Wednesday Skull Session

I am the bearer of good news: as of this writing, no Buckeye footballer has gotten into legal trouble at some god-awful Columbus watering hole. (Between Sugar Bar 2 and Charlie Bear, are there any worse bars in America, let alone Columbus?) ***hangs a "2" below the "DAYS WITHOUT LEGAL INCIDENT:" sign***

WELL DONE EVERYONE. BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE IS DUE HERE. LET'S HOPE WE CAN NURTURE THIS STREAK INTO SOMETHING GREAT.

Today is somewhat of Christmas-in-July to the Big Ten media-types, as Big Ten Media Days kick-off in Chicago at 11 AM EST. (Will be broadcasted in its entirety on the BTN/BTN2GO.) ElevenWarriors is sending the boss hog himself, Jason, and my former friend and current colleague Kyle Rowland to cover the rodeo, so make sure you follow them at @11W and @KyleRowland for juicy morsels of information and hot sports takes emanating from the gathering of football geniuses in Chicago. Whatever you do, do not follow my Twitter account. 

11W will have you covered all day and will be posting an open thread to host your shenanigans around 11 AM. Come for the almighty B1G football talk, stay for the animated GIFs you kids seem to be infatuated with these days.

THE ORDER OF AFFAIRS AT MEDIA DAY AND OSU EMISSARIES. The Big Ten Media Day will kick off at 11 AM with an interview of Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald. Purdue's Darrell Hazell and Wisconsin's Gary Andersen round out the 11 o'clock hour. Tim Beckman, Kevin Wilson, and Brady Hoke round out the 12 o'clock hour. Bo Pelini kicks off the 1 o'clock hour, followed by Mark Dantonio's stern face, and Ohio State's Urban F. Meyer (the F is for F--- Michigan) is scheduled to take the podium at 1:30. #1 Stunna Jerry Kill, Good Guy Bill O'Brien, and bags of money masquerading as Kirk Ferentz's animated corpse close out the 2 o'clock hour.

As for player interviews, Ohio State has sent Bradley Roby, Braxton Miller, Jack Mewhort and Christian Bryant. A complete list of B1G player contingents can be found HERE.

 B1G, IVY LEAGUE PUT HEADS TOGETHER TO SAVE OTHER HEADS. On Monday I relayed absolutely dreadful emails between NCAA staffers basically mocking the safety efforts of their director of safety and health, yet it appears 18-22 year-olds being concussed isn't a laughing matter to all those involved in college athletics. Enter the Big Ten and Ivy League Head Injury Summit, which is pretty damned cool (via their PR e-mail blast):

Park Ridge, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference and the Ivy League, in conjunction with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), hosted the Big Ten-Ivy League Head Injury Summit on July 18-19 in Park Ridge, Ill. A total of 65 individuals from 23 institutions, representing each member institution from the Big Ten, Ivy League and CIC, participated in the two-day event in an effort to engage in collaborative discussions and to refine the strategic priorities of the historic, unprecedented research initiative that was announced by the conferences in June 2012. The summit provided an open forum for the subject-matter experts in attendance to review the current clinical and research efforts that exist on each campus, and allowed the group to define the short- and long-term areas of emphasis to address.

Here's what Jim Delany had to say about it:

“We were so encouraged to see the level of commitment and collaboration between representatives from the Big Ten and Ivy League during last week’s summit.  We still have so much to learn in this area which is just one of the reasons why we think it's so important to keep providing these forums for our experts to come together and explore.  We know that protecting the health and safety of our student-athletes is a shared responsibility and we were thrilled to take part.” 

And here's Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris:

“It was gratifying to observe the participants from 23 institutions, who serve in various roles on their campuses, connect in a meaningful way through formal and informal discussions during the summit to exchange information and ideas and to lay the foundation for establishing collaborative research endeavors and unified data collection.  The summit served as a powerful launching point for our collaboration and established a framework for moving forward.”

A non-sarcastic applaud to everyone involved in this effort, because I don't think anyone feels comfortable with former college players being reduced to husks of humanity by their mid-thirties because they chose to play a child's game for our entertainment.

CARLOS DANGER AIN'T DEAD YET.

CARLOS HYDE SET TO SWERVE ON 'EM. Unless you were legally declared dead over the weekend or have been living in the rubble of a bombed-out building in Kabul, I don't need to rehash the Carlos Hyde episode from earlier this week.

Carlos appears to be in line for an exoneration, however, according to Yahoo!'s Charles Robinson of all people:

Charges are not expected to be filed against Hyde after video from Sugar Bar 2 shows he didn't appear to make contact with an alleged victim who claimed to have been assaulted early Saturday morning, a source who spoke to Yahoo! Sports on the condition of anonymity said. The source said video shows Hyde speaking in the direction of the alleged victim just prior to her punching him in the head. The video then shows Hyde leaving the area and reaching back in the woman's direction in a non-confrontational manner, the source said. From the video, it doesn't appear Hyde ever made contact with the woman – either before or after she struck him, the source said.

I've bashed Charles Robinson in the past, and I still stand by what I said, but if he wants to make-out by the dumpster after school, I'd totally be down for it. While this isn't as good as official word from Columbus' Chief of Police, it will suffice for now. And if true, hats off to the Columbus Police Department for not rushing into things and charging Mr. Hyde. 

If Carlos is exonerated, let this be a lesson to all Buckeyes (athletes or not): stay out of shitty Columbus "nightclubs." You guys/girls have a future, which is more than 98% of Sugar Bar 2's patrons can say about themselves. 

Clay Travis, we're going to start the apology tour with you. The clowns at Busted Coverage are next. Followed by this guy. Then this guy. I think this is called extortion. This guy is too old to be wearing a jersey but should apologize anyway. Chad is the next to apologize. This guy too. This guy is just an idiot. This guy might be too tough to apologize. *sigh* You get the point.

ANTONIO MORRISON VINDICATED, COP WAS KIND OF A DICK. Florida's starting middle linebacker was arrested over the weekend for allegedly barking at and harassing a trained police dog. According to Morrison's lawyer Huntley Johnson, however, those charges are to be dropped in the very near future.

The State Attorney of Florida also issued some smack-down on the issue of the charges being dropped, and confirmed Morrison's deferred prosecution agreement from a June incident of slugging a bar bouncer over a cover charge, will remain intact:

The college football off-season: it's faaaaantastic.

BAYLOR SAFETY ASKS QUESTION THAT'S BAFFLED THEOLOGIANS FOR CENTURIES:

I asked #Baylor S Ahmad Dixon if the Bears could win the #Big12 title this year? He said, "Can God save a hooker?" Me: no words.

— Chip Brown (@ChipBrownOB) July 23, 2013

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