Irish Round Table

Found this at gump4heisman.com. Quality stuff:

Be sure to head over to that site for some other great covers. We are still playing NCAA’08 with our favorite cover: OSU’s Capri Man.

Let’s see how the NCAA shuffles this under the rug.

 An attorney for Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush filed a motion this week acknowledging that the running back’s family reached a financial settlement with a financier of a would-be marketing agency that attempted to recruit Bush while he was at the University of Southern California.

The settlement with Michael Michaels of now defunct New Era Sports & Entertainment, first reported by Yahoo! Sports in April 2007, was for $300,000

This proves what we have all known for a long time: Reggie Bush is a cheater and USC needs to be investigated.

“They’re conceding that they received this money,” Lake’s attorney Brian Watkins said. “But now their argument is that: ‘We got this money, but we paid it back already. We paid it to Michaels and that satisfied Lloyd’s debts.”

Lake was more succinct.

“The key thing is (they said) they never took money before,” Lake said. “Now, they’re saying they did.”

NCAA, what else do you need?  Shut down the Cheating Trojans.

The Irish landed two recruits this week:

Dan Fox, 4-star outside linebacker from St. Ignatius in Ohio committed earlier this week.

Alex Bullard, 4-star offensive guard from Brentwood, TN will announce for the Irish today.

These two recruits are officially awesome.

WNDU has reported that Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White will be leaving the University in order to take the same position at Duke. Sounds like a demotion.

We won’t spend much time on Kevin White. We never have and we don’t plan on starting now.

We will voice our concern on the future of Notre Dame athletics and what the Administration needs to do in selecting a replacement.

The most important goal of the University today should be to get away from the idea of “maximizing revenue” above all else. I don’t know where this idea came from but I suspect Kevin White had a lot to do with it.

You are a private, non-profit institution with a huge endowment. The first priority should not be to make as much money as possible. The non-football sports teams have been doing quite well lately focusing on just winning. Decisions surrounding who they play, how they play, and when they play are made without the almighty dollar at the forefront.

It’s time for the football team to get back to what’s most important: winning. Get back to winning and the money will flow.

I’ve heard the argument plenty of times: Notre Dame can demand more money, so they should. That works fine in the business world, but not at a non-profit Catholic University.

Just because they can charge more for football tickets, does not mean they should. The team was horrible last year. 1-6 at home with a majority of the losses blow-outs. The Stadium atmosphere was stale, depressing, and boring. Raising ticket prices in the face of such a tragedy, however slight, is an abomination. The University should be embarrassed. This is what happens when your first concern is money. This decision was made in order to “maximize revenues.”

Let’s imagine if I personally prioritized maximizing my bottom line. If that was my main concern, my donation to the University would be the first line item I should throw out. Now if every supporter of Notre Dame took on the same attitude, the University would be in some peril. Some entities aren’t suited to maximize revenues at all costs.

Let’s get the focus back to excellence on the field. Choosing the right Athletic Director can get us moving in the right direction.

LOS ANGELES- Today the NCAA announced a special investigation into the alleged Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo improprieties. Both former USC standouts are accused of taking money and benefits while at the school.

Myles Brand, head of the NCAA, stated, “We take these allegations very seriously. The NCAA has come under increased scrutiny in regards to our policing of student-athletes. My hope is that people will finally see that we mean business.”

When asked who would be leading up the investigation, Brand was evasive, but did offer a sketch of the special investigator.

When asked to comment Pete Carroll said, “We are scared as hell about this investigation. The NCAA has gone out of its way to bring in a ruthless third party investigator. Man, those guys at the NCAA really mean business.”

OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush were not available for comment.

Another USC superstar is accused of taking thousands in cash and gifts while at the University. Can’t say we are shocked. A system of corruptness within the University coupled with a lame duck NCAA investigatory body creates a perfect environment for these situations.

Just like his USC counterpart Reggie “The Cheat” Bush, OJ Mayo has been on the take during his entire career at USC. Outside The Lines broke the story today:

• Over the course of roughly three years prior to the start of Mayo’s freshman season at USC, BDA Sports provided Guillory with about $200,000, some of it through an account set up at Citibank. Johnson said Guillory told him details about how the account was set up through an intermediary and how it worked: Each month, Guillory told a BDA official what the anticipated “expenses” would be, and that amount would be put into the account to take care of Guillory and Mayo’s needs. Guillory, Johnson said, had a card to make withdrawals from the account. Johnson said he was sometimes with Guillory when he made those withdrawals, and Johnson provided “Outside the Lines” with a receipt from one $200 withdrawal that he said occurred in his presence.

• BDA helped Guillory purchase an Infiniti QX56 that Guillory drives. California registration records show Guillory’s vehicle came from a dealership co-owned by former USC and NFL player Ronnie Lott, a longtime friend of Duffy, BDA Sports’ chairman and CEO. According to Consumer Guide Automotive, the car was valued at around $50,000 when it was first purchased in 2005.

• Guillory has been giving money to Mayo for years, according to Johnson, who provided Western Union receipts that illustrate how Johnson and Guillory wired hundreds of dollars to friends of Mayo while he was in high school to avoid a paper trail leading to Mayo.

• Hotel receipts and airline itineraries show multiple trips made by Johnson and Guillory. The destinations correspond with where Mayo played in high school and at tournaments around the country.

• Guillory paid for Mayo’s cell phone service, which T-Mobile billed to a nonprofit foundation run by Guillory that, according to California state records, is designed to serve “the educational, health, recreational and social needs of youths and elderly citizens residing in inner-city communities.” Johnson provided “Outside the Lines” with the service agreement for four separate lines on the account, set up on March 13, 2007. Johnson said the phone lines were for Guillory, Mayo, a Mayo relative and Johnson. T-Mobile sent a bill to Guillory’s foundation for $558.56 for the September charges for the four lines. Of that amount, $171.17 was for Mayo’s phone service and another $192.33 was for the phone service of Mayo’s relative, according to the invoice and Johnson.

• In addition to several shopping sprees at the two Men’s Land stores in the Los Angeles area, Johnson said Guillory provided Mayo with a flat-screen television, a hotel room and meals — items all paid for with a credit card that belongs to another nonprofit organization, The National Organization of Sickle Cell Prevention and Awareness Foundation. The organization has never registered as a charitable trust with the California Attorney General’s Office and is unknown in the Los Angeles sickle-cell charitable community.

• Guillory purchased airline tickets for a member of Mayo’s family and another Mayo friend to visit Mayo at USC, said Johnson, who provided “Outside the Lines” with a plane itinerary and a receipt for those trips.

Let me guess? USC had no idea.

Pat Forde of ESPN asks: “Has there ever been a more textbook definition of ‘lack of institutional control’?”

Pat, we’ve been asking that for a long time.

Remember when Ron Zook was bringing in 5* talent from across the country and everyone, even those that don’t follow recruiting, were getting suspicious and asking questions?

The IRT asked on Dec 16, 2006:

Illinois has no fan base, and they are 11-47 in the last 5 years(that’s a .190 winning percentage.) What are these recruits thinking?

We were thinking it was about the money.

But we heard that it wasn’t about the money.

Well, turns out it may have been about the money.

Sources close to the IRT are claiming that the NCAA will be bringing the hammer down on the Zookie Monster as early as next week for recruiting improprieties. I don’t think anyone will be surprised. The most surprising aspect of it all may be the NCAA actually getting off its ass and doing something.

Charlie Weis has some words for Michigan in the following video.  We agree with him.  To Hell with Michigan.

Now we just hope Weis can back some of that talk up on the football field this year.

This is taken from Profootballtalk.com:

There is an increasing belief among NFL teams that draft-eligible players from the University of Southern California need additional scrutiny before selection day.

The concern is that too many of the players who emerge from the Trojan program love the SoCal lifestyle more than they love football. In 2003, the Trojans sent a trio of solid players into the league: Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu, and Justin Fargas. Since then, however, the only guy who has proven to be a consistent high-end talent is linebacker Lofa Tatupu. The growing parade of busts includes Keary Colbert, Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson, Mike Williams, Darnell Bing, Dominique Byrd, Frostee Rucker, Winston Justice, Reggie Bush (relative to his draft status and hype), and Dwayne Jarrett.

As to Matt Leinart and LenDale White, the jury is still out, but might be coming back soon. There already are signs that football isn’t their top priority. Otherwise, White wouldn’t go blowfish in the offseason and Leinart would be exuding the demeanor of a guy who intends to be a starting NFL quarterback for a long time.

We’ll add this to The List.