Transferring Is Tricky

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

The story of Mississippi QB Jeremiah Masoli winning an NCAA appeal to have his eligibility restored so he could play in 2010 instead of having to wait until 2011 was very refreshing.

First of all, the Ole Miss Rebels needed him because they have two inexperienced signal callers at the most demanding position.

In reality, it's hard to imagine that Masoli would not be able to complete his final season at Oregon wearing the green, yellow and white for the Ducks. But the youngster did self destruct after being kicked off the team with two run ins with the police.

He pleaded guilty in a January theft at a fraternity house and was suspended for the entire 2010 season by Oregon Coach Chip Kelly. Then in June, he was cited for misdemeanor marijuana possession and dismissed from the team.

The senior has completed his undergraduate degree and enrolled in Mississippi's Parks and Recreation graduate program. The NCAA will sometimes waive a one-year residency requirement for athletes who are transferring but are enrolling in a graduate program not offered at the previous school.

When I heard earlier in the week that Masoli was going to be ineligible, once again, the NCAA made a mistake.

But to the kid's credit, he appealed the decision and won. He claimed he was kicked off the football team but not out of the university.

There is no question that Masoli made some mistakes and he paid the price for it. I do commend Kelly for doing his best to run a clean program at Oregon.

But the biggest thing that has to be emphasized is did Masoli learn from his mistakes and is he entitled to a second chance? Yes!

To Mississippi Coach Houston Nutt's credit, he gave Masoli that second chance but under the condition that he's on a short leash and better play it straight otherwise his collegiate playing career will be over.

Don't kid yourself, Nutt does want to win and he needs the best player at quarterback to compete in the SEC. The conference's recent track record of winning national championships with LSU, Florida and Alabama speaks for itself.

But to Masoli's credit, the kid found a loophole in the situation. He took a negative and turned it into a positive. He got his undergraduate degree and by thinking on his feet to continue his education elsewhere at a school that didn't have his major, that was brilliant. Being a quarterback requires you to think on your feet and he scored a touchdown with this move.

We'll call this the academic audible.

Don't think that NFL scouts aren't taking notice of that. He gets to play the final year in college and will be able to get ready to seek a pro career next season. While character issues are important in the pros, being able to be humbled before you get there does minimize the extensive process that it takes to get there.

As I look at Masoli's situation, it hits closer to home.

Back in 1984, I was completing my Associates Degree at Broward Community College (BCC) in Journalism. The only course that I needed to get that degree was Math. I had to take Math a second time.

I also took two courses at Florida International University and got a C & D therefore the 1.5 GPA was what I had to deal with.

When I was seeking a transfer to the University of South Florida, the requirement was that I had to have a 2.0 GPA to be accepted from my last institution. As it turns out, I was initially rejected.

But when I told the person in charge of admissions that I earned a C in Math at BCC my last term and had a 2.0, he looked at me and nodded his head the said, "Welcome To The University of South Florida. But I will put you on academic probation your first term."

I never thought that my worst subject in school would turn out to be my best friend when I needed it. Indeed it was.

Institution turned out to be institutions.

I said to him that probation will be history by January and managed to get a pair of B's. The probation was gone and I was determined to earn my degree on time. In 1986, the mission to get My BA Degree was complete and am a proud USF Bulls alumnus.

How about those loopholes. With a little bit of salesmanship, thinking on your feet and a lot of hard work, while "Transferring Is Tricky" it can get done as long as the game plan is executed properly.

When it was all said and done, at least Masoli and I have that much in common and I'm hoping that he makes the most of the 2010 season.

Just winning a decision against the NCAA was big enough, but at least last years Rose Bowl Game will not be his last one with the controversy that forced him to relocate from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast. Hopefully he has more victories left.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

College Football Week 4

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

What did we learn this past weekend about the doings in college football? We found out that light scheduling is a good preparation for tougher contests, that a star quarterback proved that he was human and the Heisman Trophy race became a little more interesting as some candidates compiled great numbers while others were brought down to earth.

1) My best friend and former Editor of the Deerfield Beach Observer Ric Green called me at 2:53 PM on Saturday when the No. 23 Michigan Wolverines were trailing 26-21 to Indiana University (IU) and said he hopes U-M fans are patient with this young and upcoming team. By the end of our 6:31 phone call, Wolverines freshman quarterback Tate Forcier scored a seven-yard touchdown run and U-M converted the two point attempt to take a 29-26 lead. With 2:29 left in the fourth quarter, Forcier hit Martavious Odoms for a 26-yard touchdown pass to win it for the Wolverines (4-0, 1-0). The 36-33 triumph enabled Michigan to extend its winning streak to 16 games over the Hoosiers and IU hasn't won at Michigan Stadium since 1967.

2) It looks like my Alma-mater the University of South Florida Bulls know more about pre-conference scheduling than any of us. USF's first three wins came against Wofford 40-7, Western Kentucky 35-13 and Charleston Southern 59-0. Against Charleston Southern, USF lost senior starting quarterback Matt Grothe to a season-ending injury and started Tallahassee native B.J Daniels to take on his hometown Seminoles. The redshirt freshman threw for 212 yards, two touchdowns and rushed for 126 yards to lead the Bulls to a 17-7 upset win over No. 18 FSU. Daniels chose to go to USF because he was permitted to play football and basketball. I'm sure Bulls Basketball Coach Stan Heath is glad to have him and FSU Coach Bobby Bowden is not happy he didn't keep the local kid in town. Nonetheless, at the press conference, September 26, 2009 seemed like an April Fools Day joke for Bowden as he realized that the Bulls were better then he thought and his team underestimated the Tampa based school due to scheduling weaker opponents. Even a 79-year old coach can learn and this lesson for Bulls Coach Jim Leavitt's squad enabled USF to defeat a state's big three school for the first time, referring to Florida, Florida State and Miami. Leavitt looks like a genius because he permitted a youngster an opportunity to become a two-sport star, a great recruiting strategy and used the first three games as his pre-season. USF is 10-1 all time against teams from the state of Florida and has won four straight against the ACC.

3) If the No. 25 Nebraska Cornhuskers don't win the Big 12 championship, they could classify themselves as winners of the Sun Belt Conference. Nebraska has defeated Florida Atlantic University (FAU) 49-3, Arkansas State 38-9 and on Saturday crushed the University of Louisiana-Lafayette 55-0.

4) The No.2 Texas Longhorns accomplished two things in Saturday's 64-7 pounding of the University of Texas-El Paso in Austin. They won style points in their bid to get to a BCS Championship game and senior quarterback Colt McCoy enhanced his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy. McCoy threw all three of his touchdown passes in the first half giving the Longhorns a 47-7 lead. He completed 28-35 and finished with 286 yards leading his team to an easy win.

5) How do you gain respect? If you're the Houston Cougars, just defeat teams from the Big 12 Conference. On September 12, the Cougars, who play in Conference USA, defeated the No. 5 Oklahoma State Cowboys 45-35 on the road. Saturday, it was Texas Tech's turn to taste defeat as the No. 17 Cougars (3-0) won a 29-28 decision. Thus far, Houston junior quarterback Case Keenum has eight touchdowns, 1,155 yards and has a passer rating of 158.52. Against Texas Tech, he threw for 453 yards and had two touchdowns including the game winning score, which was a four-yard run with 49 seconds left in the contest. In this game, Houston was playing as a ranked team for the first time in 18 years.

6)Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow proved he was human when he was knocked out of the team's 41-7 victory in Lexington over the Kentucky Wildcats. Tebow, who took a hard hit in the Gators victory over Tennessee on Saturday Sept 19, sustained a concussion with his team leading 31-7 in the third quarter and driving deep in Kentucky territory when Wildcats defensive end Taylor Wyndham came unblocked off the right end and sacked him. As Tebow fell backward, his helmet struck teammate Marcus Gilbert's leg, violently bending his neck forward. Tebow did lay motionless on the field at Commonwealth Stadium before he eventually went to the University Medical Center to stay over night for observation. Many people will wonder why Gators Coach Urban Meyer left him in the game with the contest no longer in doubt. To Meyer's defense, Tebow is so competitive that it would have been tough to take him out of the ball game unless he was injured. But Tebow and the No.1 Gators will have a week off then travel to LSU for an October 10th game against the Tigers. I have a feeling Tebow will be back under center.

7) FAU is off to another slow start at 0-3 but the major reason for this is because of losses to Nebraska and South Carolina. Being a young football program, the Owls need all the money they can get to build the athletic department. The 49-3 loss to Nebraska paid $650,000 while South Carolina wrote a check for $800,000 for a 38-16 win. FAU plays the 100th game in school history on Saturday against the Wyoming Cowboys at 4 PM at Lockhart Stadium.

8) Just when it was time to put California tailback Jahvid Best into the Heisman Trophy discussion after scoring five touchdowns on the road on September 19, in a 35-21 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers, fives were in Best's final numbers again. But this time the Golden Bears held Best to 55 yards as No.6 California took a 42-3 beating to the Oregon Ducks (3-1) in the Pacific Northwest. The week before, Oregon snapped No. 18 Utah's 16-game winning streak by winning 31-24 at home. It's been a good couple of weeks for the Ducks as they're well on there way towards competing for a Pac 10 championship. This was Cal's most lopsided loss under Coach Jeff Tedford--Oregon's former offensive coordinator--and worst since 55-14 to USC in 2001.

9) If the Mountain West Conference is looking for a BCS Bowl bid, they're going to need the TCU Horned Frogs to be their representative. With Utah losing at Oregon and BYU falling to Florida State, No.14 TCU needed a big win and got it by going into Clemson's Death Valley for the first time since 1965 and defeating the Tigers 14-10. Junior Andy Dalton threw for two touchdowns to keep the Horned Frogs perfect at 3-0. TCU's defense held Clemson to 117 total yards in the second half and stopped the Tigers twice on two fourth quarter drives inside the TCU 20-yard line. TCU won for the seventh time in its last 10 road games against BCS Conference opponents, including two this season against Clemson and Virginia.

10) I doubt the late Grambling State Coach Eddie Robinson would have scheduled this game but he could have used quarterback Doug Williams in the Tigers Saturday match up at Oklahoma State. Grambling State faced a Big 12 school for the first time and the Cowboys ripped them 56-6. Oklahoma State has not lost to a non-FBS opponent since losing to West Texas A&M in 1980. It was the most lopsided win for Oklahoma State since a 59-7 victory over SMU in 2004, the year before Mike Gundy took over as coach.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com

College Football's Biggest Rivalries

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
For years, I keep asking myself, why do I waste my time paying attention to college football since this is the only major sport that doesn't have a playoff system to decide a national championship?

The NCAA will always attempt to justify that it doesn't want disrupt its bowl system which is fun to watch during the holiday season, in addition to the fact that NFL scouts earn their money trying to find talent. Yet, the lower divisions do have a playoff system to determine their champion.

If the NCAA had any sense, it would keep its bowl system intact and just take the top four teams in the country and go with a 1-4, 2-3 format and add one extra game to decide its champion. To determine this champion by the opinion of writers and computers is absurd.

But since that doesn't figure to happen anytime soon, aside from my association with the FAU Owls, there is one other reason that I enjoy watching college football.

If there is one thing good about all sports is fans and the media can appreciate a good rivalry.

The TV Networks enjoy broadcasting the games because it attracts great ratings.

Here is a list of the top 30 broken down into two classifications. There are the national and in state match-ups. I encourage any reader and fan to e-mail me to provide their feedback.

The Best National Rivalries include:

Michigan Vs Ohio State.
Michigan Vs Notre Dame.
Texas Vs Oklahoma
Florida Vs Georgia
Army Vs Navy
Oklahoma Vs Nebraska
Tennessee Vs UCLA
Tennessee Vs Florida
Michigan Vs Penn State
LSU Vs Alabama
Ohio State Vs Alabama
Notre Dame Vs USC
USC Vs Michigan
Miami Vs Notre Dame
Florida Vs LSU

The Best Instate Rivalries include:

Florida Vs Florida State
Auburn Vs Alabama
Florida State Vs Miami
Michigan Vs Michigan State
USC Vs UCLA
Georgia Vs Georgia Tech
Texas Vs Texas A&M
California Vs Stanford
Clemson Vs South Carolina
Louisville Vs Kentucky
Oklahoma Vs Oklahoma State
Arizona Vs Arizona State
Penn State Vs Pittsburgh
Virginia Vs Virginia Tech
North Carolina Vs NC State

It will be interesting to see what new rivalries develop as newer college football traditions develop. Once FIU develops a competitive program, there meetings with FAU will be more meaningful. A couple years ago, a major brawl at the Orange Bowl between Miami and FIU gave both schools national publicity neither wanted as both teams recruit the same high schools thus developing the natural hatred amongst themselves.

My alma mater the University of South Florida (USF) has an I-4 rival against the University of Central Florida. Both schools are starting to send players to the NFL. Last season with the Bulls ranked No. 6 in the country, FAU lost an exciting 35-23 contest. Lockhart Stadium was a sellout.

Fifty percent of the crowd was sporting the green and gold of USF while the other 50% was wearing the red, white and blue of FAU.

Look for FAU and Miami to meet down the road as Howard Schnellenberger faces the university that he led to national prominence by guiding the Hurricanes to a 1983 national championship.

Alabama-Birmingham has two great potential rivalries with Alabama and Auburn. I enjoyed watching Delaware and Delaware State face each other for the first time ever in last years Division 1A playoffs.

I haven't found many quality football rivalries in the Northeast because that area is known for college basketball. Perhaps if the Big East wins a national championship, then by the next time I write a column like this, the list will change.

In the meantime, the biggest rivalry on the East Coast in any sport is the New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com