Do you remember the movie, Rudy starring future Hobbit, Sean Austin? I still watch it all the time, it was an inspiring story and a nice piece of film-making. It also had the virtue of being based on the real experience of a walk-on football player at Notre Dame who eventually got to dress and even play in his final game as a senior. Very heart-warming and uplifting film, sending the message that determination and hard work can overcome all odds.

Unfortunately, the real-life Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger is in deep trouble with the federal authorities, namely the Securities and Exchange Commission, for allegedly engaging in a scheme to "pump and dump" the stock in a company he created to compete with Gatorade and other sports drinks manufacturers. The SEC alleges that Ruettiger and his co-conspirators used Rudy's inspirational story to lure investors to purchase almost a billion shares of the company stock as part of an illegal stock fraud scheme.

Ruettiger and ten of his co-defendants pleaded the equivalent of nolo contendre to the charges, and settled with the SEC without admitting guilt in the scheme. Ruettiger paid $382,866 to settle the charges, along with effectively being banned from serving as an officer or director in a public company and offering or participating in the offering of penny stocks.

Yesterday, as you may have heard, the NCAA adopted a package of reforms far more sweeping and significant than we have seen in many years.  President Mark Emmert has been promising changes for a while now, and if any good can be said to have come out of the rash of NCAA scandals that cropped up almost unabated over the last eight months, the impetus and pressure it has kept on rules reform is the silver lining to that dark cloud.

Perhaps the reform which has everyone talking is the new provision to allow schools to provide up to $2,000 in additional funds to cover the gap between the value of the scholarship and full cost of attendance:

The Board also adopted legislation that addresses the miscellaneous costs of attending college. Student-athletes who receive full athletics scholarships or get other school financial aid will have the opportunity to receive additional athletics aid (or other institutional aid, including use of the Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund) up to the full cost of attendance or $2,000, whichever is less.

Obviously, this new provision brings some baggage along with it.  First, most people, including John Calipari, don't think that $2,000 is enough.  Coach Cal, among others such as Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney, think the gap is closer to $4,000 than $2,000.

Also, as a non-mandatory requirement, it's likely that the extra money will be provided mostly in leagues where the schools can afford it.  What that will produce, of course, is a situation in which the richer schools are able to provide more than the poorer ones, further increasing the recruiting advantage by profitable sports programs over those who lose money.

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This is going to be brief, because I have better things to do than talk about absurdities like this, but it's getting a lot of attention and deserves to be discussed.

According to Kyle Veazy at the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, John Calipari and Derrick Rose agreed to pay a settlement after some "ticketholders" threatened to sue them:

Calipari and Rose, according to the settlement agreement obtained Thursday by The Commercial Appeal, agreed on May 28, 2010, to pay a total of $100,000 to the three attorneys -- Martin Zummach, Frank L. Watson III and William Burns -- who were representing, in the agreement's words, "certain ticket holders." The amount was to be disbursed "as they agree among themselves."

Calipari, who left Memphis after the 2008-09 season for the University of Kentucky, also agreed to donate his bonus to the U of M scholarship fund. The agreement approximated the value of the bonus at $232,000.

Rose, who has starred the last three seasons for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, was also to "consider ... making a suitable donation" to the scholarship fund sometime before 2015.

Why?  Who the heck knows?  If I'd been Coach Cal, I would have asked them to attempt an anatomically improbable act and look forward to seeing them in court.  But for whatever reason, he decided it was worth 100 g's plus his bonus (which is a much more legitimate thing to return since you could say he didn't earn it as far as the NCAA was concerned).  If you ask me, this was little more than legalized extortion.

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Yesterday, the Missouri Board of Curators gave Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton unanimous consent to explore a change in conference affiliation for the school.  That seems to open up a new schism in the already-fractured Big 12 even after they recently decided to share TV revenues equally in an effort to hold the conference together:

Deaton, Alden and members of the Board of Curators have been deluged in recent weeks by emails, most of them representing sentiment for Missouri to leave the Big 12. On Tuesday, fans chanted S-E-C on a teleconference intended to connect reporters with the curators’ announcement.

There is almost no doubt that the SEC is working to obtain the 14th team they need for an even number after the recent admission of Texas A&M.  Scheduling with 13 teams is a nightmare, and it's hard to imagine the SEC putting up with that for more than a season or two.

Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated wishes this conference realignment business over and done with:

Before we go any further, here's a public-service message to the fans, coaches and misguided sports writers who still fail to grasp why all of this is happening. Schools aren't conference-jumping to win football or basketball national titles. This is about money and security. Yes, Missouri would find winning at football in the SEC to be quite difficult. But its options are to not win conference titles for a lot of money in a completely stable league or to not win conference titles for less money in a relatively unstable league. If this were only about winning at football, the SEC already would have booted Vanderbilt and brought in Boise State.

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The fallout has begun from the former Tennessee Volunteers assistant, Willie Mack Garza's alleged payment of $1500 for then UT recruit Lache Seastrunk's unofficial visit to Knoxville.  This scandal has drawn attention to one of the biggest cheating opportunities available to NCAA coaches and boosters -- helping pay for unofficial visits.  Pete Thamel (Fair warning:  Thamel/NYT link) has an interesting article on the subject (hat tip:  Mike Miller) including some fairly brutal quotes from the NCAA, like this:

[Rachel] Newman Baker of the N.C.A.A. [Director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities] said she was skeptical of coaches who claim they have no idea how prospects paid their way to campus. "The thought or concept that coaches don’t really know what’s going on isn’t an accurate reflection of reality," she said. "I’m not buying that."

Especially in view of the recent UT scandal, it's certainly understandable that she wouldn't be buying the argument of ignorance.  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, skepticism is not enough to bring sanctions on universities who violate this rule.  It is also very hard to monitor, as the NCAA can't really check into the finances of recruits without a paper trail or witnesses.  In any event, this particular cheating opportunity has been largely under the radar until now.

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For some reason, I neglected to post this earlier.  Must be old age starting to eat away at whatever is left of my memory.  Or it could be alcohol.  Or both.  Whatever.

Anyway, there are a bunch of really awesome games this week.  Unfortunately, UK @ LSU isn't one of them.  The Florida Gators host the Alabama Crimson Tide.  The Nebraska Cornhuskers are visiting the Wisconsin Badgers.  The Clemson Tigers go on the road against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.  And more, which you can find after the jump.

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Yahoo! sports strikes again with yet another reported NCAA violation, this time another leftover from the Tennessee Volunteers failed Lane Kiffin Experiment:

An assistant coach during Lane Kiffin’s tenure at the University of Tennessee wired $1,500 to a talent scout in July 2009, funding the airfare for an unofficial recruiting trip by then five-star prospect Lache Seastrunk and his mother, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

Yikes.  And just when the Vols were thinking they had put that sordid past adventure behind them.  I really can't express how badly the Kiffin-Tennessee thing seems to have worked out for the Volunteers.  I'm sure they must be weary of all this bad news, but one wonders if even this report is the end.

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