by Chad Black

The Ticker continues. Opening weekend on the college football season is in a few days, and we have a few more entries…

  1. Mississippi State University has suspended Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald for the opening game against Stephen F. Austin. Fitzgerald’s suspension is the result of a violation of team rules from March 2018.

  2. Santino Marchio, a linebacker who transferred from Texas A&M to Arizona, has alleged recruiting violations by Assitant Coach Bradley Dale Peveto. Marchio claims that Peveto provided him cash to entertain unofficial recruits on two weekends last Spring.

  3. New allegations that the former Athletic Director of the University of Maryland hire an attorney with Athletic Department funds to represent two players accused of sexual assault. AD Kevin Anderson was told to stop by the school, but did not. Not and NCAA rules violation, but a problem for the University.

  4. Urban Meyer has been suspended for three games, and the rest of pre-season training, as a result of failing to report domestic abuse by one of his assistant coaches. Zach Smith was reported to the police (and even arrested) for domestic abuse nine times while coaching at OSU, but Meyer and the University’s AD refused to act against him. Meyer then lied about this to the press this summer, forcing the Board of Trustees to take disciplinary action. The Board also released a 23-page report on their investigation, and resulting suspension, which has been critiqued already by some in the press.

  5. Reports of a toxic culture at the University of Maryland following the death of Jordan McNair has put the Terrapin’s coaching staff under scrutiny.

  6. Thirteen UNC-CH athletes were suspended for selling shoes issued to the team by Nike. The athletes received suspensions of between 2 and 3 games. UNC and Nike have a contract that has been worth, at least $35.68 million over the last decade. And Larry Fedora and Roy Williams have additional individual contracts with Nike for their teams to exclusively wear Nike apparel.

  7. UNC-CH football coach Larry Fedora made comments questioning the link between CTE and football. He also claimed that football was under attack in the US, and that the US would be weaker as a society without it.

  8. Representative Jim Jordan, failing to prevent the routine sexual abuse of wrestlers by a team doctor at Ohio State University, where he was a coach in the 1990s.