HUNTSVILLE, HERE I COME

I read the headline and thought Orson was sending you to SpaceCamp. That would have been sweet.

Ahhh yes. UT DE Brian Robison will destroy his will to live.

thought for a second they’d given him the death penalty.

Space bitches… space.

Also very convenient that a state penitentiary is located in the same town. Just sayin’.

And not just any ol’ penitentiary, Texas’ death row to be more specific. Only the most successful & decorated death row unit in the nation, which has amassed 173 confirmed kills since the turn of the century. Everything’s bigger in Texas, right?

That’s where the guy that wrote Junction Boys went to prison. And no, this is not a joke.

As a Huntsville, AL resident, when I saw the headline, I thought that he was heading to Alabama A&M, but he doesn’t have the right pigment. I guess he could go to UAH and learn to play hockey.

The best part for us UT fans is that he sorta screwed over OU and we still get to beat the sh*t out of him…probably more so now….since he’ll be playing behind the SHSU line when they visit here in a few weeks.

What’s “Space, Bitches” a reference to?

speaking of eligibility:

Why Is Aleric Mullin Allowed In School?
August 30th, 2006
This one baffles me, folks. Even a conspiracy theorist couldn’t come up with a story like this one. And I probably don’t know the half of it. But I’m pretty sure the facts that I do know show that Aleric Mullin should not be in an Atlantic Coast Conference institution.

For those of you who don’t know yet(how could you not have heard about this by now?), Aleric is a UNC recruit who was recently approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse, following a two week review of his high school transcripts.

Mullins transferred from a school in Missouri to East Wake High School in North Carolina and apparantly, an english course came into question. It seems that a literature course was accepted as an English by UNC and the ACC. In a most unusual ruling the NCAA decided to allow Mullins to enroll at UNC despite a deficiency in meeting core curriculum academic requirements. According to Coach Bunting, "Aleric will be allowed to attend the University of North Carolina but will not be allowed to play football during his freshman year. Beginning in his Sophomore year, Aleric will have three years to play three but if he meets NCAA academic goals could gain a fourth year of eligibility."
That appears to be the definition of a partial qualifer.
The reason this is odd is the NCAA abolished the partial qualifier rule four years ago, you are now either a qualifier, or a nonqualifier. And the ACC does not allow nonqualifiers.
So how did Aleric Mullins get in?
Did UNC got special consideration? According to David Glenn, of the ACC Journal:

According to ACC and NCAA officials, they have not changed their terminology on this stuff.There is STILL no such thing as a "partial qualifier," despite the fact that the term is used in some 2006-07 NCAA manuals. Very strange, I agree. So Anthony Barnes (GT) and Aleric Mullins (UNC) aren’t technically partial qualifiers, they’re just being treated exactly the same way as the old partial qualifiers, as we discussed above.The NCAA now is using something they’re calling a "partial waiver" — probably an unfortunate choice of terms — and the end result is the same: can’t play but can practice during first year on campus, can "earn back" fourth season of eligibility, etc.And:And:Unlike the "partial qualifier," which was based specifically on a GPA/SAT combination, the "partial waiver" is a more subjective term without the same clear definition. It is determined on a case-by-case basis, just like appeals for a sixth year of eligibility, appeals to avoid the sit-out year for major college transfers, appeals to get out of a national letter of intent, etc.

I can understand appeals and approvals for sixth year of eligibility, most commonly used when an injury forces a player to miss a year following his red-shirt season. I can understand approving a kid to play the year after he transfers. I can even understand letting a kid out of his Letter Of Intent, although the LOI clearly states that you are signing with the institution and not the coach.
But a subjective decision of a recruit’s academic record? That truly makes no sense to me. Either you hit the books and you cut the mustard or you don’t. Each and every kid that dreams of playing Division 1 NCAA sports knows the academic requirements for acceptance and eligibility. But still UNC got a kid into their school who shouldn’t have been accepted into any school in the CONFERENCE under current NCAA/ACC rules. According to the NCAA you either qualify or you don’t:

14.3.2.1 Nonqualifier. A nonqualifier is a student who has not graduated from high school or who, at the time specified in the regulation (see Bylaw 14.3), presented neither the core-curriculum grade-point average and SAT/ACT score required for a qualifier.14.3.2.1.1 Eligibility for Aid, Practice and Competition. An entering freshman with no previous college attendance who was a nonqualifier at the time of enrollment in a Division I institution shall not be eligible for regular-season competition or practice during the first
academic year in residence. However, such a student shall be eligible for nonathletics institutional financial aid that is not from an athletics source and is based o­n financial need o­nly, consistent with institutional and conference regulations.
14.3.2.2 Practice-Session Attendance. A student-athlete who is a nonqualifier and who, therefore,is not eligible for practice may not attend any practice sessions in any capacity, nor may the student-athlete attend any meeting characterized as practice
14.3.2.3 Outside Competition — Nonqualifier. A nonqualifier may participate in the institution’s intramural program (provided the intramural team is not coached by a member of the institution’s athletics department staff), but during the first year of enrollment, such an individual is not permitted to practice or compete o­n an institutional club team or o­n an outside sports team."

Aleric Mullins does not meet the criteria for NCAA, much less ACC (who holds stricter requirements than the NCAA), eligibility.
While the loophole for a “partial waver” exists, the Atlantic Coast Conference has long prided itself on it’s commitment to academic excellence and the acceptance of Aleric Mullins is completely contradictory to the rhetoric of the conference.
John Swofford, the commissioner of the ACC once said ‘’I think that’s a good thing partial qualifiers will be gone. There was kind of a grouping of student-athletes that were in no-man’s land."
Obviously the commitment to academic excellence and the integrity of the league are expendable when it comes to the benefit of the UNC football program.