Tim Beckman vs Bill O'Brien

There are no ground rules here other than the ones made up by the Illini's first-year head coach and his peers who have shown up in State College locked and loaded. They were ready to grab them some Nittany Lions when the NCAA announced those players could transfer without restriction. Beckman said two Penn State players even called him before Monday's announcement of the NCAA penalties.

"There were certain individuals that reached out to us," Beckman said. "It wasn't that we were calling them blind."

Some might call it poaching, unethical, picking over the remains. The NCAA calls it legal and that's really all that matters. When the association burned Penn State to the ground on Monday, it did the right thing by releasing those players. But it didn't provide a handbook of best practices. The result: A program that has barely begun healing, now knows a new level of aggravation.

Dennis Dodd