Kevin Blackistone Ncaa Football

Among the things the folks at Human Rights Watch keep track of are places on the globe that employ particularly cruel forms of punishment, like, for example, eye gouging. The good news is that for quite some time the list of governments employing such barbarism has been shortening. In fact, it was down to just two, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Monday, however, that list apparently expanded with an announcement from the Florida Gators' football office that suggested it appeared to embrace the barbaric penalty.

What else can be drawn from Gators coach Urban Meyer's disciplining of his linebacker Brandon Spikes for gouging the eyes of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey in the third quarter of last Saturday's game?

In the immediate wake of that ugly scene that ended the kickoff of this college football season in Boise, Idaho, Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount somehow regained his wits and apologized profusely for having punched out Boise State defensive end Byron Hout -- and having to be restrained by authorities -- after Hout taunted him.

Within a day or two, Blount and his coach, Chip Kelly, called Hout and Boise State coach Chris Petersen to apologize again.

And the other day Blount wrote a letter of apology to all concerned that was published in a newspaper and spread all over the Web.

If the NCAA was the World Boxing Council, and Tim Tebow wasn't a Heisman trophy-winning quarterback but the owner of a world championship belt, there would be no handwringing over Tebow's status for his next scheduled contest. He'd be out. End of story.

That is how seriously boxing now takes the brain injury known as a concussion, which is what No. 1-ranked Florida's quarterback suffered last weekend against Kentucky. A boxer who is knocked out can't fight again for at least two months.

It is, of course, the aim of boxing to discombobulate the opponent before he discombobulates you. By discombobulating, I mean scrambling the brain.

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Late in the second quarter Saturday at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium, Miami quarterback Jacory Harris threw a quick strike over the middle just as official's yellow flag darted through the air toward one of Harris' blockers. Harris put his hands on his hips. His chest heaved with a deep breath. His head rocked back.

Harris was having one of those Murphy's Law moments, and for good reason.

He'd already fumbled, which Virginia Tech turned into a touchdown in little time. A teammate on defense, Chavez Grant, lost his footing on the slip 'n' slide disguised as a football field and got beat on a 48-yard touchdown catch by Hokies receiver Jarrett Boykin. Now a holding call was about to derail some desperately needed momentum for Harris and his Hurricanes as they stared at a 21-0 deficit.

College isn't for everyone, particularly, as an example, first-round NFL draft picks like Oklahoma tight end Jermaine Gresham.

Gresham learned on Tuesday that his senior season was over before it started. Surgeons who operated on Gresham's right knee that day said it would need five months to heal. So instead of leaning on crutches on the sidelines for some NFL team this season-opening week and weekend, with a few million in signing-bonus dollars in the bank and another million or so dollars in paychecks rolling in, Gresham will lean on crutches on the Sooners' sidelines for nothing, except that "free" college education student-athletes are afforded.

Whoopee.

Shortly after the last season's college football calendar wrapped up, the game's rules committee kicked around a few ideas to make its version of football a little kinder and gentler, to borrow an old phrase. Specifically, it wanted to crack down a little more on unsportsmanlike acts like taunting and showboating.

It considered treating such offenses during a game as live-ball fouls that could wipe out a play, including a touchdown. It pondered revising its guidelines on sportsmanship to include harsher penalties for offenders and make coaches more responsible for their players' behavior before and after games, not just during them. It even discussed encouraging conference officials to be more willing to discipline their coaches and member schools for such boorishness.

Luckily for Boise State coach Chris Petersen and one of his defensive ends, Byron Hout, the college football rules committee tabled their discussions until after the season that just kicked off. Otherwise, Peterson would be forced to punish Hout for Hout's role in Thursday night's ugly meltdown in Boise, Idaho, as Boise State kicked off this season against Oregon.

As is the case now during school opening season for many members of other university faculty, I received my notice over a week ago. It came from an academic support director in an athletic department building. It informed me that one of my students was also an athlete who would miss the first day of classes due to a game out of state.

A campus advisory also was issued suggesting that any student feeling sick in this swine-flu era should be expected to miss class, too.

Athletes and the sick get priority treatment on college campuses everywhere these days. The reason is to maintain good health for the school. With athletes it just happens to be about the good financial health of the institution rather than good medical health of the inhabitants.

In the annals of academic-athletic cheating scandals in college, particularly in the SEC, what Alabama got penalized for on Thursday pales in comparison. After all, Georgia basketball under Jim Harrick several years ago got busted for awarding credits to players who did not attend Harrick's son's class on basketball strategy, which included a test that asked how many halves are in a basketball game.

Upon further contrast, Alabama may even be more worthy of commendation than sanction. This transgression was of players, the biggest offenders being in football, abusing their athletic department's textbook acquisition policy.

Imagine that. Athletes were busted for spending money at a campus bookstore not so much for obtaining more school paraphernalia, mind you, but for procuring recommended textbooks, which is against NCAA rules, rather than just required texts. How about that? At least that is some evidence Alabama athletes are actually trying to pursue the first part of the most famous NCAA phrase: student-athlete.

Haste always invites waste. Such was the case with my 30-second rant last Friday at the end of Around the Horn against the trend of college coaches designating successors.

I expressed my amazement that Ralph Friedgen, the football coach at Maryland where I started teaching last semester, announced last Friday that he was tagging one of his assistants to be the program's coach when his contract ends in three years. I argued that I didn't think Friedgen had earned that right.

More important, I suggested that the growing movement of naming a head coach-in-waiting undermined equal opportunity in coaching.

If the people who lord over college football ran it as a meritocracy, the Gators would not have beaten Oklahoma on Thursday night in the BCS title game for the so-called national championship. They may not have even come close, no matter quarterback Tim Tebow's apparently indomitable will.

That's because the Gators would not have been able to rely on who was truly the most-outstanding participant in their 24-14 victory over Oklahoma. It wasn't Tebow, though he was awarded the Most Outstanding Player trophy. Instead, it was Charlie Strong, who coordinated the Gators' defense, which twice stopped an Oklahoma offense that was the most-prolific in the nation from scoring at the goal line.