The Zone Read is your morning college football primer to make you seem like the smartest person at the water cooler even if you're not.
Oregon appears as though it's out of the NCAA's crosshairs.
After speculation that the football program could be headed toward major sanctions following an eyebrow-raising $25,000 payment to Houston-based talent scout Willie Lyles for his recruiting expertise, many now believe Oregon could be headed toward a summary disposition.
So what does that mean? Well, it basically means that the school and the NCAA agree on the facts and the school decides the penalty. This would keep Oregon away from appearing in front of the dreaded NCAA Committee on Infractions and probably keep the Ducks from suffering a more severe punishment.
It's the best possible outcome for Oregon, but one that will surely draw criticism around the country. From an outsider's perspective, it clearly looks as though the Ducks paid Lyles for the services of a couple players - Lache Seastrunk and LaMichael James — and gave Oregon outdated information.
Lyles told Yahoo! Sports that he never provided the school a single report on a recruit from March 2010 to February 2011, but then put some together once reports of Lyles payment were released.
"They said they just needed anything," Lyles told Yahoo! Sports. "They asked for last-minute [stuff]. So I gave them last-minute [stuff] ... I gave them, like, old stuff that I still had on my computer because I never thought that stuff would see the light of day."
Despite even Lyles claiming that the work he did and the pay he received was probably not legitimate, Oregon might still get off with a lesser punishment that will only draw the ire of programs who weren't so lucky.
Injury? What injury? Even though Alabama star running back Trent Richardson had minor knee surgery after the Tide's national championship victory, coach Nick Saban contends that he thinks Richardson never realized he was injured.
Richardson suffered the injury prior to the title game and had arthroscopic surgery to repair his knee.
"What happened was he got hit with a facemask," Saban said. "Somebody was laying on the ground and he ran by him, and the facemask caught his knee. He was hurt for a day, maybe a little bit. But he really didn't have any issues with it.
"He didn't think it was a big deal, didn't even complain about - didn't even get treatment. Then after he played in the game and it didn't sort of go away like some nagging injuries should, we checked it out further and did an MRI on it. It was a real minor injury. Very minor."
"I don't even think he knew he was hurt."
Richardson had 20 carries for 96 yards and a score in the 21-0 win against the Tigers. He did no participate in the NFL scouting combine, but will workout for scouts on March 27.
Don't go changin', Missouri Missouri has no plans to change its offensive or defensive scheme to fit the SEC, coach Gary Pinkel said in a Q&A with the Columbia Tribune.
Similarly, he doesn't expect the SEC to do anything different to prepare for Missouri's high-powered, no-huddle offense.
"I wouldn't say they have to adapt to us. That's arrogant. I would never say that," Pinkel said. "What we're going to do is do what we do and recruit the same players we recruit. Our recruiting evaluation is no different than what we did in the Big 12. We have our offensive and defensive schemes, and we'll do what we do there. For us, there's really no changes there."
Missouri has had some success against the SEC in the past. Overall, it's 15-8-1 against the conference, but 4-1 since 2003, though the Tigers haven't played an SEC team since 2007.
Sticky notes: Les Miles plans to turn one of his running backs into a receiver to help out new quarterback Zach Mettenberger. Miles just isn't going to say which one… UCLA offensive quarterback Noel Mazzone has a colorful analogy for describing how he's going to choose a starting quarterback…The Rich Rodriguez era opens in Tucson today… And Oregon running back Tra Carson has decided to transfer.
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