We’re inching closer and closer to a new college football season and we are counting down the mascots that have yet to be profiled on Mascot Monday, using Phil Steele’s Pre-Season Top 40 Rankings for 2010. This week we are looking at #32’s Middle Tennessee State’s Blue Raiders and their mascot, Lightning. He’s kind of this Pegasus looking thing that came from a line of mascots wrapped in some controversy. The other interesting note from this week’s entrant is just how high a Sun Belt Conference team made it in the rankings. We’ll get to that and Lighting rocking the stage so let us strike right through this.
It’s almost July and it’s time to start getting serious about football. For the last couple of months we’ve been going back and forth on conference expansion and raiding. Now that it’s all over (hopefully), we can start getting juiced up for the major competition on the field. The Crib Sheet has its cleats on so you should too. Here we go:
The major sanctions against USC hit former running back and current New Orleans Saint Reggie Bush. Bush was reportedly in on the scandal part but now he vows to help with the appeal for USC to the NCAA. Maybe his Heisman Trophy is in trouble?
It looks like Pac 10 went from the Pac 11, with the addition of Colorado, to the Pac 12 with the addition of Utah. Mormons invade the conference as the Mountain West Conference powerhouse moves in on the big boys. Will the Pac 12 have a title game now? Does it seem weird that both the Big 10 and Pac 10 will have title games and now the Big 12 will not? Meanwhile the Mountain West will stay at 9.
The Big East Commissioner sent 20 roses (10 white and 10 red) with ‘Unity’ written on the card to the Big 12 (10) offices. It seems the Big East and the ACC should be thankful that the Big 12 didn’t blow up and ruined college football.
Andy Staples talked about the BCS and how it’s super solid for now, even though people are still complaining. One side you have the director, Bill Hancock, and on the other you have Texas Rep. Joe Barton and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. Yeah, so Utah goes to the Pac 10 and Hatch still wants to take down the BCS. If Utah ends up undefeated again, will he be so loud?
Mizzou Chancellor Brady Deaton is your new chairman of the Big 12 Board of Directors. This might be part of the maneuvering to keep Mizzou in the Big 12 (10). It also seems kind of flimsy.
Bill Snyder 2.0 weighs in on the expansion movements and laments the fact that a Big 12 (10) may not have a title game. His solution? Two 5 team divisions and a title game. It makes sense for a small school like K-State to go for that but we don’t think this will happen just yet. It could bring in more money, however.
Colorado is in some financial hot water right now and leaving the Big 12 (10) will put them in a deeper hole. Will they ever crawl out of it? First they need to win and second they need to ride out the changes over the next couple of years. With Dan Hawkins as the coach, the Buffalo fans out there might have to wait a good 10 years before that program makes money and wins championships.
Texas saved the Big 12, or what we are going to call it: the Big 12 (10). The Pac 10 wouldn’t let Texas have its own network so the Longhorns opted to stay. When the Big 12 (10) first started years ago, it was because of TV and money. They led the way into the new television era and now they are doing it again. In the future, you will see each school have its own television network and it will start with Texas and the Big 12 (10). Okay, maybe Notre Dame. At any rate, Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M are getting more money to stay now. Apparently, it’s status quo time as no real commitment will be required and they are basing staying together by some magic coalition of insiders and outsiders. It’s a 10 team league with no potential for a championship game and more round robin type play on the field. Most importantly, Kansas City has some life in its sports scene now. So let’s all take a breath and check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
The Oregon Ducks dismissed quarterback Jeremiah Masoli for drug possession and other citations. It looks as though this is no LeGarrette Blount situation. Masoli is out for good for the Quack Attack.
Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins is cleared for any wrongdoing in the blackmail of equipment case. His job is safe for now, but he still needs to clear the hurdle on ticket scandal.
Missouri got the could shoulder big time and the local indie newspaper The Pitch talks about how hard they go the shaft. Poor Tigers. They’ve been talking smack the loudest in all of this and now they’ve been reduced to abandonment. At least they are used to it.
Chip Brown, the guy who broke most of the actual news in this expansion talk, confirmed that last Friday was the day that Nebraska went official and joined the Big 10. It’s still early to tell, but this guy has been the one who has called it so far so we’ll trust him when he says something else is up.
Boise State will now be in the Mountain West Conference. They were tired of dominating the WAC for so long and decided to up the competition by playing TCU and Utah every year. Will this be enough to put the Mountain West on the BCS map? Well, considering the Big 12 (10) is still around, they will have a much harder time getting there.
Here’s the preliminary Big 12 (10) television schedule. Interesting match ups include the UCLA at K-State, Florida State at Oklahoma, and the losers leave game with Colorado and Nebraska taking each other on.
So the Pac 10 lost out on some Big 12 powerhouses and we’ve learned that commissioner Larry Scott flew to Texas and Oklahoma, but was also scheduled to make it to Kansas City. Was Kansas a backup plan? We don’ t have to worry about it for now.
Stanley Ikenberry, interim president for Illinois, says that 12 is a good number for the Big 10. After all that’s happened so far, we think that he means that it’s good but it could get better. Don’t be surprised if the Big 10 starts going on the hunt again, maybe even real soon.
Dan Beebe in his working with keeping the Big 12 (10) alive, knocked his hometown conference’s fan allegiance. He says that they are about as fair weather as Missouri fans when it comes to athletic competitions. Man he pulled out all the punches for this one.
Speaking of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon ran his mouth off again dissing outgoing schools Colorado and Nebraska. This guy pretty much shut out the Tigers from going to the Big 10 and now his state’s school needs to rebuild some bridges burned. That means he needs to get out of this and let the school handle it, please.
The Oklahoma Sooners are interested in a television network, too. You know, instead of conference wide networks, it makes sense to do school specific. It’s the next natural progression and would benefit each school in showing other athletic events and possibly cultural and governmental ones too.
This week we congratulate the Boise State Broncos for making it into the semi-big time and their move to join the Mountain West Conference by featuring their mascot, Buster Bronco. In the last couple of years, the major winning by this minor program is starting to finally pay off. We’ll take a look a the original Bronco and how this guy went from tiny to massive mascot muscle. Change may will be quiet for a while, thanks to some Big 12 (10) maneuvering. Until the next big wind of expansion blows into a tornado, let’s mosey on up to Idaho and check out Buster.
Welp, Armageddon has come. Nebraska is going to the Big 10. After the speculation, the rumors, and the threat of the Big 12 South going to the Pac 10, we have our first major move in the modern era of expansion. The Big 12 meetings last week provided some ultimatums and some wishy-washy talk. Now it looks as though Friday is the day for the official announcement from the Cornhuskers. After that, it seems the Big 12 South, sans Baylor and including Colorado, will be going to the Pac 10. The rest of the teams, well, they are left behind. Kansas City will become a ghost of a sports town. Besides all of this depressing talk, there was other news this week. Here’s the Crib Sheet:
The SEC and its head coaches laughed off any expansion talk during their meetings last week. You know it seems they have been the quietest in all of this. Will they invite anyone else? They’ve won 7 BCS Championships so I guess they won’t have to.
Boise State is left at the altar while the Mountain West sees what the fallout will be from the expansion bonanza. This won’t be cleared up for a while and the Broncos will just have to wait it out.
The current UGA is too young to be on the field and that’s the delima Georgia has going into this year. The sudden death of the last UGA means that the next-in-blood-line gets called up to the majors early. Will they stand the young pup up or will they opt for a veteran replacement?
So the athletic director and coaches meetings for the Big 12 are in Kansas City this week and the Crib Sheet is here to fill you in. We’ll start out this week with the beginnings of the meeting and then wrap up Thursday’s and Friday’s talk next week. Dan Beebe held a press conference to field questions about the first day of talks. The big picture? The league is heading into media negotiations with excitement next year because of the money the ACC got from ESPN. But they need to stay together and Beebe would like to know if they are a soon as possible, even though he knows it won’t happen. Among his case for staying together was that potential for more money, the disruption of balance in the league that could force some regulatory structuring, and that the Big 10 could very well do nothing. Beebe says it’s a young conference and would like to see it grow old together with the members. Will it happen? We’ll find out next year, but in the meantime here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
The Big East wants the NCAA to study whether or not the on field head official should be in charge of overturning instant replay calls instead of the in-booth official. We don’t think this works out to well because even though the head official is in the flow of the game, the in booth official has better looks at close plays.
Dennis Dodd over at CBS Sports reiterates what we have been saying about Rich Rodriquez: he’s on the hot seat big time this season. Dodd puts the odds at 8-4 and a bowl appearance for him to keep his job. Any takers?
The cause behind the Urban Meyer drama last year finally came out. Meyer stated he had esophageal spasms and that he has some meds to take for it. The pain from the spasms made it ultra painful to eat. Hopefully the medication will work and he can continue on in his work.
The latest road block from Texas Tech didn’t work. The judge in the case states that Mike Leach can move forward in his lawsuit against the university for his firing late last year. Notch one win for the pirates. It’s going to be quite the naval battle between these two.
Even though Oklahoma is under some potential violations, the Sooners sent a letter to the NCAA stating that they meet the requirements set by the NCAA for their probation. A probation period that came from recruiting violations and is expiring soon. So they are out of the woods but could be right back in it soon.
Some officials from Kansas are caught up in a ticket scandal that diverted a couple of million in tickets to 3rd parties for personal gain. Most of the 6 officials involved have either left or been fired. Meanwhile, athletic director Lew Perkins stated he didn’t know it was going on. This shouldn’t hurt the athletics department in terms of probation and what not, but Perkins image is damaged and the school has not only money to recoup but the Feds sniffing around for more.
On to football, the Big 12 meetings this week let loose some football schedule nuggets. The Border War will be on Fox Sports Net on November 27th at 11:30 am. The Sunflower Showdown moved from Saturday to Thursday night October 14th on Fox Sports Net at 6:30 pm. Mark your calendars. Also, note that it’s exclusively on Fox. Testing for media numbers for the upcoming negotiations anyone?
Apparently some exercise equipment loaned to Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins has come around to bite him in the form of a blackmail scheme. A former disgruntled employee, Bill Dent, tried to extort money in exchange for keeping quiet about the equipment. Dent also says that Perkins received the equipment in exchange for tickets. We’ll find out what happens here. Perkins says he is a victim, because the company that loaned the equipment went under and didn’t recover the gear.
Meanwhile at the Big 12 meetings this week, Lew Perkins talked about that as well some talk about the expansion speculation. The big takeaway? He says expansion is a super serious threat and that Kansas may or may not have been contacted by the Big 10. Diversion tactic is a go!
It’s another Mascot Monday, but more importantly it’s another Memorial Day here at the KCCGD. Last year we took a look at Army’s mascots, but this year it’s the Navy’s turn. So why is a goat, Bill to be specific, the mascot for the Midshipmen? We’ll find that out as well as look at Bill throughout the years. As an added bonus, we’ll get to Bill fire off weapons and blow up stuff in between. All fun aside, let’s remember the men and women who perished in combat while we take a journey through Bill the Goat’s decorated achievements, both live and plush style.
Okay, we are begging to plug up the hole speculation regarding the Big 10 expansion. Our series covered what we think and we’ve had just about enough talk to last us awhile. It’s time to start focusing on real football and clean up for the mess left behind from the slick speculation. Don’t worry, we’ll leave the camera on while we do it. We’ll also leave it up to the Crib Sheet if you need your fix. Here ya go:
Where Joe Paterno wants the Big 10 Conference to expand, his kid Jay doesn’t. His major point is the erosion of rivalries that kept the league strong for so many years. You’d think the tradition argument would come from the old Paterno and not the young one.
BCS Commissioner Bill Hancock responded to Congress’ questions on the BCS with a 5 page letter basically telling them to back off. Money’s at play here and it looks like Washington wants to step in an regulate some flow their way. Is this really the right way to get to a college football playoff?
Tulsa World columnist Dave Sittler layed the smack down on Missouri athletics last week. The Tigers spend more money than five schools in the Big 12 and only has 8 championships to claim. That’s the lowest in the conference. Does the Big 10 really want to invite a traditional loser?
A bunch of big wigs piled onto both Texas Tech and former head coach Mike Leach for the handling of concussed daddy’s boy Adam James. House Judiciary Committee member Linda Sanchez and NFLPA doctor Thom Mayer both were wondering why the injury was hidden and not available for doctors to treat. Nasty drama aside, the doctor’s should be there to help treat players if they get a concussion.
Remember all of the hub-bub about Michigan getting in trouble over practicing players too much? Well, today the university self-imposed restrictions to head off and NCAA troubles. Essentially they are cutting back practicing hours and shrinking down some of the coaching staff. Will this affect the Wolverines play next year?
Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops weighed on the expansion speculation, telling reporters that the Sooners would be a good fit anywhere. Way to really stand out on the ledge Bobby. Sure the Sooners would be great anywhere, how does that add any more insight into the expansion talk? What we have here is coach talk 101. You say your team is the best no matter the scenario.
Okay, we’ve reached the final showdown for our week-long series on the Big 10 Expansion. Please take a moment to read up on all of the poststhatledus tothispoint. All of the information we dumped the last 7 days will show what we think will end up happening, as well as what we wish to happen. It’s been a bumpy ride, but it’s only going to get bumpier. We know change is coming, and now we will call out our cards and show you what our predictive hand plays, all in for the pot.
It’s a great day for us here at the KCCGD headquarters. Later today we will wrap up out series on the Big 10 Expansion, and we are taking a look at the last real candidate for expansion we have yet to cover in our mascot playground. Not only that, but we are out of Big 12 mascots to feature. So what better way to knock out two birds with one stone, or in this case a fist, with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Leprechaun. Believe it or not, this green fella was not the original mascot way back when. Also, the mascot is one of the more unique type of mascots out there. Smack down some shepherd’s pie and pull back a Guinness, we are about to crazy Irish here.
Okay, we talked about the Big 10 expansion with all of the goodbits on the business side of things, but what about us? What about the fans? How will the average stool jockey be affected if and when the Big 10 decides to expand out beyond its current bounds? From the Trojan sporting LA type to the gator chomping tanned Floridian, the effect could be small. Or it could be big. The closer the proximity to the Big 10, the more the fans will experience change, especially right here in Kansas City. Let’s see what can happen as we narrow the focus down to right here at the KCCGD headquarters.
So who all will fit in the glass slipper that the Big 10 is dangling out in front of the college football landscape? In our series, we talked about how the traditional Big 10 aims to scratch their expansion itch and what could happen to every conference around them when they do. Today we look at the candidates either actively or inactively campaigning to be ones who get the golden ticket of an invite. There are oddball choices as well as solid, sensible choices in this competition. Not all will be covered, but we’ll see the ones that matter. Then after that, the swimsuit competition! On with the show!
We laid the foundation with our last 3 post for the Big 10 expansion. Now let’s talk about how other conferences are reacting. Some of them could be massively depleted whereas others are moving to counteract the possible Big 10 growth. Every major BCS conference has about two cents to toss in and little brother mid major conferences are chirping in as well. It’s time for the conferences to lay down their tiles and see just how much they could change.
So here ware trucking through our Big 10 Expansion, running over our introduction and Big 10 history along the way. Today our focus beams toward why the Big 10 wants to expand. Like we said yesterday, money is a big part but not the whole pie. Other slices include the silver bullet of television, the need to grow, scratching the itch that’s been bothering them the past 20 years, channeling baseball’s New York Yankee style of athletic competition, and the dust collecting on their trophy shelves. Think of money as the crust that keeps the filling in the pie. It’s alot to handle so we’ll try not to drive you crazy with the reasons.
Yesterday we laid the groundwork for the expansion drama that’s girdling up the loins of college football at the moment. Today we are taking a look at how the history of the Big 10 led us to this point. There’s over 100 years of data to go over, but we are blowing through the earliest parts and focus on the last 20 years. Expansion is in the blood of the Big 10 and they’ve acted on it. They tried many times and failed but were able to pull one team in the fold. So let’s ring up the good Doctor and fly away in the TARDIS back to the start of the Big 10.
