Kentucky Wildcats Thursday Quickies: Sepp Blatter Gas Bag Edition

James mentioned in yesterday's Quickies, but more news has come to light on the US's investigation into FIFA. The US Attorney General and the FBI Director led an impressive press conference yesterday where they discussed the litany of charges against 14 FIFA officials. In short, FIFA is an incredibly corrupt organization, and while everyone has known that for a while, it was changes to a US law enacted as a result of 9/11 that enabled our law enforcement agencies to make the arrests yesterday. A reporter also  witnessed the raid firsthand in their luxury Swiss hotel if you're into the human toll.

Now UEFA, FIFA's largest organization, wants to delay the vote for the FIFA President that was expected to see Sepp Blatter easily reelected this Friday. Rumor has it the US' case originated with the arrest of US citizen Chuck Blazer last year (and here's an amazing profile of him worth the read. I mean, two luxury apartments in Trump Towers and one of them is just for his cats?!?).

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has yet to be arrested. My favorite Blatter anecdote is he had FIFA spend $27 million on a biopic film of himself and it was universally canned. You want the runner-ups for his worthlessness? Why I'm happy to oblige. Second, Blatter is either extremely terrible at his job and/or a sexist.  Third, Blatter also doesn't care that the women's World Cup this summer is being played on turf; despite its well-known links to injuries. He made the decision to stick to the less-safe artificial turf even when sponsors were willing to put in natural grass for free.

Aside from the human cost of the 2022 games - which are still seven years away! -, FIFA is an organization led by a dirtbag of a human being, whose leadership's avarice knows no bounds, and whose morals know no lows. It's a Pyramid Scheme masquerading as a sporting organization. The FBI decided to stop them with a law that some would consider being liberally applied. In any case, yesterday's events couldn't have happened to a better group of white collar gangsters.

Tweet of the Morning

Top Sepp Blatter comparisons: 3. The Godfather 2. worse than a hairless bear 1. Emperor Palpatine

— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) May 27, 2015

Sounds about right to me. And with that off my chest...

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• I'm not seeing much out there, so shameless plug time: a popular sports book sets the OVER/UNDER for UK at 6 wins next season. I explore if that's feasible or not (with what are some great points by JLev in the comments section).

Kentucky basketball

• Speaking of odds, Kentucky is a 7-1 favorite to win the championship next year along with Maryland and North Carolina.

• The NBA Draft viewed through the lens of the 247 Sports composite.
• Calipari tells Cats Pause he'd "have to be uprooted to leave UK." Okay, let's all go through the motions and pretend this sort of talk actually means anything...Great job, everyone [pats you on the shoulder].

Other Kentucky sports

• UK released its composite APR scores yesterday and all 22 of the universities sports teams met the required NCAA score - 18 of those 22 exceeded the national average. 14 of those 22 teams scored perfectly including: men's and women's basketball, men's and women's track and field, and more. To date, none of UK's sports teams have been penalized in the 11 years of the APR. Will Tennessee fans start printing bumperstickers that say their "scholar athlete beat up our honor roll student athlete"? There were increases across the board nationally.

• Track and Field had a tremendous season and is starting to get some respect nationally. Coach Floreal counts as another strong hire by Mitch.

College Football

• Grantland goes into detail on everything that goes into rebuilding an offensive line. I'm sure most of us are well-aware of the challenges, but it's still a great read.

• Dabo Swinney cancels a controversial speaking appearance. Probably the correct decision given he would have been a state employee using his likeness to raise funds for a special interest group. If he likes the group, the easiest thing to do would be to privately cut them a check and eliminate distractions to his program. The Shakin In The Southland community debate both sides here and here.

• SEC coaches have been debating satellite camps this week. Again, I think they are over-blowing the issue. It's hard to imagine a mass migration of southern talent to B1G schools due to these camps. What am I missing? Are the coaches that insecure or is this all posturing?

• LSU has a quarterback conundrum. Something has to slow them down to make it fair for the rest of the SEC West.

College Basketball

• Auburn basketball player gets 15 days in jail for breaking a cop's finger. Bruce Pearl gets to deal with his first bit of drama, and I imagine the player's return looks similar to this timeless GoodFellas scene.
• Fred Hoiberg got too big for Ames.
• Jaylen Brown is challenging rappers out at Cal. As the post says, Cal's Midnight Madness script just got written.
• Dan Marjerle gets a contract extension.

Other sports news