But let’s look at the other side of the free-ride story. First, some facts regarding Ray Ray McElrathbey, and then some outrage from ESPN.com’s Jemele Hill. Now, as we all know a scholarship is not a 5-year contract; it is a 1-year promise to pay for everything, and each year every player is re-evaluated to see if they should stay in the program. While Ray Ray is in a very unusual circumstance in the fact that he is raising his 12-year old brother, Clemson can’t keep him around forever when he isn’t that good. Also, Clemson is offering Ray Ray his scholarship through the summer (when he is scheduled to graduate) and then a position on staff as a grad-assistant. So, the negative press on this story only points out the facts that college sports are as much of a business as the professional leagues they feed.

1  USC at Notre Dame            20-Oct       $409          1        $379
2  Ohio State at Michigan       17-Nov       $408          3        $876
3  Oklahoma vs. Texas            6-Oct       $400          2        $419
4  UCLA at USC                   1-Dec       $312          4        $172
5  Tennessee at Alabama         20-Oct       $238          5        $181
6  Georgia at Florida           27-Oct       $274          7        $284
7  Texas at Texas A&M           23-Nov       $268          6        $233
8  Alabama at Auburn            24-Nov       $373          8        $321
9  Tennessee at Florida         15-Sep       $248          9        $180
10 Michigan at Michigan State    3-Nov       $218         11        $193
11 Notre Dame at Purdue         29-Sep       $105         10        $281
12 Arkansas at LSU              23-Nov       $128         12        $226
13 California at Stanford        1-Dec       $118         13        $ 77
14 Miami at Florida State       20-Oct       $113         14        $137
15 Army/Navy Game                1-Dec       $285         16        $150
16 Florida State at Florida     24-Nov       $401         15        $195
17 Georgia at Georgia Tech      24-Nov       $156         17        $161
18 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma   24-Nov       $160         19        $228
19 Pittsburgh at West Virginia   1-Dec       $139         18        $ 87
20 Oregon State at Oregon        1-Dec       $170         20        $173
21 Clemson at South Carolina    24-Nov       $414         21        $282
22 Virginia Tech at Virginia    24-Nov       $191         23        $147
23 Iowa at Iowa State           15-Sep       $122         22        $218
24 Arizona at Arizona State      1-Dec       $ 80         24        $ 69
25 Purdue at Indiana            17-Nov       $ 77         25        $ 59

Granted, this is a fairly useless ranking, as it only uses gross dollar volume of tickets sold through StubHub. But it’s interesting nonetheless. Also, it looks like the Washington schools didn’t make the cut.

• #1 USC left all of their crisp play in LA and squeaked by U-Dub by 3. SC looked terrible and I would not be surprised if LSU is #1 in the AP Poll.
• #2 LSU drove 90 miles to N’awlins and struggled with Tulane, but they won by 25.
• #3 Oklahoma was up 24-7 and should have finished off Colorado—however, they stopped doing anything well and CU got them at the gun with a FG.
• #4 Florida falls to Auburn. Apparently Tommy Tuberville knows how to stop Urban Meyer’s offense. So now their championship hopes rest on the trip to LSU; if they play like this LSU drills them by 20.
• #5 West Virginia (I was wrong about them) looked terrible and lost to South Florida. USF took advantage of Mountaineer miscues and now control the Big East.
• #6 Cal went to #11 Oregon and (I got this one right) Cal got the offense going late. Looks like they will move up to #3, thanks to Cameron Colvin’s fumble.
• #7 Texas looked awful. Living here in Texas, I got to see this game, and KSU kicked the sh*t out of the Longhorns. With both OU and Texas losing, the game at the state fair is now for staying in the race and not going 0-2 in the Big 12 South.
• #8 Ohio State beats the crap out of an awful Minnesota team. Maybe they will get Purdue’s best since Purdue played well (for 30 minutes at least) against Notre Dame before letting ND back in the game. The losing streak stands at 7 for the Irish.
• #9 Wisconsin survives at home against Michigan State. This game was a shootout and Sparty had a shot; just couldn’t execute late.
• #10 Rutgers looked very ordinary against Maryland at home and the middle of the ACC pack took down the Scarlet Knights 34-24.
• #12 BC plays a very tough 1-AA team in UMass and the the Minutemen keep it close. The Eagles squeak by with a 10 point win.
• #13 Clemson falls to the Ramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech 13-3. Tommy Bowden can’t seem to enjoy winning games and being ranked.
• #14 Kentucky wins again, and this after Coach Brooks claimed on the Jim Rome Show that his team could be as good as USC.
• #15 Georgia wins again, dominating Ole Miss in the second half.

So now the Top 10 will probably look like this:

1. USC/LSU (take your pick)
2. Cal
3. Ohio St
4. Wisconsin
5. Oklahoma
6. Florida
7. BC
8. Kentucky
9. Georgia
10. Oregon

So look out, Clemson and Tennessee: your place in the rankings might go away so that the writers can make Appalachian State a ranked team for a week.

#16- Tennessee at California September 1st
#18- Florida St at Clemson September 3rd
#4-   Virginia Tech at LSU September 8th
#14- TCU at Texas September 8th
#19- Miami at Oklahoma September 8th
#20- Notre Dame at Penn State September 8th
#8-   USC at Nebraska September 15th
#9-   Tennessee at Florida September 15th
#1-   Florida at LSU October 6th
#3-   Texas vs. Oklahoma (Cotton Bowl) October 6th
#10- Nebraska at Texas October 27th
#11- West Virginia at Rutgers October 27th
#13- LSU at Alabama November 3rd
#5-   Louisville at West Virginia  November 8th
#6-   USC at California November 10th
#7-   Michigan at Wisconsin November 10th
#12- Florida St at Virginia Tech November 10th
#2-   Ohio State at Michigan  November 17th
#15- Boise St at Hawaii November 23rd
#17- UCLA at USC December 1st

And here’s a list that tells you which weekends might require a second TV next to the big screen:

• 4 Games on September 8th
• 4 Games Weekend of November 8th-10th (Big East Thursday night special)
• 2 Games September 15th
• 2 Games October 6th (1 &3)
• 2 Games October 27th

If USC isn’t 11-0, then the SC/UCLA is meaningless outside of LA—as are any of the games after October 6th really, unless all of these teams are as good as the pre-season hype.

Now that Clemson’s superstar backfield tandem helped the Tigers rack up a staggering 7 points last night, comparisons to Bush and White are only useful as comic relief.