This Ball drops a little early

College athletes being suspended for lackluster academics is nothing new. After all, going to class and studying is about as enjoyable as the eleventh straight viewing of A Christmas Story. Couple that displeasure with a hectic, high-pressured itinerary, and frankly, I can’t blame some of those who suffer an academic hiccup. I had a few, and what was my excuse? “I didn’t go to class because it looked really cold outside.” Or, “I would’ve done my homework, but I didn’t bring my calculator to the bar.” That being said, I was shocked, amazed, amused to learn that Georgia Tech QB Reggie Ball was ruled academically ineligible for the Jacket’s showdown with West Virginia in the Gator Bowl. What’s more, Ball is a Senior. It’s one thing for a wide-eyed, undisciplined freshman to put-off his BIO 101 until it has accumulated into a pile of ‘F’, but a Senior? How do you manage to make it through three years with your head above the water only to slide down the wrong side of the Bell-curve weeks before the last game of your career? Ball, (formerly) a management major, is a four year starter for the ‘Wreck, in which he’s been caked in a Grossman-like glaze of unpredictability. He’d win you a game with his athleticism, then go out and blow two contests with erratic passes and questionable decision making. Well, that same questionable decision making appears to have an answer now…Ball is either Gump-dumb, severely unmotivated, caught up in something vile, or an unfortunate combination of all three. I guess management, and the subsequent process of managing things, is not Reggie’s forte. We’ll see if he manages to show up to the bowl game in time to hold the clipboard.