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 complete 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 ...