Spring Update

Spring has sprung, but unfortunately, with these longer days and ever-growing pollen counts, college sports stories have been few and far between. Most media outlets are concerned primarily with the start of the major league baseball season and the season finale of "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," so my attention has turned elsewhere since the end of the Final Four. Luckily though, there have been a couple of stories that have emerged this month.

1. The Reggie Bush Scandal has re-emerged. Word has come through the grapevine that the NCAA is going to merge their investigations of USC for the recruitment of Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo. This is a big deal because since it covers the two most prominent sports teams in the University, and covers a period of more than 5 years, it is all but guaranteed that if these charges stick the USC Athletic Department will get a "Failure to Monitor" or whatever the official legal-ese phrasing is. Long story short: it could mean forfeiture of scholarships long term, and forfeiture of wins (like, hypothetically, certain National Championships in 2004). It would also put not only the career, but the legacy of arguably the greatest college coach this decade in Pete Carroll. Granted, finding out that Carroll is dirty in recruiting is about as shocking as seeing Slumdog Millionaire winning best Oscar (wait wait wait, a movie with minorities in prominent positions, poverty, and music, and the Academy liked it? How?!), it will still be a huge shift in the college sporting world.

2. Spring Scrimmages have brought football back to us. And if there is one thing to be drawn from the write ups that different outlets have put up, it's that new starting QBs are the centerpieces of the practices this month. At the Michigan, Florida, and Alabama spring games, new QBs were all the rage. Tate Forcier looked better than expected in Ann Arbor, John Brantley tore up the Florida defense despite working with the second team in the Blue-Orange Game, and Greg McElroy emerged as the clear #1 in Tuscaloosa despite throwing 2 picks in front of 84,000 fans. People are also thrilled to see who wins the 3 way battle at Souther Cal between Mitch Mustain, Aaron Corp and Matt Barkley. Of these, Forcier is going to be the most interesting to watch since he's young, will get to play from the opening snap of the season, and has an offense that has the potential to let him flourish. In the long run, Brantley is the guy to watch. Florida's offenses have the ability to put up Sega Dreamcast-esque numbers, that is unless he turns Tebow into the NCAA for 40 pieces of silver. If he does that, he'll just be a hero to college football fans everywhere.

3. Huge Upsets in College Lacrosse: Duke beating Virginia? Princeton losing to Cornell? Two weekends in lax, two weekends where the #1 team in the nation lost on the road. The problem with college lacrosse for the last ten years is that the same four teams have consistently bought their tickets to the Final Four before the season each started: Princeton, Syracuse, Virginia and Johns Hopkins. This year, there are signs that there might be good matchups in the tournaments before the final weekend. While the Big 4 are still in it for sure, Notre Dame, Hobart, Cornell, Bucknell, Towson, UNC and Hofstra have all shown the potential to make a run in May. If you haven't been watching-- and judging by the fact that ESPNU's ratings are lower than repeats of the Gold Girls on Oxygen, you haven't-- you're missing out.

4. Don't worry if you suck at basketball. Are you kidding me? No, seriously, are you f-cking kidding me? This is insane. If Paulus actually sees a snap of more significance of the last play in Rudy, the NCAA should mandate that Michigan moves down to the ODAC, because honestly, I think the high powered running attack of Guilford College might be too much for Big Blue to handle anyway. This is one of the most embarrassing moments of my fandom. And this is coming from someone who grew up in Cleveland.

5. The NFL Draft doth Approacheth. I don't have a Big Board, and every time I attempt to disseminate misinformation around my office, I get brought into the principal's office for "corrupting America's youth," so I'm certainly not Mel Kiper. But, I do love the Draft (again, Cleveland fan, dreaming of next year is literally the only thing that keeps me even watching this f-cking bitch of a game), so check back this week to see our various draft previews.