Blue and White Roundtable

It's been a good week of interaction on TNL, but it's Wednesday and we interrupt your regularly scheduled argu-fests for the usual blue-plate special Blue & White Roundtable. It was my turn for the questions this week so put your dunce hat on; they promise to be more low-brow than my blog partners are capable of. At any rate… let's get it on!

Must be my turn to ask the questions

Let's get the obligatory Nittany Lion Fight Club questions out of the way first. Admit it; you had to have at the very least an elevated blood pressure with the thought of losing both Anthony Scirrotto and Justin King. What do you think Scirrotto will get out of this from a legal perspective? Can they prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he called other players with intent to break in an apartment and beat people autistic?

When BOTH King and Scirrotto were charged I was seriously on the worried side, they could have moved Davis back to corner to cover King's departure but we would be hurting at Safety. Thank goodness the DA dropped the charges. I'm no legal expert (where's a good lawyer when you need one?) but I'll take a stab at it and say it's going to be difficult to prove that Scirrotto called two people with the intent to form a posse. I'm guessing the defense will bring both Scirrotto's brother and Lydell Sargeant on to testify that Anthony didn't call them with the intent to round people up and that the fight happened spontaneously once all the football players had assembled, but that's just my guess.

Does Justin King walk away unscathed from all of this? Does Judicial Affairs take action and will he end up in JoePa's doghouse.

I'm guessing King gets bumped down to third string for the beginning of summer practice and has to work his way back up, but I don't think Paterno will do anything else and I don't think he should. If JA suspends Justin King you know they have a beef with the football team because there is simply no logical reason to suspend him. Sure he was there but so were a bunch of other players and King was trying to do the right thing by stopping the fight.

Let's assume Scirrotto is out for some length of time, who takes his place?

I'm not sure I have an answer; could it be a chance for Mark Rubin or perhaps Spencer Ridenhour. I've been waiting for Ridenhour to step up because he passed the "looks" test when PSU recruited him but he's been busy bouncing from safety to linebacker and back. Since the coaches previously had him at linebacker I'm not so sure he has the speed to play safety but I guess we may get a chance to see come fall.

The NCAA's latest academic progress report came down hard on the Hurricane Katrina region and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Is the NCAA being unfair especially to those schools that have little resources?

You almost have to wonder if the NCAA is starting to tread on thin ice here, how long until the Al Sharpton's of the world turn this into a political grandstand. NCAA President Myles Brand seems to be concerned: "We're concerned about all schools with a low-support basis, and there are a number of HBCUs in that category. We're trying to provide them with the resources to do better." I just wonder what the NCAA will do exactly – provide grants or some sort of funding or will they just lower standards? That latter would probably be a mistake. The fact that no BCS schools received warnings should be a red flag, either the schools have found a way around the rules or we have a very smart group of players playing college football at this time. I would bet on the former.

It's already been determined that we're playing Notre Dame and Ohio State in primetime. Throw in a 3:30 Homecoming start for Wisconsin and I wonder: are your livers strong enough to handle this year's schedule?

I'm already psyched, especially for the Notre Dame 6 o'clock start, could there be a better time? Plenty of time to enjoy the "festivities" yet plenty of time to get home before the drunks start leaving the bars and bouncing off the guard rails. As for my liver, it won't be a problem; I'll have plenty of time in August to train.

Lightning Round

A.Q. Shipley was named to the spring watch list for the 2007 Rimington Trophy, is he a possible captain, or does that job fall to Morelli by default?

I would like to see the players vote but I'll bet Morelli gets it no matter what.

ESPN will show NASCAR on two Saturday night primetime slots in the fall instead of College Football. Which would you rather watch?

I kind of backed Mike from BSD into a corner with this one, but let's face it NASCAR doesn't even come close – what is ESPN thinking?

What is your favorite drinking game?

Without a doubt – Flip cup, but I'll go with beer pong as a close second.

There you have it, head on over to BSD and RUTS to get their perspectives, and as always discuss amongst yourselves in the comment section below.