Because Bowden is a flaming asshole. And has one- from his days with Whitehurst.

“An intrepid and very attractive reader "

I don’t believe it till I see it.

privacy concerns. schools are extremely, extremely tight-lipped when it has anything to do with the topics of student’s academics and scholarships. they usually err (and that’s an understatement) extremely on the side of caution lest they find themselves on the wrong end of a federal privacy lawsuit.

am i saying that this position is justified? no, but that’s the conservative mindset of academic and athletic administrators at pretty much every school ive dealt with.

still awaiting cook’s post of rightous indignation on fanhouse lambasting bowden as a “snake oil salesman.”

Didn’t Expose sum this whole situation up back in ’86 with “Seasons Change”?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcWfpPgeAP4

If you clicked through and watched the vid, then you’re welcome for ruining your day…

No, only Nick Saban is mephistopheles.

Bowden is just telling the kid the truth. Saban does it intentionally to try and crush as many kids hopes and dreams as possible.

If Bowden doesn’t get raked over the fucking coals over this, then we Bama fans are right about the fucking negative media (and blog) bias towards our program.

Player gets bachelor’s degree paid for by school while being on the team: Commitment completed in my opinion. This is retarded. Kid gets free education and everyone helped him and his brother out when it was needed, sounds like Clemson’s shooting par for the course. If that kid really were smart enough to graduate in 3 years he would take that graduate slot and learn to coach or something, because he’s not gonna be in the NFL, I’m sorry.

Players aren’t tied to a school for four years, so why should schools be tied to them? To keep it from being abused they could not be allowed to use the scholarship for a year in much the same way a transfer player has to sit out. I’m sure there are a ton of flaws with that, since I just thought of it.

/threadjack

A legislator in Kentucky wants to make all web posters use their real names.

http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlantic/tvq/video.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-05-0011.html

What would such a law do to the bunda worship one often sees here?

end threadjack/

I don’t see how this makes Bowden evil.

Given his situation, this is to be expected. Per MCAA rules, he can sit this season out and graduate, which gives him two years at any 1-A school without sitting for a year (re: Blake Barnes, who has 1 left). He would have to press and get out in December for this to work, however.

Or, he can leave right now and play at the 1-AA level, and I’m sure App State, Furman & Wooford would be very interested.

“You might think this is big-boy football, etc; or you might think a school has a four-year obligation, period. Our guess is that this varies wildly by geography.”

Hmmmm. Not sure how exactly to interpret that. Is the division along Blue/Red states or the difference between civil war Blue-Grey?

@10

It’s the “Bowden” part of Tommy Bowden that makes him evil.

Biggus – In case you forgot, you hate Clemson. I don’t care if they were rescuing kittens from burning homes, you take back your logic and post some damn hate, right now.

If that email from Clemson admin is correct, then it looks like Clemson is doing better than what they could do. If Ray Ray can’t compete for a spot anymore because there are better players and they are short of slots, why should a school keep him on the payroll?

Still Bowden is a flaming asshole.

1. PW
    
   See MGoBlog…and his take on the deal..Oh, wait that is only for Coach Saban.

Ray Ray was never going to see the field, and he has been outrecruited.

We needed room for Dwayne Allen and Antoine McClain to get under the 85 rule. This is undisputed.

Darius Gaither was told he would never see the field as well, and it probably is not worth mat drills and spring ball and everything involved for him to stay at Clemson, and he decided to transfer on his own. Gaither is not a 5th year senior, however.

Ray Ray wanted to stay, but how much do you owe someone you already kept on scholarship for 4 years?

Now, I can take an educated guess as to who the female reader in question is that wrote Bourret, Tim is a major dick FYI, and all I can say is, Clemson’s coaches are the ones who did all the NCAA legwork so that Ray Ray could take care of little brother.

It was the Clemson coaching staff wives who picked up the brother from school every day, still do to this day, and babysat little brother every day, still do to this day.

And, Tommy offered RR the opportunity to stick around as a GA, which is not a bad trade off given that, again, Ray Ray will never see the field at Clemson, again. This way he will not have to stick with the schedule the rest of the team continues with.

Had some sort of medical exemption been available, Clemson would have placed him on that, obviously, instead.

Now, if your POV is that Clemson should give RR a 5 year commitment and keep him on athletic scholarship even though the opportunity was provided to attend Clemson for 4 years for free and get his degree in that period of time…

fair enough.

And, Clemson has, essentially, “cut” RR, and I am not disputing that.

But, it really is in everyone’s best interests, if Ray Ray wants to continue playing football, to transfer.

But, what kills me the most about this, and I am a Tommy Bowden fan, is that surely there was someone else, I can think of 2 other players off the top of my head, who should have been run off.

Obviously, this is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PR move by Tommy, and I do not understand why neither he nor anyone else on the staff did not see what would be fallout from such a decision.

Again, this was a bad PR move by Tommy, but it is what it is.

This should have been handled better.

I still say we should have falsified some medical records and got him a medical exemption.

Certain coaches in Cola have been doing that for the last 3 seasons. ;)

It happens all the time in every college sport. A scholarship player doesn’t work out, and the school tries to put the scholly to better use on someone else.

Cruel? Yes. Thus is life unfortunately.

They offered him the GA position, which better than simply telling him to leave or sit your ass on the bench for the rest of your career.

Does Oprah know about this? She loves Ray Ray. TBowden does not want to get on Oprah’s bad side. She has more power than the NCAA or the IPTAY boosters.

As long as players can break their commitments and go pro if they’re good I don’t see why a school can’t break its commitment by pulling the scholarship if the kid is bad.
Quid pro quo with fava beans and all that.

the moral issue is the same – it is wrong to remove the scholarship from a player you had agreed to give it to in deference to a better player.

if someone wishes to make the argument this is wrong because of a case where it is theoretically possible should they not be oblgated to take offense an instance where it actually occured?

unless, of course, you are saying the moral point is not the same in the two cases. but that would suggest bias in your examples wouldn’t it?

of course these things don’t happen in the big ten.

Let me get this straight: Tommy went up to the kid who underlies the only positive, off-field national press Clemson has received in years, and ran him off the team because he absolutely, positively needed that 85th scholarship?

Folks, there’s three kinds of stupid — stupid, real stupid, and Bowden-kid stupid.

This is a Copy & Paste from a Clemson board. What is in parenthesis is a quasi-response from me.

You act like he’s getting kicked out on the street with nothing to show for it. What does RayRay have to show from coming to Clemson?

1. A trust fund for his little brother to be financially secure for a long, long time that he wouldn’t have gotten unless he came to Clemson. (He probably would have received the same treatment at many other schools.)

2. A DEGREE (with no financial burden) that will guarantee him a much better paying job than if he were to have not gone to college. (True, but still could have gotten a free education at another school)

3. Publicity (whether wanted or not) that has him nationally known. Do you really think that when he interviews at whatever job he applies at they will say “no”? (I would not necessarily hire him, but I lack empathy)

4. A graduate assistant job (AND another 2 years of tuition-free Masters classes). (TRUE, why does everyone keep forgetting this?)

Yes, all kids have aspirations to be NFL players when they play in high school. I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was little too, but things don’t work out the way you want them too all the time. Ray Ray should be happy with the opportunities presented to him by Clemson, not upset because Clemson didn’t make him into an NFL player. (TRUE, but I wanted to play PG for the Celtics. Semantics, really)

#9: Holy shit, did you read the first line?

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.

Go figure.

OOC,

My apologies. Fuck Bowden, the slimy no-scholarship-honoring mother fucker! Though, it seems to me that Ray Ray should be thrilled to be able to get the fetch out of Clemson.

How’s that?

RR is a good Kid.

He Came
He Played
He Graduated
He provided for his kid brother

RR played RB in HS, but was not good enough to pay RB in College – moved to DB.

RR was moved back to RB last year when the 3rd string RB transferred. RR tore ACL last year and worked his but off to graduate.

In the process, the secondary has become stocked with 4-star talent. No where to go. The rub… if RR has NFL aspirations – he should look elsewhere to chase the dream. Win-win all around… and Famar is safe… and RR has a degree… and TB has a better team in 2008 (that will underperform against expectations).

Not as sinister as it sounds (it’s not the SEC). Would make a great fucking movie. Cast Robbie Benson as RR… Tommy Lee Jones as TB. Tommy Tuberville as the evil, chop-blocking c-sucking asshole at the Peach Bowl.

25

…and this kid as the little brother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dXGj_-orxw

Pete,

I was going to make that point, but I didn’t know if it was that Tim Couch.

Oh, and I forgot to add that RR’s little brother’s trust fund is currently over the $100K mark.

Ray Ray benefited tremendously from Clemson, but yes we are going to take a beating in the PR market.

100K?!

Maybe Clemson boosters should be spending their money on good recruits instead of mediocre recruits’ little brothers.

Kidding, of course…but seriously.

Coop, just out of curiousity, which medical records were ‘faked’. I’d like to see you back that up with facts of some sort.

PW, they spend their money on all recruits. If they have 100k to spend on this, you know the money is going elsewhere, too. (not like that doesn’t happen at other schools as well).

31 – I know you get tired of losing to Clemson in football and basketball, but at least you have baseball to soothe your ego.

Of course I cannot offer any evidence as to South Carolina falsifying medical records for medical redshirts, which is why I put the “winkie” in that remark.

Neither Chris Smelley nor Jason Barnes had legitimate season ending injuries in 2006, but Spurrier and South Carolina took advantage of the medical redshirt rule, anyway.

Clemson did the exact same thing with Willy Korn last year. Korn was injured, but not to the extent that the NCAA had in mind when creating that rule, just like Barnes and Smelley.

Hence, my exaggeration, which I would imagine some of your more enlightened brethren, such as OOC or Impirius, understood.

Regardless, paying players? Really?

Only disillusioned and bitter South Carolina fans still make those remarks with a straight face.

The NCAA has spent more time in Columbia than they have in Clemson over the last 15 years, with the highlight being the Holtz regime, naturally.

But, hey, you tell yourself whatever you need to.

In the meantime…

Tommy Bowden 7
South Carolina 2

No arguments from me re: medical redshirts for Smelley and Korn. Both were similar, “Oh crap, my ankel, my ankle, (wink) (wink)” situations. I’m glad that Korn got it as well. A chicken loves to eat Korn and I want them to have as many years as possible to get their fill.

Excellent, Biggus!

#33

Actually it was, “Ooh, my arm! I think it’s broken” – Al Czervik

Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Ray Ray gets a free undergraduate degree from Clemson. Ray Ray also gets the option of a free graduate degree from Clemson. Ray Ray also gets a foot in the door to the lucrative world of college coaching through the GA position. Ray Ray and Fahmar also have over 100K in a trust fund.

Where do I sign up?

To pull in the 90s reset theme from a later post, it’s a shame about Ray, but not so much a shame about Ray Ray. It seems like kind of a non-story for me, if you take the position that an athletic scholarship to a university offers the opportunity to get a free education, which he did, and kudos to him for graduating in three years. Indeed, to suggest that Clemson’s obligation comes in the form of a guaranteed period of athletic apprenticeship would be a perversion of the idea of the scholar-athlete. (Granted, this idea gets perverted all the time in college sports, but the Bowden bashers do not have the moral high ground on this one.

And more important , in re #23 and the law against anonymous Internet posting, five words:
The motherfucking Federalist Papers, bitch!

37

John McCain & Russ Feingold have no time for the Federalist Papers or anonymous internet bloggers.

We’re next.

Re: anonymous internet posting article-

Wait, they have the internet in Eastern Kentucky?

I lived in Western Kentucky for a year 10 years ago, and to hear those folks tell it, there are places in EK without running water. Maybe that was just intrastate shitkicker rivalry smack to make then feel better about living in rural Western Ky…

Finally, It’s comforting to know that now that congress has solved all the country’s major issues, like Roger Clemens and the New England Patriots AV Dept, I guess Eastern Kentucky is ready to crack down on online bullying by anonymous internet folk.

“The motherfucking Federalist Papers, bitch!”

That’s gonna be my next tattoo.

“Wait, they have the internet in Eastern Kentucky?”

Yep. Runs on coal and mullets.

1. - send a picture when you get the ink done.
2. - Exactly. If I had a full-time vendetta secretary, the remonstrance would already be on Specter’s desk.

Back in the day, Ray Ray’s parting gift would be a 3-year old Monte Carlo (from signing day).

Young man did well – chase that arena f-ball rainbow..

Cortney Vincent , who was already in trouble for DUI, got suspended for violating team rules for spring ball. But Ray Ray gets his scholarship taken away. Hm.

Back in the day, Ray Ray’s parting gift would be a three year old Monte Carlo (from his signing day event). The young man did well for himself and his family. He walked away with a degree and a future.

BTW – the studs got El Camino’s.

44 -

How does one get their scholarship taken away if they have the opportunity to stay on full scholarship for another 2 years?

Now, you might argue that you wonder how one gets the opportunity to participate in football taken away from them…

but, for anyone to argue that someone is getting their scholarship yanked shows either laziness for not reading the relevant materials, or a lack of basic reading comprehension.

46-

Poor word choice on my part. My bad. Your point is well taken, but what I was trying to say is why wouldn’t any coach rather have Ray Ray on their team then punks like Vincent?