Denver … after setting an NCAA record with eight rushing touchdowns in a single game. Oh, THAT H. Griffith, 57, U. of Illinois alumnus, a 6-1, 228-pound fullback best known as blocking back for TERRELL DAVIS with the Broncos.

By the way, he really liked transfer QB (from TCU) JOSH HOOVER in defending national-champion Indiana’s 52-16 first-game rout of North Texas ... 13-16, 231 yards and 4 TDs, 0 INT … “but to me it was the way he played with a bloody nose … THAT goes further than the score,” Griffith said.

Hoover was popped in the beak about midway through the first half. Going to the sideline, he missed maybe as many as two snaps, and the network didn’t hesitate to show viewers – up close and personal – the bloody mess that didn’tseem to bother Hoover THAT much.

“Now, when he walks into a locker room, nobody is EVER going to question his toughness. When he says, ‘Do something!’ It’s going to get done … because it wasn’t just one play. He went to the sideline and came back with a nose … ahh, situation ... Now, who should have taken care of that is another discussion … but, from a player’s standpoint, you’ve got to love that’s your quarterback out there.” 

Until next time ...