Breaking News: Orange Football Part of Wide-Ranging Investigation Into Syracuse Athletics (Updated)

Update (8:15 p.m. ET):

Quick note here, and keep in mind it's only been reported by once source (below). It's possible that nothing may come of this for Syracuse football, per Scout.com:

@JohnCassillo Doesn’t refute necessarily. NCAA did inquire as part of due diligence. Just nothing will come of it

— Mike McAllister (@McAllisterScout) October 24, 2014

Will be on the lookout until we see something else to confirm his extra wrinkle. But we MAY be out of the woods...

Original Story:

Hey, so remember that thing where Syracuse basketball is going to have a hearing with the NCAA about potential violations (some due to Fab Melo, it's assumed). So now it looks like the football team could also be involved. "yays!"

Sources have told syracuse.com that the Orange football program is part of the NCAA's pretty large investigation into the school's athletic program. This is not good, obviously, and comes at a pretty inopportune time what with the football season in full swing and basketball about to start. As we're all aware, the ongoing soap opera around the basketball team seems to be perpetual as ever. But if that extends to the rest of the athletic program and starts sweeping up all of the recent success we've seen for all sports (from hoops on down to cross country and more), well... this could be very, VERY bad.

According to the syracuse.com piece, there's no set time on the investigation right now, and former head coach Doug Marrone claims to know nothing about it. Scott Shafer hasn't provided any response just yet either, so before you run and blame George McDonald for anything (oh believe me, I was RUNNING to that conclusion myself at first glance), we really don't know much here and it's conceivable that any coach's tenure could be under scrutiny in some way, shape or form right now.

There is this little tidbit which should provide a good laugh in these trying times:

Greg Robinson, who coached the Orange from 2005-2008, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

And then this, which mixes comedy and worry:

It is not known if Shafer or Robinson has been invited to the NCAA hearing.

... If this program sees a SINGLE penalty because of something that happened under GERG, SO HELP ME....

***

So yeah. Hope you liked that Thursday of yours, and your Friday, for that matter. Because this is all sorts of not good. It also begs the question of "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" Could be a whole lot of something. Or a whole lot of nothing, too. But what I will say is that if we were cheating in football in any capacity... we've obviously been doing it the wrong way for the past decade, no? I mean, there's just no conceivable way you can CHEAT your way to a 45-72 record in nearly 10 years, right? RIGHT?!

Ugh...

We'll have more on this if and when anything develops. But for now, let the hand-wringing, bitching and moaning commence. And please, PLEASE don't take this out on one another in the comments. That's not what we need right now.