• Hey, let's give the refs the opportunity to arbitrarily control time. What could go wrong? An NCAA rules committee has recommended a new rule to mimic the NFL's mandated 10-second runoff on clock-stopping penalties in the final minute of a game, in direct response to the bizarre circumstances that allowed North Carolina to beat Tennessee in December's Music City Bowl. In that game, Carolina – out of timeouts and needing a field goal to tie in the closing seconds – managed to stop the clock with one second left by spiking the ball amid a fire drill that included at least six extra Tar Heels on the field at the snap. UNC was flagged for too many men, but was able to line up for the tying field goal and eventually prevail in overtime – victory by staggering ineptitude.
Under the proposed rule, as in the NFL, the flag against Carolina would have automatically taken 10 seconds off the clock, ending the game and sealing the Tennessee win. [Associated Press]
• In one door, out the other. A week after inking a 27-man recruiting class that put coach Houston Nutt squarely in the sights of the "oversigning" critics, Ole Miss released an official roster earlier this week freshly shorn of seven scholarship players. With those departures, the Rebels' returning scholarship count falls to somewhere between 55 players (my count) and 58 (beat writer Kyle Veazey's count), just enough to fit in the new recruiting class under the 85-scholarship limit. And to intensify the charges of oversigning, of course.
Whatever his motivations, the wholesale roster reduction is par for the course under Nutt, as it was for his predecessor, Ed Orgeron. Not including the latest class, Ole Miss signed a whopping 92 players to letters of intent over Nutt's first three seasons (2008-10). Fifty-one of that number remain on the current roster for 2011, an attrition rate of roughly 45 percent. [Clarion-Ledger, CBS Sports]
• Another brick in the wall. In related news, Connecticut legislators heard testimony this week from critics of NCAA scholarship regulations who argued that universities should be required to fully spell out restrictions on athletic scholarships, particularly the details on how and when a scholarship may be revoked. "The rules are murky when it comes to conditions for the renewal and non-renewal of the scholarships in the subsequent year," said University of New Haven professor Allen Sack, a former Notre Dame football player who testified in support of the "Connecticut Student-Athletes' Right to Know Act" in the legislature. "Some universities renew scholarships for four years as long as athletes continue playing and adhere to team rules. Others cancel scholarships for poor athletic performance or for injury." [Hartford Courant]
• Bubba's a Bugeater. Hyped Nebraska signee Bubba Starling said Thursday "it's going to take a lot of money" from a baseball franchise to keep him from being a Cornhusker, and he may get it: Starling is rated as the No. 1 high school baseball prospect in the country by Baseball America, and will almost certainly go in the first round of the baseball draft this summer, a distinction that usually comes with a seven-figure signing bonus. For the time being, though, he plans to be in Lincoln in the fall. [Kansas City Star]
• Don't get used to it. At the SEC's request, Auburn has agreed to move an open date before its Iron Bowl date with Alabama on Nov. 26, essentially as a favor to the Crimson Tide after 'Bama faced six teams coming off bye weeks in 2010 – three of whom, South Carolina, LSU and Auburn, beat the Tide as underdogs. Auburn swapped in a functional bye instead, moving a Nov. 5 visit from Samford to Nov. 19. [Al.com]
Quickly… Lavonte David wants to add at least 15 pounds for Nebraska's move to the Big Ten. … Maryland is close to hiring Randy Shannon as its new defensive coordinator, which may appease some slightly disgruntled recruits who didn't like the way previous coordinator Don Brown left last week. … Six weeks after declaring he was "done with the defensive staff," Rick Neuheisel fires UCLA's defensive line coach, and still hasn't hired a new defensive coordinator. … Jadeveon Clowney says his mind is made up, which gives the competition a full weekend to change it before he announces on Monday. … And of course Paul Finebaum gets a call from a guy in the process of having a heart attack.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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