The yearly tweaking of the rules is now on the docket, and let us humbly propose one rule in sore need of tweakage: the transfer rule, a bit of earth-salting schools may use on recruits who transfer out of programs. Robert Marve received an especially poxy variant of the treatment, with Miami refusing to allow Marve to transfer to an ACC school, in-state, or even to an SEC school. Now, it’s USC transfer Vidal Hazelton’s turn for a dose:

Vidal Hazelton, the former USC wide receiver from Staten Island, has been barred from talking to any Pac-10 teams and Notre Dame in his search for a new school, the Torrance Daily Breeze reported on Thursday.

Well, transferring to Idaho is still on the table.

Hazelton’s from Staten Island, NY, so declaring West Coast verboten likely isn’t that big a deal for someone wanting to transfer closer to home. That’s not the point: Hazelton should have the right to transfer wherever he can get an offer, and USC shouldn’t be allowed to hold him once he’s made the decision to transfer. The year penalty–or some variation thereof–makes sense to discourage transfers, but restricting where a player goes after the transfer makes not using the word “chattel” very, very difficult when talking about players’ relationship with schools in the NCAA.

In sum, it is a crappy situation. (Hey, at least Florida crapped itself in an individual case, as opposed to 22 players doing it all at once on the field at home against Alabama and in Jacksonville.)

Opening kickoff and WHOOOOP!!! Down to the 35 yard line and David Akers from…from….

Tom Jackson: (sighs) Louisville.

Berman: Tom, Jesus, sound like you gotta pair. Edit that out. Let’s keep going. (more…)

The final blogpoll, with added commentary by Dr. Gregory House.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	25
2	Utah	24
3	Southern Cal	23
4	Texas	22
5	Oklahoma	21
6	Penn State	20
7	Alabama	19
8	Texas Tech	18
9	Ohio State	17
10	Oregon	16
11	Boise State	15
12	Mississippi	14
13	Virginia Tech	13
14	Georgia	12
15	Oklahoma State	11
16	Iowa	10
17	Oregon State	9
18	Cincinnati	8
19	Florida State	7
20	Missouri	6
21	TCU	5
22	Georgia Tech	4
23	West Virginia	3
24	LSU	2
25	Brigham Young	1

Utah at number two?

I see we have some daddy issues to work out. Sure, you think they could beat USC. (more…)

IN YOUR BIG ORANGE PANTS IT’S TIME TO DANCE!!! Regardless of whether the big man in Orange is there anymore or not, the Fulmer Cup retains both its name and scoring system for 2009. DANCE AND ELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF ANOTHER OFFSEASON!!!

MP3 File

The Fulmer (Memorial) Cup celebrates in Bronx Cheer fashion those in collegiate athletics most prone to testing the bounds of civil and criminal code with outlandish, illegal, and sometimes injurious behavior. If you’re joining us for the first time here: the Fulmer Cup awards points for programs based on charges filed against players from said programs, with the points going to a collective tally for each school.

This solves two problems with one stone: killing time during the interminable offseason, and determining the answer to the age-old message board question, “Is your football program geniunely more thuggish than mine?”

This humble website awards the points based on the rules, which are as follows, but with a few minor tweaks this season:

(more…)