The National, 4-11-12: Burying the Lede.

If I'm not careful, this may turn into a daily.

Leading off: Apparently, we know what TB's donations to his post-graduate institution are being used for, namely ripping us off. Houston's got a new logo, and it, ah, kinda looks a little familiar, sort of. Actually, it looks like the demented love child of a Powercat and a Nittany Lion, and let's please just let that joke end right there. The new branding goes along with an upcoming new stadium and a new conference affiliation on the horizon.

But I suppose it would be disingenuous to pretend this is the news from yesterday that anyone wants to talk about, pilfered imagery aside... so let's get the gorilla out of the room.

The worst $20K anyone ever spent? Bobby Petrino is officially out at Arkansas, fired with cause specifically for improprieties related to the hiring of Jessica Dorrell, and more generally for bringing shame to the university. Although that came as no surprise to anyone who's not delusional, the revelation that he'd slid his mistress a cool twenty G's of his own scratch stirred up a lot of discussion (including threeve dozen tweets from @bomani_jones, each expressing an increasing level of hysterical incredulity). Jeff Long started choking up right at the point when he started talking about having to break the news to the team, and nobody's much discussing that specific; I tend to think there's some significance to that, although whether said significance is good (team in general showed Long unconditional support) or ill (team appears on the edge of revolt) for Long and the Razorback program is an open question. Long himself was noncommittal about the topic the one time the question was touched on during the presser.

The only immediate impact on the program (you know, other than needing a new coach): WR commit Austin Bennet (Alvin, TX) is no longer a commit, having immediately reopened his recruitment with the news. There's also an as-yet unsourced report that Petrino's son was arrested last night in Louisville for DUI and possession.

As for Petrino's potential replacements, the consensus seems to be that they're going to go the Ohio State route this season and operate with an interim coach while searching for a permanent, more high-profile replacement. My suggestion is a man who has already proven his ability to lead Arkansas to victory over new conference-mates Texas A&M: Mike Sherman.

We'll close the topic with a recommendation that you read Brett McMurphy's column on Petrino's end, and a wistful recap of my own comment during Long's presser, which now has the distinction of being the most-retweeted tweet of my twittering career:

This business... will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it: The list of players who've declared their intent to transfer has now ballooned to over 300. That's almost one per school, which is just ludicrous; it means that after taking graduation,flat-out quitters, and early entry into account, we're pushing a 10% transfer rate across all of Division I.

Speaking of early entry: To the surprise of precisely nobody, Jeremy Lamb has decided he'd really rather not spend next season playing for absolutely nothing with UConn on the no-fly list.

Coaching follies of the non-scandalous kind: CBS is reporting that former Oregon coach Ernie Kent, who a lot of people felt didn't deserve to be fired, is the new guy at Colorado State. Another report from The Examiner claims that New Mexico assistant Craig Neal is the choice. Both reports say we'll find out for sure today, but I'm more inclined to believe Gary Parrish on this one. CBS is also reporting that Jim Ferry, who led LIU-Brooklyn to consecutive Northeast Conference titles, is moving on to Duquesne; he'll be replaced by assistant Jack Perri.

And it appears that Southern Methodist is making a run at Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus. If Majerus were to move from SLU to SMU, I'd start to expect Majerus to then take over at Division II Southern Nazarene, followed by NAIA Southern Oregon, and finally Saint Peter's, which is obviously a dead-end job.

Ba-dum-bump.

Somber moment: The NCAA has disemployed Greg Shaheen, which is just a bad deal for college basketball in general. As bad as that news is, this is worse: early this morning, it was reported that Kurt Crain, assistant coach at the fledgling South Alabama football program and former Auburn All-American, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Crain had been suffering from prostatitis, and I can state from experience that the symptoms can lead to pretty severe depression. Thoughts and prayers to Crain's family, and the Jaguar family as well.

Okay, enough of that. Slapstick!: Man punched in face after chanting "War Eagle" in Whataburger. Really, what more can I add here?

Finally, a brief rant having nothing to do with college sports: I am sympathetic to the anger of Cubans over Ozzie Guillen's comments. I would be angry, too. That said, the man runs his mouth constantly and doesn't think about what he's saying, so you shouldn't be taking him seriously anyway; further, he's falling all over himself to apologize. Everyone says stupid things from time to time. Even me. Yet in our society today, apparently stupid comments have become unforgivable even while we're willing to offer second chances to people who actually do bad things. THIS IS WRONG. Accept the man's apology and get over it, Miami. Otherwise, the next time YOU say something stupid, we're not going to let it go.