Mississippi State baseball player Brent Brownlee was suspended for one game by Bulldogs head coach John Cohen Monday morning after the outfielder made an obscene gesture on the field immediately following a game yesterday in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

After left fielder Brownlee caught the final out in a 5-3 MSU win over Arkansas Sunday afternoon, he directed a single-finger obscene gesture in the directions of fans as he jogged off the field. Read more…

Thanks to a report today from Stephanie Gosk of NBC Nightly News, we know millions of Libyans continue to stage a rebellion against the country’s tyrannical leader, Moammar Gadhafi.

(Libyan Revolution Inspired By Allah, Johnie Cooks)

And one Mississippi State fan.

Read more…

Today is a sad day for Misssissippi State fans, the state of Misssissippi and the SEC.

(Jack missed one football game in 58 years!)

Last night at the close of the MSU-LSU basketball broadcast, the school’s longtime football and basketball voice Jack Cristil announced he was stepping down after 58 years behind the mic in Starkville.

Here’s the text of Cristil’s remarks: Read more…

Earlier today I broke the news that NCAA investigators were in Louisiana Monday taking a hard look at the football recruiting practices of Auburn University.

(Bond: No NCAA Justice For Auburn To Spring More Media Leaks?)

At the center of that NCAA investigation is Sean Nelson, a so-called “street agent” who may have unduly assisted Auburn football coaches in the recruitment of Trovon Reed and Greg Robinson.

Another possible concern for Auburn on the NCAA investigatory front involves ex-Mississippi State football player and now-notorious college football recruiting go-between Kenny Rogers.

It was Rogers’ now-admitted solicitation of funds from a Mississippi State booster on Cecil Newton’s behalf that led the father of ex-Auburn quarterback Cam Newton to admit to NCAA investigators that he had been a willing participant in a scheme to offer his son’s football services to Mississippi State in exchange for a cash payment.

Today I learned that for that past month representatives of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel have repeatedly asked Rogers for a sitdown interview to further discuss his involvement with Cam Newton’s recruitment. Recently, Rogers agreed, and will be interviewed on March 1 with the visit to air on a yet-to-be determined date.

That date of the Rogers interview on HBO may depend on the cooperation of former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond and ex-MSU player and booster Bill Bell. HBO has also been pressing them for sitdowns the past month, but so far neither has agreed to participate. Read more…

Early Thursday I noted a critical Tweet sent out by Mississippi State guard Ravern Johnson after a 75-61 loss to Alabama on Wednesday.

Johnson wrote on his Twitter account, which has since been deleted:

“Starting to see why people Transfer. You can play the minutes but not getting your talents shown because u watching someone else wit the ball the whole game”

Johnson teammate Renardo Sidney then re-Tweeted his Twitter entry moments later in what could only be construed as an endorsement of Johnson’s Tweet.

Today Mississippi State officially announced Johnson has been suspended for the team’s game Saturday against LSU.

Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury previously announced yesterday that all MSU players were now banned from having a Twitter account.

Today Brandon Marcello of the JACKSON (MS) CLARION-LEDGER provided more background on Johnson and Sidney, including additional Tweets from their accounts Wednesday night that were directed at Bulldog fans: Read more…

Last night a garden variety SEC basketball game played out between Mississippi State and Alabama in Tuscaloosa. (In coasting to a 75-61 win, the Crimson Tide completed a season sweep of the Bulldogs.)

(See update on new story development at bottom of this post)

In past years, the game would ultimately be of no consequence, but thanks to Twitter, we were let in on a team secret after the game that added exponentially to interest in the game.

After the game, Mississippi State senior guard Ravern Johnson offered little more than platitudes to the credentialed media in Tuscaloosa. But later, Johnson later took to his Twitter account to reveal his true feelings about Wednesday’s proceedings.

Johnson tore into coach Rick Stansbury with this Tweet:

“Starting to see why people Transfer, you can play the minutes but not getting your talents shown because u watching someone else wit the ball the whole game shooters need to move not watch why other coaches get that do not make sense to me.”

It gets worse. Read more…

Dr. Bill Kibler, Vice President of Student Affairs at Mississippi State, has released a statement regarding the school’s reaction to MSU cheerleader Taylor Corley posing nude in Playboy.

Kibler:

“If she had identified herself as an MSU Cheerleader or used any of our marks, then the university might have pursued action. However, she was not identified as an MSU student or a cheerleader. The university did not pursue any action when this came to our attention last fall.”

As I reported Monday, Corley remains a current member of the school’s cheerleading squad.

In talking to several sources this morning about the situation, I’ve learned why MSU chose not to remove Corley from the school’s cheerleading squad.
Read more…

Taylor Corley is a freshman at Mississippi State from Atlanta.

She’s also a current cheerleader for the school who recently appeared nude in Playboy magazine.

Corley posed for the magazine under the name Taylor Stone, with her Playboy images first surfacing in November.

So has Corley’s nude modeling affected her status as an official representative of Mississippi State? Read more…

As the NCAA investigation into Mississippi State’s recruitment of Cam Newton lingers on, Saturday school athletic director Scott Stricklin offered an unflattering characterization of the situation to ESPN Gator Bowl sideline reporter Todd Harris.

During the Mississippi State-Michigan football game telecast, Harris said of an earlier conversation he had with Stricklin:

“I also had a chance to talk to him (Stricklin) about the Cam Newton affair, how that all went down. And he told me he feels like Mississippi State is on very solid ground (with the NCAA). “But one very telling comment that he told me, and I don’t know if this would be a homily or what, he said, ‘you know, when  you wrestle with pigs, you’re going to get dirty, but we’re pretty comfortable with where we are at Mississippi State.’”

Hard to take Stricklin’s characterization of the situation as anything but derogatory towards the Newtons. Read more…

Last Saturday Louisiana high school senior football player Floyd Raven verbally committed to Ole Miss.

Neal McCready of RebelSports.net reported of Raven’s recruitment by Ole Miss:

Floyd Raven loved his experience at Ole Miss’ elite camp in June.

Ole Miss loved him back. The Rebels’ staff, wowed by his performance against top wide receivers such as Nick Brassell and Donte Moncrief, not only offered him a scholarship on the spot but also made him a priority.

Raven loved the time at Ole Miss so much, in fact, that he very nearly committed to the Rebels on the spot.

So, what took so long for Raven to commit?

Raven to RebelGrove.com:

“To be honest, with me being a black male, I wanted to see everything for myself. That’s why I was slow to commit. When I got here (Friday), it was the total opposite of what I heard. My girlfriend, mom and everyone totally loved it.”

What did being a “black male” have to do with committing to Ole Miss? Read more…