Free Republic

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In the early morning hours of Oct. 5, as this college town was celebrating another big football victory by Florida State University, a starting cornerback on the team drove his car into the path of an oncoming vehicle driven by a teenager returning home from a job at the Olive Garden. Both cars were totaled. But rather than remain at the scene as the law requires, the football player, P. J. Williams, left his wrecked vehicle in the street and fled into the darkness along with his two passengers, including Ronald Darby, the team’s other starting cornerback.

Court documents filed in Pennsylvania show that the NCAA and investigators from a firm hired by Penn State University to conduct a wholly independent investigation of the university's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal worked closely in the investigation. The firm, led by former FBI chief Louis B. Freeh, published damning conclusions about Penn State's "lack of institutional control" that were used by the NCAA as the basis for its sweeping sanctions against Penn State in July 2012. The court documents filed Tuesday but released publicly Wednesday, obtained by "Outside the Lines," strongly suggest the NCAA provided...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) plans to launch a new “think tank” designed to “establish best practices and policies so college athletes and coaches can fully participate in their chosen sport regardless of religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.”During a meeting Tuesday and Wednesday entitled “Seeking Common Ground: Creating a Respectful Athletic Climate for Athletes and Coaches of All Religious Perspectives, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity or Expression,” the NCAA will “develop the first-ever suggested guidelines so faith-based schools, public schools, and private secular schools across the country can provide inclusive and respectful athletic...

To recap: these emails reveal that the NCAA knew it had no jurisdictional claim over an inherently criminal matter but chose to act anyway, banking on Penn State’s compliance. Of course, the rest is history — Penn State President Rodney Erickson, with the backing of Board of Trustees leadership, did comply to the NCAA’s extortion, despite it being characterized here as a “bluff.” The actual reasons for that decision are still hidden behind a wall of public relations flack — I tend to think it had something to do with the corporate “apologize and move on” method of management that...

Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey issued a memorandum opinion Friday that slapped the hands of the NCAA for its filings in state and federal courts looking for just the right rulings. On Oct. 3, Covey issued a ruling denying the NCAA’s petition to dismiss the lawsuit brought by state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord, seeking to have the Endowment Act declared constitutional. The Endowment Act would require the $60 million fine levied by the NCAA against Penn State after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal to remain in a dedicated fund in Pennsylvania for...

Oh, those crazy college kids. Four Penn State players were arrested Thursday night – mischief night – for an “egg throwing situation,” according to Onward State. The four players, tight end Brent Wilkerson, safety Anthony Smith, center Wendy Laurent and defensive end Garrett Sickels, were all charged with criminal mischief for throwing eggs at Beaver Hall, an on-campus residence hall. Discipline from head coach James Franklin could be on the way. “We are aware of the egg throwing situation that occurred Thursday evening and will determine the appropriate measures for the four squad members involved,” Franklin said in statement. The...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State safety Ryan Keiser remains hospitalized after having fractured a rib in practice last Thursday and undergoing operations for a related small bowel injury. According to a source, he is not in critical condition but is "also not great." A spokesman for the Penn State Hershey Medical Center declined to disclose his condition and referred questions to Nittany Lions coach James Franklin, who would only say Tuesday afternoon that the senior had no infection and was "improving." Keiser is out for the season. "Our trainers and doctors have been in constant contact and have been...

For the first time in the 145 years of college football, a 12-member playoff selection committee has set to convene. It will spend Monday and Tuesday in the arduous seven-stage process of tabulating its inaugural weekly top 25, and it will release that list on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET. That will begin a much-anticipated process of seven weekly meetings in Grapevine, Texas, near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The meetings will run Monday-Tuesday into early December, then the final announcement of the playoff field will come on Sunday, Dec. 7. That announcement will name the four teams which will...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — It was November 2009, and alarm was spreading among the academic counselors charged with bolstering the grades of football players at the University of North Carolina. For years the players and others had been receiving A’s and B’s in nonexistent classes in the African studies department, but the administrator who had set up and run the fake classes had just retired, taking all those easy grades with her. The counselors convened a meeting of the university’s football coaches, using a PowerPoint presentation to drive home the notion that the classes “had played a large role in...

In two separate Commonwealth Court rulings this week, Judge Anne Covey denied an NCAA and Penn State motion for a protective order and ordered the NCAA to make President Mark Emmert available to give a deposition. The NCAA and the university had asked for the order to protect confidentiality of “certain discovery materials” in the lawsuit brought by state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and state Treasurer Rob McCord that tries to ensure the $60 million in fine money levied against Penn State by the NCAA remains in Pennsylvania. Covey declined that in an order dated Wednesday. “Defendants have demonstrated...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The 911 call could not have sounded more urgent: A man was beating a woman holding a baby outside their apartment as she tried to leave. “You just need to get someone out here right away because it is really bad,” the caller said, adding that the man was “punching” the mother and “grabbing the little baby around the arm.” By the time the police arrived shortly after 3 a.m. one day last January, the couple were back inside. The 19-year-old woman acknowledged that she and her boyfriend had argued, and that he had not wanted her...

With all the recent court decisions siding in JVP's favor, I felt it a good time to boil this down to the bare truth. Cef gives it to you here if you want to listen.

Week 6 of the college football season was not kind to the nation's best teams in the AP Top 25 poll -- five of the top eight squads in the country incurred their first losses of the year. Down went No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 8 UCLA. The losses provided the biggest rankings shakeup to date, with Ole Miss and Mississippi State joining the party inside the top five (both tied at No. 3) with victories over Alabama and Texas A&M, respectively.

The NCAA and Penn State lost a key battle in the ongoing question of the legality of the hotly contested consent decree that levied historic sanctions against the university after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. On Friday, Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey issued a ruling on the September motion from the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit brought by state Sen. Jake Corman and state Treasurer Rob McCord. That suit protested the consent decree and asked that the $60 million in fines the decree dictated stay in Pennsylvania, backed up by Corman’s Endowment Act legislation. In filing the motion...

Penn State students and fans Saturday showed support for late coach Joe Paterno with a “Joe-Out” – wearing clothing or displaying images of the Hall of Famer at the Nittany Lions' football game. As a Penn State alumnus, I am proud of my university and I remain proud of the work that JoePa did on and – more importantly – off the football field, with respect to inspiring students and improving academics at the institution.Yet there remains in the public sphere this erroneous belief that JoePa was a conspirator in the alleged cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Sandusky, a...

It was not a pretty weekend for the Iowa Hawkeyes. After jumping out to a 14-3 halftime lead against cross-state rival Iowa State, the Hawkeyes fell apart, letting the Cyclones come back to score a 20-17 victory on a last-second field goal. It’s the third time in the last four years that Iowa has dropped the rivalry game to Iowa State. For many Iowa fans, the blame for the failure, and for most of Iowa’s struggles in recent seasons, rests on the shoulders of head coach Kirk Ferentz. Things haven’t always been this bad for Ferentz. Just four years after...

When first I learned that top-ranked Florida State would be suspending quarterback Jameis Winston for one half of Saturday night’s game versus No. 22 Clemson, my initial thought was, Sure, the half when Clemson is on offense. Pardon my cynicism, but we have entered this turnstile before with the Seminoles’ Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.

A Centre County Court of Common Pleas judgment was posted by the prothonotary’s office Thursday, giving the Paterno family and its co-filers the news they had been waiting for. “Plaintiffs have standing to challenge the consent decree,” the court documents said. Judge John Leete’s 39-page decision is based on arguments made earlier this year in the case brought by the Paternos, four members of the Penn State board of trustees, four members of the university faculty, and former football players and coaches against the NCAA and Penn State regarding the consent decree, the contract that led to the historic sanctions...

The Penn State Nittany Lions are eligible to play in a bowl game this season after the NCAA ruled they are satisfied with the athletic department’s progress in ensuring it functions with integrity. “Penn State’s commitment to the integrity of its athletics department and its progress toward meeting the requirements of the Consent Decree are clear,” said Northern Arizona President Rita Hartung Cheng via NCAA.org, who chaired Monday’s Executive Committee meeting. “We thank Senator Mitchell for his meticulous and exhaustive work over the past two years. Mitchell’s efforts and the dedication of Penn State officials made today’s decisions possible.” Penn...

Nearly 21 months after a female student accused Jameis Winston, Florida State’s marquee quarterback, of sexually assaulting her in his apartment, the university has begun a disciplinary inquiry into the case, the woman’s lawyer said Thursday. Florida State officials interviewed the woman last month, spending a little more than an hour asking questions, said the lawyer, John Clune. “We thought it went very well,” he said. “The school seemed to take it very seriously.” Other people connected to the case were also interviewed, he added, but he declined to identify them. Clune’s client withdrew from Florida State late last year...