Welp I’m finally settled down here as the KCCGD Express is powered down and unpacked. You know, people were saying that the heat is bad down here but I don’t mind it so much. It’s not July yet, but mid 90s in late April/early May is a new thing for me. And I love it. People were meant to wear less clothes. Now on to this week’s Crib Sheet:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: Deep in the Heat of Texas →
I’m sure you’ve seen my previous post about the major move down to Austin yesterday. Yeah I’m still pretty shocked myself and I’m the one that knew about it for over month. Never fear, we’ll still chug along and it continues today with this week’s Crib Sheep:
- Missouri players get together and bond by paintballing. I’ve never done it myself but I imagine pelting someone square in the chest with a faux bullet brings some sort of joy.
- Even though there’s a contest at quarterback this spring for Kansas State, Collin Klein shoulders all of the expectations going into next season. Meanwhile, Bill Snyder 2.0 is trying to use that competition to blow the steam off of former #1 recruit Bryce Brown.
- They already are bucking tradition by introducing a championship game, so it makes sense that Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany is trying to push for later start times on games. Everyone knows the Big 10 starts mega early, with the Big 12, so why go and change it? I want to maximize my football watching day.
- Speaking of the Big 10, Nebraska lost its AAU membership. Ho man that just made my week. One of the strong points for Nebraska to move was its AAU membership. Now both the Cornhuskers and the Big 10 look dumb.
- Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tubberville offered his viewpoint on the whole ‘birthers’ debate. It’s few and far between when football comments on politics. I’d rather have that then the other way around.
- The BCS set the dates for the bowl games next year, but they have to wait until the NFL cleans up its mess before they can lock it down. I’m not sure how long they will wait, as the NFL can bump a month and still have a full season.
- It looks like being a part of the big boys for Boise State means having a couple of NCAA violations attached to their program. Its secondary so they won’t suffer too much. Welcome to big time, guys.
- The Pac 12 will get a mega buck deal from Fox and ESPN, much like the Big 12. Except it’s the biggest deal in history. Too bad they have 2 more teams to split up the costs with.
- The tornadoes last week missed me while I was driving down and it missed Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide’s long snapper Carson Tinker was injured, however. Auburn is even reaching out to help the area recover from the nasty storms. Just goes to show that heated rivals will always team up against mother nature.
- No more new bowls for the next three years. The NCAA will review the licensing process in that time to determine if enough is enough. Three years is plenty time for the FBS to expand so that the bowls can expand without leaving the chance of a school with a losing record in on the fun.
- ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is taking some time out from Twitter because his Ohio State homies are bashing him for being fair. The Internet is a cruel place, Kirk. A cruel, cruel place.
It’s warmed over, too. This week’s Crib Sheet celebrates Easter by dropping news eggs all over the place. Grab your basket and find them buried in the grass of the Crib Sheet. Don’t get your fingers messy:
- It looks like Texas new defensive coordinator’s had a weird upbringing in coaching terms. He’s been at ESPN first, then a video guy at Florida State, and then on to coaching positions. It also looks like he takes inspiration from other sports, too. Will this shake things up enough for the Longhorns and turn the defense around? We’ll find out.
- The Big 12 Conference announced a mega-deal with Fox for broadcasting rights. Dan Beebe was right. They reportedly negotiated a $90 million a year deal through the next 13 years. The big plus? Every home game will be on some form of television starting in 2012. Well that and each school has a the chance to kick up their own network.
- The officer who shot and killed the Pace University football player, Denroy Henry Jr., received the Officer of the Year Award from the police union where he works. Their reasoning is that the officer showed bravery through that time and all of his time working for the department. This angered alot of folks. It depends on who you believe on what happened. I just don’t like that it’s a union that gets to dole out the award.
- Not to be outdone by fellow conference fashionistas Oregon, Arizona State unveiled their new uniforms for the year. They will be changing colors left and right. On top of that, their helmets are new, with big giant pointy tridents. The Ducks did this and they won but they also hired the right coach. That’s the kind of makeover the Sun Devils could really use.
- In another case of me-too’s, Auburn will build statues for their Heisman Trophy winners, like what Florida did. The only difference is that there’s a darker cloud hanging over Cam Newtan than there is hanging over Tim Tebow. I wonder if they’ll add that to the design. Oh, and Nick Saban had his own statue erected, too.
- There will be even more Blubaughs in prison as Tom’s wife, Charlette, will get 57 months in prison for her role in the Kansas ticket scandal. I didn’t know women’s prisons had Blubaughs too. Maybe they should make a movie about it.
- Dennis Dodd of CBS has an interesting article on 7-on-7 leagues in high school. It seems they are the AAUs of football. Jay Paterno is correct about how coaches can’t tell if a kid can take a hit. I hope something gets down soon about these because I don’t want football to turn into a ballet. We could use a couple of big hits in a game.
- Now that the Fiesta Bowl is in trouble, they are scrambling to get money back from lawmakers who took the kickbacks from them. If it’s anything related to government, then it will take a long time before the Fiesta Bowl sees a dime.
- A couple of rule changes are coming down the pike for next year. The NCAA approved more stringent below the waist penalties and gave the option for teams to run 10 seconds off the clock on penalties within the final minute of the half. Nothing earth shattering but an improvement indeed.
- Notre Dame released the investigation report relating to Declan Sullivan’s death earlier this year. They found the no single person was responsible but there was a lax in safety. Apparently the weather data was out of date. This does seem kind of fishy, I hope the school pays tons of money to parents of Sullivan to avoid a lawsuit.
- There was a tussle online about the Boise State’s AD, Gene Bleymaier, and his fiery words about the BCS. That’s just talk. What’s more important to me is that the school trademarked the blue turf and will protect the likeness of the field in FBS terms, while allowing it to happen to divisions below. Since when is a blue field trademarkable? That seems a little too much to me. At least one coach in the Mountain West Conference, sees it as an unfair competitive advantage as well. San Diego State’s Rocky Long hates it and I suggest the Aztecs change their field to candy striped or fractal like patterns.
- So while the NCAA is busy messing up student athletes and their lack of scholarship funding, they find time to make some even dumber team name penalties. North Dakota passed a state law to keep the Fighting Sioux nickname but it will not stop the NCAA from administrating penalties because of their perception of the name. The NCAA considers it offensive and will take money away from the school. The deeper issue is that two tribes in the area are split over the decision. Why is the NCAA trying to influence an issue that clearly doesn’t involve them? Let the tribes and the state figure it out and get out of the way.
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!
Continue reading Magnifying the Expansion Part 5: And the Winner Is… →
College Sports, Kansas City style
