Jackson Free Press

The City Council in Columbus passed an ordinance this week banning sagging pants, the Clarion-Ledger reported.

This morning the NCAA came down hard on Penn State in an unprecedented action not involving infractions of NCAA rules. Penn State was hit with a four year bowl ban, $60 million fine and a reduction of 10 initial scholarships and 20 scholarships for the next four years. Also 111 wins vacated from 1998 to 2011, basically symbolically ending Joe Paterno's legacy.

While the NCAA didn't give Penn State the death penalty, it did cripple the program for the next 10 to 20 year if not more. Players still eligible can transfer to other schools and play immediately.

The feeding frenzy of coaches trying to lure Penn State players away might show football programs are not even thinking twice about happened to the Nittany Lions today. I doubt that the punishment of Penn State will curb the spending and power of college football.

Even though NCAA president Mark Emmert says the Penn State punishment doesn't open Pandora's Box in college sports. It does raise a serious question of why not.

The NCAA did nothing in 2003 when Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson murdered teammate Patrick Dennehy. Former Baylor head coach Dave Bliss even conspired to cover up the true facts of Dennehy’s murder. Baylor was punished for NCAA violations but in there was no punishment that was included for the murder of Dennehy. Baylor basketball has bounced back to play in the post season in basketball four times since the NCAA levied penalties on the Bears in 2005.

Should the NCAA go back and punish Baylor (retroactively punishing school is something the NCAA does all the time)?

What about the death of Virginia women’s lacrosse Yeardley Love? In 2010, Love was murdered by her former boyfriend and men’s lacrosse player George Huguely.

Love’s mother, Sharon Love, is suing the state and coaches ignored Huguely's erratic behavior, including two alcohol-related arrests, frequent intoxication and attacks on another female student, a teammate and a Virginia tennis player.

Sharon Love claims the university, head coach Dom Starsia, assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale, and athletic director Craig Littlepage didn’t discipline Huguely for his behavior or get him treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse.

If the claims are true, should Virginia be punished for not protecting Love from Huguely and because of their lack of concern she ended up dead?

In an ongoing investigation, several Montana football players along with another man are accused of gang raping a fellow student. In the Montana case, head coach Robin Pflugrad disciplined several players but didn’t report the incidents to his superiors.

Montana university president Royce Engstrom said in a statement "The University of Montana has determined not to renew the contracts of Athletics Director Jim O'Day and head football coach Robin Pflugrad." Then Engstron thanked both O’Day and Pflugrad for their service as he let them go.

The Department of Justice is investigating the university and campus police, along with the …

The first month of the NFL season is in the books and it has been a strange four weeks so far. At the quarter turn mark several of last year's playoff teams have started slowly or darn right awful. It is widely know that each year, nearly half the playoff teams from the year before fail to make the playoffs. Here is a quick look at last year's playoff teams.

For our Question o' the Week this week, we asked a simple question in social media. We got an amazing line-up of answers in 24 hours. Please feel free to log in and post your answers below as well.

Lindsey Lee My kids. So cheesy, but true...

Jason Stanfield Great music.

Stephanie Fondren Bracey My beautiful 8-year-old daughter who has the happiest most innocent spirit and a heart of gold!

Iam ScrapDirty Perfection.

Charles Walter Jett Other people's artwork. Makes me step up my game when I see really good work.

H Charles Johnson Failure.

Marc Rolph H Charles Johnson.

Narada Thijs Snyder Not being told to hurry.

John Agwazim The way ants live.

Shuntina Johnson Sunsets, right before the rain.

Nicki Findley Nichols The feeling of freedom, whether its being silly with my 4-year-old or country road riding with the windows down and the music cranked.

Jarrod Parker Conquistadors.

Jessica Erin Eubanks The positive energy of others expressing themselves!

Terena Watkins Bell Being able to be an awesome single mom to my girls & showing them how to be strong, independent Christians.

Micah Smith Posters with animals that say motivational statements. Thank you, tiny cocker spaniel. I will "go for it."

Lisa Parenteau My mother. The strongest person I know.

Yasmeen Banu Sincere kindness.

Pam Greer What inspires me? I'm inspired each day that I am allowed to wake up in good health and right mind by God to tackle life. Most people do not live to see another day; however, I did today.

Gregory Smith Frank Zappa.

Tony Davenport People who celebrate unity.

Brandon Ainsworth Life, and the endless possibilities that it has to offer. So much to do, so little time.

Brittany Hammons Simmons Nature's beauty! I breathe it in and it is so serene.

Tom Head Finding human dignity in unexpected places.

Laurel Isbister Irby People who rescue animals and help them live new lives.

Andrew Forbes ·The cancer patients I work with at Batson Children's hospital.

Jarrod Parker · Curious people.

Jill Conner Browne People doing good for goodness' sake—for people (and/or animals!) who can't "repay" the kindness.

Kass Welchlin When my elders live a life full of conviction, follow their dreams and not give up on life.

Nola Kay Pearson Gibson All of the above and lifelong learning.

Karole Sessums The Courage of Others.

Melissa Kelly Deadlines.

Ginger Williams-Cook Teachers.

Sabir Abdul-Haqq Dedication

Olga Lynette Henderson Hanson Seeing, listening, existing--all inspire me to continue trying, caring, doing.

Edward Peter Cole II To witness ... random acts of kindness!

Jehrod Alain What inspires me is the spiritual, that which is beyond our physical limitations. My dreams inspire me. Love inspires me.

Rachel Jarman Myers The Sonic Boom!

Don Allan Mitchell Mississippi.

Jan Michaels · My almost 83-year-old father who still runs his own business and is caretaker of his wife …

If [the state flag][1] is going to change, lawmakers from either the Senate or House Rules committee will have to pass a bill through in the next 24 hours.

The Human Rights Campaign this evening announced in a release that the Mississippi Manufacturers Association—a frequent contributor to conservative candidates and supporter of "pro-business" legislation in Mississippi—is calling on Governor Phil Bryant to veto HB 1523, which has passed both houses and awaits the Governor's response.

Before the Super Regionals begin in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament, let’s take a look back at the regionals played last weekend. Those were played out to trim the field down from 64 teams to the current 16 teams.

When the field was announced, the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference received a just over a quarter of the bids in this year’s tournament. Combined, both conferences placed 17 teams in the regionals.

Know this, it should come as no surprise that these two conferences placed just over half the field in the Super Regionals. Nine teams from the ACC and SEC reached the second round of the tournament.

The ACC placed 10 teams into the field. Four of those reached the Super Regionals and seven of the 10 reached regional finals. At the end of the first weekend the ACC had a 21-12 record.

Every ACC team, but Duke University, in the tournament won at least one game at the regional stage. All four teams, University of Louisville, Florida State University, Boston College and the University of Miami (Fla.), that advanced from the conference went undefeated in regional play.

Duke went 0-2 in regional play, joined by Wake Forest University (1-2) and the University of Virginia (1-2) with losing records in regional play. North Carolina State (3-2), Clemson University (2-2), and Georgia Institute of Technology (2-2) finished at or above .500 in the opening round.

The ACC was considered by many to be the best baseball conference in the nation. Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Boston College all finished with losing records. All were bounced in regional play except for BC who won its regional after the host team (more on this later) flamed out.

NC State and Clemson finished just two games above .500 in conference play. Excluding BC, the other three teams that reached a Super Regional were three of the top four teams in the conference, with Virginia, which went 19-10 in the ACC missing the regional. Louisville (22-8), FSU (16-10) and Miami (21-7) were no brainers for getting into the tournament.

Clemson was the No. 7 national seed and was the only national seed not to advance to a Super Regional. At best, only three ACC teams reach the 2016 College World Series, since BC and Miami must face each other.

Does this mean the ACC was overrated? Perhaps slightly, but Virginia, NC State and Clemson all reached the regional final before bowing out of the tournament. The Wolfpack of NC State even forced a deciding game in their regional.

The SEC placed seven teams into regionals and went 16-6 in the opening round. Five of the seven went on to reach a Super Regional. Both SEC teams that failed to advance in the tournament lost their first two games, getting eliminated.

The University of Mississippi and Vanderbilt University both went 0-2 on their way out. It is kind of understandable that Vanderbilt …