Wolverine Wednesday: Rich Rodriguez and WVU

I understand that ESPN and newspapers are looking for eyeballs and increased sales. They can take a story and spin it any way they want to make it sound interesting to their audience.

The latest effort to exaggerate a story is NCAA contacts West Virgina . ESPN is reporting that it involves Rich Rodriguez but doesn't give us any more details. Many have speculated that the NCAA is trying to prove that Rich Rodriguez has a pattern of overworking his players or having quality control members watch offseason non-official practices.

Even ESPN radio is now saying that if the NCAA does find a pattern they could even give Michigan a more severe penalty and RR could lose his job before the start of the season.

So let's diagnose what is wrong with those statements:

• No. 1: AD David Brandon has made it crystal clear that RR is the coach for 2010. He even said it again yesterday.
• No. 2: ESPN has no idea what the NCAA contacted WVU about. They just had a source tip them off it's somehow related to RR.
• No. 3: Have you ever heard of coaches named Lou Holtz or John Calipari? Both left jobs right before their institutions were hit with some type of NCAA penalties. It seems John is doing pretty well at Kentucky and Lou had a nice career at ND and South Carolina.

So I know it's fun to punch the RR Punching Bag these days, and if you're not an RR supporter this gives you more "smoke" for your fire. But let's be realistic and think about things before we write them or say them in the media.

Enough is enough, folks. It's time to start driving the speed limit and stop looking at the accident. If you really want to see a crash, see what happens if Michigan puts another losing team on the field in 2010.

IMO, this is clearly the NCAA trying to make their case and U of M feeling pretty confident with theirs. I guess we will see which is better in August.