Link Gumbo 8/27/10

8 days.....

REMINDER: THE LAST OF THE AVAILABLE SINGLE GAME TICKETS GO ON SALE TOMORROW!

LACK OF INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL

Four words that strike fear into the hearts of grown men, and that mean so much when applied to your opponent. UNC now has 2 concurrent investigations involving it's football team. Here are the facts divulged last night: the new investigation involves an undergrad tutor and "multiple" football players, and that the tutor in question was once hired by Butch Davis to tutor his son (not really important, just odd). Also, UNC will wait until the last possible moment, even waiting till gameday, before making any decisions about who should play. And that's it. Due to the way NCAA investigations work, UNC was not allowed to say anything more. You can watch the full press conference HERE, though other than getting to see a bunch of stern faced administrators find new and creative ways to say "No Comment", it's not much of an entertaining view.

Now on to RAMPANT SPECULATION! CBS has heard from sources that all but 4 starters on the defense are involved, and ESPN sources name Marvin Austin, Bruce Carter and Robert Quinn as some of the players involved. As Doc Saturday notes, this puts star DT Marvin Austin at the heart of both ongoing investigations. And as unimportant as it is to the situation I am still amazed at the speed with which Vegas dropped all lines on the game.

So there we are. With only one week till kickoff, there is no way that even the newly-vigilant NCAA Infractions Squad will be able to have a final report on either of these matters. UNC will have to decide on their own who to sit and who to play and risk a potentially in-season forfeit. If they do sit any number of players, it certainly takes some of the luster off of this game, not to mention it's basically a no-win situation for Miles and LSU in the eyes of the media and the critics. Win, and the say we played a distracted B-squad. Lose, well, lets not think about what happens if we lose this game now.

And thank goodness for all that nonsense because it's slim picken's as far as football news is concerned, now that practices will be closed from here on out. The Times-Pic continues their position previews with the cornerbacks and the Kelvin Sheppards. Rosetta's got his keys to the season and a timely look at our fullbacks. Saturday Night Slant has a fairly accurate revised post-fall camp 2-deep and some thoughts on the potential freshmen of the year. And Bob Wynn's previews how the LB shuffle will work out while Ryan Baker's jaw heals.

Richard Murphy and his brand new knees are on the Doak Walker (Best RB) watch list.

Sean O'Keefe has been released from hospital and is recovering at home. At least there was a good end to that tragedy.

Those new Tiger Stadium windows? Not going to be Purple and Gold. Put down the pitchforks.

Mike VI's staying in the shade while the paint crews are out.

How about Matt Flynn last night? Too bad about Joe Addai though...

The full Men's basketball schedule is out, here are the highlights:

Sun, Nov 21     Memphis     at Tupelo, Miss. (BancorpSouth Arena)

Sun, Nov 28     South Alabama     at Mobile, Ala. (Mitchell Center)

Sat, Dec 18     Wichita St.     at Shreveport, La. (CenturyTel Center)       7:00 p.m.

Wed, Dec 29     Rice     at Houston, Texas (Tudor Fieldhouse)

Sun, Jan 02     Virginia     at Charlottesville, Va. (John Paul Jones Arena)

That's quite a tour to start the year.

Get everything squared away this weekend, because starting Monday, Football is back.

#18 SOCCER: A PRIMETIME matchup on the road @ Memphis, Sat. 7pm LIVE STATS AND VIDEO

#23 VOLLEYBALL: The Tigers hit the road for an opening weekend tournament at A&M against Pacific, Siena and Texas A&M. Lets give it up for HC Fran Flory, who after spending some of the summer in an RV, manages to coach and keep the team well fed on the road.