Official Fran Vendetta: Day 8

I decided to write my main man, Bill Byrne, another letter today. Why? Because of this.

Cliff's notes for that link: Fran has just stopped sending out a newsletter to certain highly-placed boosters willing to pony up $1,200 a year for information.

What information, you ask? Why, injury reports (Fran always says that he doesn't discuss injuries unless they're season-ending) and frank evaluations of his players. For instance, the writer of his letter (the same athletic department employee who ghostwrites Bill Byrne's Wednesday Weeklies, actually) put in one edition: "Privately, Coach told me last night that Earvin (Taylor) and Pierre (Brown) are very steady but with average speed," McKenzie wrote. "Kerry (Franks) has great speed, but (is) inconsistent in receiving."

Now, this is true. It is in fact what I say about Kerry Franks, except I use the word "butterfingers." But this brings us to Problem 1: how is this going to affect locker room dynamics? How are the players going to like it that their coach has been, well, talking about them behind their backs? For cash?

That brings us to Problem 2--the greater of the problems, and the one I discussed in my letter to Bill Byrne--where is this money going? According to the story, it's funding CoachFran.com (link not provided out of spite), which is admittedly not the world's most nefarious purpose. But the point is that Fran is selling information about Aggie student-athletes (the term I suck-uppily used in my letter) and profiting from it. How is the information his to sell?

I don't know how big this story is going to turn out to be. I don't know whether Fran has violated any actual rules, or how angry anybody that matters (e.g. University bigwigs, Stevie McGee) is about this. However, I do know what I told my friend Bill: "I've never been a Fran fan. But even if he were Bob Stoops or Urban Meyer, I would raise at least one eyebrow about this."

What do you guys think?