NCAA - Not Cool At All

Hey, it's Andy here, Mark is on the plane for Minnesota, so he wanted me to come on here and clarify some things.

-THERE WAS NO CEASE AND DESIST FROM THE NCAA, NOR WAS THE NCAA INVOLVED IN ANY WAY. This has been reported inaccurately today by The Big Lead (who later changed what they said) and SI's Campus Clicks (who has not changed what they are saying). The bylaw Mark put down is fictitious and was added for humor, not fact. Bylaw 34.4.3? Mark Titus, #34, for 3. A joke. The NCAA? Aside from the title, they were never a part of it. Mark was told to remove the merchandise counter as a PRECAUTION, not as a CEASE AND DESIST in any kind of way.

-Mark is not selling any t-shirts, getting any money from their sales, or anything associated with that. It's very disappointing to see SI's "On Campus" homepage have the blurb "OSU backup busted" in the lead for you to go to the Campus Clicks. It's even more disappointing to see completely untrue reporting passed off as fact like "he's even sold merchandise on the site. Unfortunately, the NCAA got word of his profitable business, and he was slapped with a cease and desist notice. Well, back to bench warming." As I stated, that is simply not true about both the merchandise, as well as the NCAA being involved in any way, shape, or form. The bench warming? Okay, we'll give you that. They even link to the blog where he explicitly explains how he did neither of those!

When Mark gets to Minneapolis, he might come on and edit some of this. Until then, I'm calling on the Trillion Man March to flood SI's Campus Clicks Mailbag, and any other kind of e-mail place on SI's website, and kindly demand that they remove what they said about Mark having any sort of NCAA violation and promptly apologize. Even better would be to find Nicki Jhabvala's e-mail address (she's the one that wrote the Campus Clicks) and send the messages directly to her.

After that, you guys should all check out a quality piece done on Mark today by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Now, back to the real reason you're here...

I'm sure that of the millions of people who read this thing on a daily basis, at least a few of you are in your adolescent years, caught somewhere in between trading Pokemon cards and getting cut from your high school JV team (Just kidding, guys. If you can dream it, you can achieve it!). It's people like you who understand what I am dealing with at this juncture in my life. You are thoroughbreds confined to a stable, born to run wild yet chained down by the tyranny of mom and dad (4 srs tho, y r parents soooo lame?). And I feel your pain. Just like your parents are destroying your social life by making you clean your room before calling that hot girl in math class, the NCAA is putting shackles on my creative mind with their totalitarian rules.

I was informed through our compliance office that I can no longer do the Club Trillion merchandise counter, because I am essentially promoting a business that is (potentially) making profit from my name. Even though I see none of the profits (if there are any), it still violates NCAA bylaw 34.4.3 which states "No walk-on is permitted to ever have a legitimate fan base. Fan bases are to be reserved for those players who are either superstars or have a last name that rhymes with a word that represents a group of people, such as Hoke's Folks or Bass' Masses [citation needed]." Naturally, I am a little bit upset about this decision. However, I have made a living (not really, I just kind of like that phrase) off of finding loopholes, so I'm sure I'll find a way to make something work out. Maybe if I get Dale to send the NCAA a t-shirt they will let it slide, but the chances of that happening are more astronomical than Trace Adkins' electric bill.

The ironic thing (other than the fact I have no idea how to properly use the word "irony") is that I have seriously considered working for the NCAA after graduation. I actually have some connections within the NCAA that I have been bugging about getting an internship. Nonetheless, the organization these people work for have cracked down on my operation and have forced me to become more creative. Sure all they did was make me stop promoting t-shirt sales, but that will eventually lead to them telling me I can't avoid paying taxes anymore and that I can't do business with Cuba. As a marketing major, it's in my blood to promote things, especially if I can please The Trillion Man March in the process. But in this case, it looks like I will be forced to take a step back. I know I vowed to count the Club Trillion merchandise, but as it turns out, that promise I made was in vain, in vain, in vain. I trust you understand what I am up against.
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Bone-Crushing Screens: 1 to date (0 last game)
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Your awesome YouTube video was sent in by Adam R. There's your shout-out Adam. And here's your video:



Here is the same video as a link, for all you iPhone users out there.

Your Friend and My Favorite,

Mark Titus
Club Trillion Founder