Bernie Fine Allegations: Hey, Remember All Of That?

Is it me or once all the major news outlets wrote their End of The Year pieces and affirmed to us what's important and good and right in the world, they completely forgot about the whole Bernie Fine Scandal?

I don't watch ESPN so I don't know if they've been stoking the fire but otherwise i feel like the entire story has gone away. Bobby Davis seems to have taken my advice and stopped talking. And I don't know if this is all good news or bad news.

Anyway, I was roused from my pleasant slumber last night when I saw this from Jason Whitlock:

Whitlock went on to say Allred "agreed to interview earlier today, agreed on the time of the interview an hour ago and then backed out because of the word "chaperone."" He also added "I've made up my mind about the Syracuse case. #shakedown #bogus." Hoping to hear a little more from Jason soon.

Speaking of Davis and his lawsuit, the Daily Orange wrote last week that the whole sordid affair could be a very long, drawn-out process yet.

...the person bringing the lawsuit has the burden of proof, and establishing falsity is not an easy thing to do, Gutterman said. In order to establish that a false statement was published, the plaintiffs have to go to court and prove the defendant said it. In this case, it looks like the accusers are going to have to bring old material into court, he said.

Gutterman said this particular lawsuit might be difficult because of some of the statements made about the accusers.

"There might be a big question to whether any liability can even be attached to these statements that were made at the press conference," he said.

The gist of the article is that things are basically going to come down to two options. Either the case will be dismissed on grounds that there's no evidence of malice or the case proceeded to the discovery stage where SU will likely decide to settle. Otherwise, the results of the 2005 internal investigation will become public, which seems to be the one thing the University is dead set against.

That last part makes me feel uneasy (what does SU have to hide?), but it is what it is at this point. By all accounts, that initial judgement will decide where things end up.

Of course, that doesn't close the book on the federal investigation into Bernie Fine (since this has nothing to do with that anyway). That's a whole other front that's quiet...a little too quiet.