The firm GoDaddy, a major registrar of website names, faces a likely wave of customer defections Thursday, and it’s all about the politics of that freewheeling information conduit known as the Internet.

The boycott is happening because the company lent support to proposed legislation in Congress called the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA), designed to crack down on copyright infringement.

Full Story: Boycott of GoDaddy over SOPA bill a barometer of Internet politics

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State players broke the rules and got to play in the Sugar Bowl anyway. Jim Tressel knew about infractions and let it all happen.

Now the Buckeyes and new coach Urban Meyer will pay for it next season.

The NCAA hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban and additional penalties Tuesday for violations that started with eight players taking a total of $ 14,000 in cash and tattoos in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia.

Full Story: Ohio State gets one-year bowl ban

CORVALLIS, Ore. — An Oregon State defensive tackle who collapsed during a pick-up basketball game and died was stricken so suddenly that even if emergency personnel had been on the scene, they likely could not have saved him, a state police spokesman said.

Lt. Gregg Hastings says there is no evidence of a crime in the death of freshman Fred Thompson on Wednesday night.

An autopsy will be conducted on Friday to determine the cause of death, but Hastings said it appeared Thompson likely suffered cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that in certain conditions can lead to death.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley said Thursday that Thompson had no history of heart issues. He knew of no family history, either.

“This is just one of those things you never want to be a part of. We will never forget Fred,” said Riley, who was clearly shaken and struggled to hold back tears. “I was so proud of him.”

Thompson was to turn 20 on Sunday. He collapsed while playing at a campus recreation center and was pronounced dead a short time later at Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis.

The 6-foot-4, 317-pound Thompson was from Richmond, Calif., and played at Oakland Tech High School.

Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis said a memorial service was being planned, and that counseling would be made available to students, who were in finals week.

Thompson was part of the 2010 recruiting class but delayed his enrollment until this January. He spent this season recovering from shoulder surgery and was considered a grayshirt.

He was expected to compete for a starting role this season.

“Everybody liked Fred. That’s the best way to say it. Fun, great smile,” Riley said. “I think he’s just one of those guys everybody liked. Like the perfect teammate.”

Some players gathered Wednesday night at Valley Football Center after word spread of Thompson’s death, and the front page of the Beavers’ website paid tribute to the young player. The Oregon State basketball team cancelled its weekly media availability on Thursday.

Oregon State cornerback Jordan Poyer posted on Twitter: “R.I.P Fred Im really gonna miss you bro. My prayers go to you and your family.”

His team biography said Thompson chose Oregon State because of the “family vibe, nice campus and great academics.” It says he was contemplating majoring in business.

At Oakland Tech, Thompson had 90 tackles and seven sacks his senior season. He also had an interception return for a touchdown for the Bulldogs, who went 9-3.

De Carolis also said the Beavers were working to set up a memorial fund.

“I think it’s always a tough situation whenever you lose a loved one, family member, a teammate. In this case, it’s even more tragic when you see a young person’s life end in a moment,” De Carolis said. “The thought here is how fragile a life is.”

CORVALLIS, Ore. — An Oregon State defensive tackle who collapsed during a pick-up basketball game and died was stricken so suddenly that even if emergency personnel had been on the scene, they likely could not have saved him, a state police spokesman said.

Lt. Gregg Hastings says there is no evidence of a crime in the death of freshman Fred Thompson on Wednesday night.

An autopsy will be conducted on Friday to determine the cause of death, but Hastings said it appeared Thompson likely suffered cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that in certain conditions can lead to death.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley said Thursday that Thompson had no history of heart issues. He knew of no family history, either.

“This is just one of those things you never want to be a part of. We will never forget Fred,” said Riley, who was clearly shaken and struggled to hold back tears. “I was so proud of him.”

Thompson was to turn 20 on Sunday. He collapsed while playing at a campus recreation center and was pronounced dead a short time later at Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis.

The 6-foot-4, 317-pound Thompson was from Richmond, Calif., and played at Oakland Tech High School.

Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis said a memorial service was being planned, and that counseling would be made available to students, who were in finals week.

Thompson was part of the 2010 recruiting class but delayed his enrollment until this January. He spent this season recovering from shoulder surgery and was considered a grayshirt.

He was expected to compete for a starting role this season.

“Everybody liked Fred. That’s the best way to say it. Fun, great smile,” Riley said. “I think he’s just one of those guys everybody liked. Like the perfect teammate.”

Some players gathered Wednesday night at Valley Football Center after word spread of Thompson’s death, and the front page of the Beavers’ website paid tribute to the young player. The Oregon State basketball team cancelled its weekly media availability on Thursday.

Oregon State cornerback Jordan Poyer posted on Twitter: “R.I.P Fred Im really gonna miss you bro. My prayers go to you and your family.”

His team biography said Thompson chose Oregon State because of the “family vibe, nice campus and great academics.” It says he was contemplating majoring in business.

At Oakland Tech, Thompson had 90 tackles and seven sacks his senior season. He also had an interception return for a touchdown for the Bulldogs, who went 9-3.

De Carolis also said the Beavers were working to set up a memorial fund.

“I think it’s always a tough situation whenever you lose a loved one, family member, a teammate. In this case, it’s even more tragic when you see a young person’s life end in a moment,” De Carolis said. “The thought here is how fragile a life is.”

Former Florida coach Urban Meyer has taken the head coaching job at Ohio State, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday.

Ohio State will hold a news conference at 5:15 p.m. ET at the Fawcett Center to introduce its new coach. It did not mention Meyer, a native of Ashtabula, Ohio.

Meyer, who led the Gators to two national championships before stepping down to spend more time with his family amid ongoing reports of health concerns, had worked as a game analyst this season for ESPN. But he asked to be taken off his assignments for the network this weekend as reports swirled of his imminent hire by Ohio State, a program with a glittering past that has suffered through a difficult year of NCAA violations, suspensions and a 6-6 record.

Full story: Urban Meyer joins Ohio State Buckeyes as coach after 1-year hiatus, sources say – ESPN

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State trustees fired football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier amid the growing furor over how the school handled sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach.

The massive shakeup Wednesday night came hours after Paterno announced that he planned to retire at the end of his 46th season.

But the outcry following the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges proved too much for the board to ignore.

One key question has been why Paterno and other top school officials didn’t go to police in 2002 after being told a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in a school shower.

Paterno says he should have done more. Spanier has said he was not told the details of the attack.

Sandusky has denied the charges.

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will serve as interim coach while Rodney Erickson will serve as interim school president.

Earlier in the day, Paterno said in a statement he was “absolutely devastated” by the case, in which Sandusky, his onetime heir apparent was charged with molesting eight boys in 15 years, with some of the alleged abuse taking place at the Penn State football complex.

“This is a tragedy,” Paterno said. “It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”

John Surma, the vice chair of the board of trustees said, “these decisions were made after careful deliberations and in the best interests of the university as a whole.”

After a week marked by the departure of four top officials, including its legendary football coach Joe Paterno, Penn State University will have to get back to the mundane task of hosting a football game on Saturday — albeit one that comes complete with death threats and legitimate fears that a student body enraged by Paterno’s dismissal might again riot in the streets.

This will not just be another Saturday in State College, Pennsylvania.

First, let’s talk about the death threats. One of the main players in the sexual assault allegations against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is the team’s receivers coach, Mike McQueary. It was in 2002 that McQueary, then a graduate assistant, saw Sandusky sexually assault a 10-year-old boy in the team’s locker room shower. Instead of acting to protect the child or alerting police, McQueary left the facility. After conferring with his father, he arranged to meet in person with Paterno the next day to inform him directly of what he saw.

Since the allegations against Sandusky were first aired last weekend, McQueary has become the object of ire for many, with multiple voices wondering why he didn’t try to stop Sandusky or at least talk directly to police. Still others are wondering why the school was keeping him on the payroll when it seems as if he might be as guilty as Paterno when it came to looking the other way. Late Thursday night, the school announced that McQueary wouldn’t be at Saturday’s game after receiving multiple death threats.

While the university might be acting to protect McQueary, there’s far less it can do for the more than 100,000 fans who will be inside Beaver Stadium on Saturday, when the Nittany Lions take on the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. Nebraska officials have already expressed concern for the safety of the 20,000 Nebraska fans who will be traveling to Pennsylvania for the game, and have advised those fans to avoid wearing the team color of red inside the stadium.

Such warnings seem only prudent after the way thousands of students took to the streets late on Wednesday night as news of Paterno’s dismissal spread across campus. It didn’t take long for things to take a turn for the worse after a group of rioters overturned a remote truck from an Altoona television station, while others took to pelting police with rocks and bottles.

Add it all up, and there’s little doubt that millions will be watching this game from home when it airs on ESPN at noon on Saturday. Unfortunately, sitting in front of your television may be the only way to watch the game while guaranteeing your own safety.

Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, sportscaster and former NFL star quarterback Joe Theismann called the Penn State University football controversy that resulted in the firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno “tragic” and “deplorable.”

On the Penn State trustees’ decision to fire Paterno, Theismann said, “They made that decision. It’s theirs to live with.”

The Washington Redskins’ former #7 also had advice for students and fans whose protests reached near-riot status after Paterno’s termination was announced.

“Act like adults,” he said. “Be sensitive to those people who need your sensitivity, and respect other human beings the right way, as some people have not.”

Watch:

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“The only way to describe it is tragic — for college sports, for the people involved — meaning the young people that were put in situations and their families. It’s deplorable,” Theismann told TheDC at a Notre Dame Club luncheon Friday before the “Fighting Irish” football team suits up against the University of Maryland.

“It seems to me that the way Penn State is handling their situation is in an appropriate manner.”

He continued, “There comes a time for everyone to move on and not be part of a program and I think it’s important that you appreciate the accomplishments of Joe Paterno and the things that he did as the leader of the football program for so many years. You don’t know what the future holds.”

Videography by Direna Cousins

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