I don’t know how I had myself convinced that college football began this evening, but I did. Way too much wishful thinking. I am very sad. No, wait. I blame it on some medication mixed with alcohol. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Justin asked a very good question regarding negative recruiting.

Is it negative recruiting to show recruits exactly what a coach said publicly? https://t.co/TvUyv8NIIo

— Justin W. (@NFLGimpy) August 26, 2015

Probably not, though, there is the whole issue of context.

If you missed the hilariously brief twitter firestorm last night it started with this:

#Hokies DC Bud Foster said coaching staff will explore fining players money from cost-of-attendance funds as future disciplinary measure.

— Norm Wood (@normwood) August 26, 2015

…and further information from Virginia Tech DC Bud Foster

Foster said teams can also discipline players by taking away game tix. #Hokies have also taken away portions of bowl stipends as punishment.

— Norm Wood (@normwood) August 26, 2015

Foster: "In the real world, if you don't adhere to rules & regs., you get fired. We're not in a position to fire anybody right now." #Hokies

— Norm Wood (@normwood) August 26, 2015

There was the usual outrage, jokes and WTFs that followed.

Then came reality. In this case, reality is that the very notion is prohibited.

@drridpath @BryanDFischer @normwood This would not even be permissible under current NCAA rules. Coach can't reduce financial aid

— Ryan Squire (@ryanrsquire) August 26, 2015

Funny thing about Bud Foster’s CoA fines talk is the ACC sponsored legislation to prohibit taking away financial aid pic.twitter.com/F2AtkFtruc

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) August 26, 2015

Which was followed by the VT AD, Whit Babcock, slamming the door on the whole thing.

#Hokies AD Whit Babcock in statement through school spokesman on player fines: "It will be discontinued immediately."

— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) August 27, 2015

And if you want an idea of how condensed the news cycle can be. This whole thing lasted maybe 2 hours.

But don’t think this isn’t going to come back and haunt VT on recruiting. Even if the issue should be dead and is a non-starter. Revelations of taking away bowl benefits and tickets as penalties are now openly known and on-the-record, courtesy of the second-most powerful member of the VT football coaching staff.

I’d make lots of jokes about Auburn University and their athletic department lobbying to save a favorite major from the academic axe… but then I’d have to start counting the number of Pitt football players majoring in Administration of Justice.

I’m still trying to understand why the ACC did not support some sort of transparency with explaining how cost of attendance figures are calculated to explain the wide variances from school to school. Here’s what the numbers — without any context look like in the ACC.

Pittsburgh: $3,296 for undergraduates, $5,922 for graduates, divided into twice-a-semester payments.

If you paid any attention to the Minnesota AD scandal — quick recap: AD resigns and claims problem with alcohol. Turns out he was a serial sexual harasser including the college basketball beat writer. It dated back to his time at VCU.

This raised more than a few questions about the “search firm” that did his background check. Parker Executive Search. You may remember Parker from such previous hits as the Rutgers hiring of Julie Hermann as AD and Mike Haywood, head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Needless to say they are a touch defensive.

The reality is, that these search firms don’t get paid for “due diligence” on candidates. They are used as the middlemen to keep all candidates and clients from having to admit there were talks. The schools don’t want it known how many or who turned them down. The candidates don’t want to have it known they were willing to leave. The search firms that exist for college athletics are there for plausible deniability.

Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo. You learned nothing from your dad. You are supposed to have an affair with a co-worker at a school, not a student.