5-at-10: Wednesday watch list, more Rice, Braves and Rushmore of sports scandals

From the "Talks too much" studios, seeing is believing. Let's see. And believe.

College football Wednesday watch

Here are five items we are interested in across all of college football:

- As TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer notes here, the Mocs need a win. Desperately. That should not be an issue this week against an Austin Peay team that is overmatched. But a loss would crippling.

photo Football tile

- Interesting story line from The Citadel where offensive lineman Victor Hill has been suspended for saying he purposefully went at the knees of FSU players. Hill has been suspended for "inappropriate comments he made on social media" according to The Citadel. Uh, how about suspending him for going after opponents' knees. (Side note: Three FSU defensive linemen left the game with leg injuries.)

- Tennessee's a three-touchdown underdog going to Oklahoma. We are leaning toward laying the points, not because the Sooners are supremely more talented than the Vols (they are more talented and way more experienced). No, we're leaning toward taking the Sooners because Bob Stoops hates the SEC and would love nothing more than dropping a 49-14 win on any SEC foe.

- There is only one game matching top-25 foes - Georgia at South Carolina. We are trying to see a way the Gamecocks keep within two touchdowns of the Bulldogs, and maybe as SEC ace David Paschall tells us here points have been scarce for the Bulldogs in Columbia. Still... head-scratcher.

- Couple of interesting matchups this weekend to keep an eye on: 1) Texas hosts UCLA - each team has issues and it's puzzling how far Texas has fallen (they got pantsed by BYU last week); 2) Notre Dame will hammer Purdue and we need to ask if the Irish are potential playoff contenders; 3) Alabama will pound Southern Miss, and it got us thinking about how quickly some programs have completely fallen off the face of competitive. Southern Miss, South Florida, Houston and it seems like a couple of others have just dropped significantly.

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More Rice digestion

OK, someone needs to tell Floyd Mayweather and his multiple domestic violence charges - and his two-month jail stint after pleading guilty to it - to shot that hole under his nose.

Mayweather said the NFL overreacted and the league should have stuck to its original two-game suspension of Ray Rice even after the video of the former Ravens running back decking his then-fiancee and now wife Janay Rice.

photo In this May 1, 2014, file photo, Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice holds hands with his wife, Janay Palmer, as they arrive at Atlantic County Criminal Courthouse in Mays Landing, N.J.

Mayweather of course then used some of the more humanitarian names involved with this social problem that is more widespread than we care to admit. Mayweather name-dropped Chris Brown and Ochocinco among others and of course used the Godfather of this category in O.J. Simpson.

Hey Floyd, why don;t you stop talking for a while, Champ.

At the other end of the spectrum, leave it to the Ol' Ball Coach to capture the moment. Steve Spurrier said if you hit a girl, you're off the team.

Amen. Is it really that hard?

We are at a strange place where the crime of the moment becomes the biggest thing in the world until the next crime of the moment. Sadly, the interweb morality mob that builds up a river of steam on the topic du jour forces too many knee-jerk reactions in situations where serious decisions and consequences should be discussed and delivered.

Sadly, Ray Rice's biggest mistake in the court of public opinion and in the eyes of the NFL was that his crime was caught on tape.

It's going to take way more effort and work than terminating a running back's contract to make a serious dent in the societal tragedy that is violence against women.

But we need to start somewhere, and if the NFL can take a meaningful and purposeful stand against this, well, that's a start.

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Braves

Atlanta has 17 games to play. It's a long season and we have trusted it.

But it's acorn cutting time and the Braves are running out of swings.

photo Washington Nationals' Adam LaRoche, left, celebrates after scoring during the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Washington.

Atlanta lost 6-4 Tuesday to the Nationals to fall nine games back of Washington in the NL East. Since the 17-7 start, the Braves are 57-64 which screams blah-tastic.

So as the games fade with the temperatures and the evening sun, the Braves must focus on the wildcard race to extend the 2014 season.

Here are the wildcard standings in the NL:

San Fran (79-65)

Pittsburgh (75-69)

Atlanta (74-71) - 1.5 games back of Pittsburgh

Milwaukee (74-71) - 1.5 games back of Pittsburgh

Miami (71-72) - 3.5 games back of Pittsburgh

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This and that

- Downtown Patrick Brown will have a live chat here on timesfreepress.com Thursday to discuss the Vols trip to Oklahoma. Swing by. Dude shares knowledge, and as we learned at the beginning of Animal House, "Knowledge is good."

- Chauncey Billups is retiring. One, dude had a money nickname - Mr. Big Shot. Two, is Chauncey a Hall of Famer? We think no but his resume is better than you remember. (Until Spy reminds everyone of his time in Boston. Dennis Johnson is not walking through that door.)

- Last week we were looking for our female comedy Rushmore. Here's a pretty strong sign of support for the current version as Bill Murray suggests four actresses that would be his choice for an all-female set of Ghostbusters.

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Today's question(s)

We have two for you, and they are Rushmores on the opposite end of the sports spectrum.

First, Arnold Palmer is 85 today. War Arnie. What's our Rushmore of the most popular athletes of all-time? We think Arnie contends.

Second, with all the Rice hoopla, we are curious for your suggestions about the biggest sports scandal involving an active sports star (that means no OJ)?

Go and remember the mailbag.

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