T1B

The Ducks...

New buhzillion dollar arena for the upcoming season.

New AD.

New hoops coach.

And it appears, initially, that said new AD and new coach have discovered that Ernie Kent wasn't running the upstanding program everyone thought he was. They've self-reported to the PAC and the NCAA (see how that works, USC? Cooperation goes a looooong way).


Not many details yet, but apparently a good chunk of Ernie's players over the last couple of years were ineligible.

Although I'll give Ernie some credit -- what better way to hide the fact you're cheating than to completely suck.

How bad would those teams have been without ineligible players? They possibly could have undermined OS's unprecedented oh-fer in the conference a couple of years back.


Vacating wins doesn't seem so bad when you hardly won any games.


Incidentally, Joevan Catron is coming back for year #14 with the program. And he's apparently healthy, which we haven't seen in the last 10 years or so. And they talked Malcolm Armstead out of transfering, so there might even be two good players on the roster to try and put butts in the seats to pay for a $200 mil arena. OK, EJ Singler doesn't suck too badly, either... ain't his brother, but not too bad.

Dinsdale wrote:Although I'll give Ernie some credit -- what better way to hide the fact you're cheating than to completely suck.

Ha.

Very effective camoflage indeed.

A very æffect roost.

Heck, they were probably tanking games just to hide the cheating.

It could be tragic -- they might have to vacate all 16 wins from last year -- including the 9 against Northwestern East Southern Weathervane College of Everything But Athletics.

Let's see -- Ernie hired Kenny Payne, a good friend of Worldwide Wes, as an assistant in 2004... then started pulling big name recruits out of Detroit/Michigan.

Things that make you go "hmmmmm"....


But hey, at least Cal has hired him as an assistant at Kentucky. Like that program needed to be under any more scrutiny?

And I have a hunch Calipari won't blow the whistle on himself like Altman did... just a hunch.


Improper benefits, backroom deals with agents... is this Oregon hoops? You would think even that level of dirtiness would have produced a couple of W's.

Although some sources have said that the long "no coach" period after Kent was fired resulted in a "free-for-all" in the basketball program (nice job, compliance department)... but are these agents nuts? Why the hell would they give one thin dime to any of those losers?

The main culprit appears to be Michael Dunigan... a center with a big body and no game. Hope the agents didn't spend too much Reggie Bushing him, since he's now playing in Israel for like $100 grand. Seems like an XBox would be a reasonable payment.

The good news seems to be that no one is accusing the football program of anything, since that's where the compliance department focuses their energy, and they seem to run a reasonably tight ship (knocks on wood with head in the sand).

This should be freaking me out, since my team is probably going to get suspended -- but it's not, because it's looking like the comedy will compensate for the tragedy. And if they're getting suspended, they were a year or two away from any sort of real recruiting, due to monstrous amounts of rebuilding.

The investigation centers around somebody that contacted the Chicago players to funnel them AWAY from Oregon after Kent was fired. That's why it was our own AD going to aggressively after it. Its a non-issue as far as Oregon fans should be concerned. And, quality coach or not, its not on Ernie either.

The no-AD and no-coach situation certainly led to a free-for-all in the basketball program.


Which seems kind of odd, since just about all of those players are all-but worthless anyway.

Dinsdale wrote: æ

the Force is strong with this one

Dana Altman, who lost his job at Kansas State.

hooray.