Um, Ball State’s didn’t, either. With a few isolated exceptions, they were obtaining free textbooks for walk-ons and other pals (and in the case of our women’s volleyball players, obtaining the “recommended” texts in addition to the “required”). And considering the Alabama’s history with the NCAA is quite a bit more, ahem, checkered than BSU, there’s a whole lot of folks about 55 minutes away from NCAA headquarters who will be waiting to scream bloody murder if the big-ticket SEC program (with a history of running afoul of the rules, no less) gets off lighter for this offense than the mid-major program that’s easy for the authorities to make an example of.

I think it’s absolutely silly for the NCAA to get bent out of shape about extra *textbooks* being procured, but the fact of the matter is, Ball State got popped pretty hard — despite having a clean record on the football side — for essentially the same offense. Fairness dictates that Bama be penalized just as hard as we were.

Maurice Clarett.

How was this kept away from the media for 10 months? It happened during the 2007 fall semester and 5 players were suspended for it back then. I remember seeing it in the news way back then.

In our case, it’s not an issue of the press sitting on it but of our AD stonewalling effectively. Gotta admire our ability to keep our mouths shut (for a change).

TAFK – The irony of your comments and affiliation with the “Tennessee of the Big 10″ isn’t lost on anyone. I’m not sure what happened to make you so bitter about Alabama – one can only speculate – but it’s time to let it go. Even our intra-conference rivals aren’t as wing-nutty as you are.

Repeat Offender – wooooooooooooooooooooooo.

The amazing thing is that they kept the PLOI away from the press for almost a year.

The more amazing thing is that someone in the press stopped fellating Saban long enough to find this and actually publish it.

A picture of Bobby Knight joking about choking players while choking a player. Nice.