Joe Paterno died of a broken heart. I think there were a lot of people that had a part to play in that, whether it be the board of trustees and the way they handled his situation or even the media and the way they covered everything over the last several months. - Todd Blackledge

It is custom to not speak ill of the dead, and even Joe Paterno's harshest critics did not wish for him to pass on suddenly from the ravages of lung cancer. That is not quite for the reason that Paterno's eulogizers would cite. Eternal peace was far too light a fate, far too much of a graceful exit for a man who goes to his grave with more blood on his hands than Lady Macbeth. Joe Paterno deserved to live on in ignominy, suffering in anguish for decades, completely sound of mind, forever tormented and haunted by the memory of Jerry Sandusky's victims.

Yes, under Pennsylvania law, Joe Paterno bore no legal obligation beyond notifying his superiors. He still had an ethical obligation to go the second mile, if you will. One phone call to any local law enforcement agency is all it would have taken to stop alleged horrific abuse - either in 2002, or during the original allegations in 1998. Not only did Paterno not lift a finger against Sandusky, the alleged perpetrator still held free reign on the Penn State campus. Paterno still spoke at events tied to or honoring Sandusky/The Second Mile, which is synonymous with an explicit endorsement of his conduct. As such, the media honorifics celebrating Paterno's legacy over the past twenty four hours are beyond revolting. As the sum of his actions, Joe Paterno left the world in a worse place than he found it for having coached the Penn State university football program.

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I was curious about some of the points from today's NSL article, so I checked into this. Lo and behold, the NCAA updated its annual Revenues and Expenses report to account for 2010.

The salient points? After an awful 2009, athletics revenue bounced back in 2010 on a nationwide level. This squares what Tim Pernetti's pledge to reduce the athletics deficit. On average, salaries continue to trump facilities spending as driver of expense growth.

If you look at the tables on page 46, Rutgers in the bottom ten percent as far as money losers on DI athletics. There certainly is a problem. This blog was out ahead of everyone on that story. onthebanks.com and the Newark Star-Ledger just disagree on the causes (football vs. non-football), and on the solutions. This site's argument is that everything Tim Pernetti is doing, with stadium expansion and conference expansion, those are long-term strategies designed to reduce the athletic department's deficit. Could football live within its means more? Certainly, but in terms of priorities, they are hardly the biggest problem.

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Under Armour thought these were a good idea. Knowing the whims of 18 year old males, it probably was.

The Rutgers University athletic department announced their new iPhone app yesterday. 

In a bit of fortuitous timing, this web site will also soon be accessible via an iPhone/iPad app. Click beyond the jump for details.

Hopefully Android is soon to follow for both.

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Rutgers fans know a thing or two about the need to not rush to pre-judgment, but the latest round of allegations against North Carolina football do not look good.

Former North Carolina assistant coach John Blake was in communication with UNC football players Marvin Austin and Cam Thomas during their trip to a training facility in California before the 2009 season.

Cellphone records obtained following a court ruling in a lawsuit filed against the university by The (Raleigh) News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and other news organizations also show that Blake, head coach Butch Davis' top recruiter for three and a half years, used a university-paid number to contact (phone calls or texts) numbers associated with NFL agent Gary Wichard and Davis during the players' visit.

From a purely selfish perspective, Rutgers fans have to be hoping for the hammer to fall here. Rutgers barely survived North Carolina five years ago, requiring a historic Joe Dailey meltdown to secure the victory that day. In many respects, that game was not the program's finest hour, but it provided crucial momentum and confidence to the Scarlet Knights, while at the same time sealing John Bunting's fate in eventually losing his job. If the two teams played again in December of that year, with Kenny Britt emerging, and Mike Teel firing on all cylinders, RU comfortably wins by double digits. There will be no complaints from New Jersey (okay, there probably will still be a lot of critical comments) this fall if Rutgers takes advantage of a sanctions-crippled UNC to steal a victory. Otherwise, Rutgers fans should be largely indifferent to these proceedings; unless you are still incredulous over their fans' laughable complaints about Savon Huggins's recruitment.

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Last night's episode of South Park was basically one long (largely evenhanded) metaphor about college athletics. I enjoyed the episode, and enjoy the show and its humor. Surely, any piece of entertainment that treats Slash as a mythical character and even contemplates the concept of "Crack Baby Basketball" is not meant to be taken 100% seriously. The episode wasn't offensive (well, it might be to some people who would probably have a problem with the show in general), but I do want to briefly get super-pedantic and discuss the overall theme of the episode so that this information is out there if only as a reference.

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