Baseball’s right around the corner and I figured the news would be super quiet for college football. Boy was I wrong. There’s tasty chunks of news going around all over the place. I’m done salivating you taste buds, time to feast on this week’s Crib Sheet:
Tag Archives: Big 12
Crib Sheet: Double Your Pleasure Double Your Fun
Whoops! I guess I missed a Crib Sheet last week. . You know, I was in the midst of SXSW and was about to endure the worst Montezuma’s Revenge on this planet. I’m all caught up now and will deliver on this week’s Crib Sheet. That’s right, it’s a double sized version of the Crib Sheet. Whip out the bib we are about to get messy:
- Stanford’s getting rid of their ‘easy’ classes for student athletes. Um, since when is any class at Stanford easy? Oh wait, I guess ‘Beginning Improvisation’ or ‘Social Dances of North America III’ can be classified as easy. Hey, Stanford’s rep is that they are in the upper echelon of scholastics so they need to make sure that everyone falls in line with it.
- Oklahoma made about $10,000 in the Fiesta Bowl due to a policy in the Big 12 that states that the conference absorbs unsold tickets for the bowl game. Man, too bad UConn and the Big East didn’t have that one, the Huskies ended up losing out big time for the game.
- On that same trip, let’s see what the Big 12’s finances were for the school last year. Obviously Texas made and spent the most dough. I think it’s interesting that Kansas State spent the least amount of money in the conference and still made a bowl game. Facts to chew on.
- So while I was out, a rumor popped up that Fox was in the running for a new television deal with the Big 12. Numbers are flying all over the place but the important point is that there is demand. Predicted demand. I can fall asleep a little better tonight knowing that the smoke here will fire up the flame to keep the Big 12 warm for a long time.
- So a lawyer, and former Ohio State player, tried to warn Jim Tressel about violations and it got Tressel in big trouble. So Jim Tressel violated NCAA rules and apologized to all about his err of ways. Being the great guy that he is, Tressel then decided that his two game suspension was not enough and took the same 5 game suspension that the players who broke the rules got. The only thing I see coming down from this is that the Big 10 next year is wide open. Maybe the streak for Big 10 titles for Ohio State will end next year?
- I don’t like talking NFL as much, but former Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert is tearing it up. Not only was he sharp on the ball, he was also sharp in the Wonderlic. Having taken the Wonderlic myself recently, I can say that it’s very impressive to score as high as he did. Gabbert just may be the real deal.
- In no surprise to everyone, Indiana regulators fined Notre Dame for six violations that led to the death of a 20 year old student. Hopefully everyone can take a look at this and try harder to make sure all personnel involved in college football are safe.
- Kirk Herbstreit moved out of Ohio because the locals don’t get that being an analyst means that you should be objective. I guess the fans there complain about fairness and give away freebies to the local players. Great state that Ohio is.
- A frosh lawmaker backed away from hinting that a recent bill introduced in the Texas legislature to allow former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach to sue the state was money driven. Money as in money toward the guy that introduced it. Did I mention how much I love Texas?
- Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops talks about his Twitter policy. I’m glad they didn’t ban it altogether but it is a little creepy that school officials are monitoring the accounts. But hey, everyone is monitoring everyone’s Twitter accounts, right?
Crib Sheet: The Road to Austin Bekons
It’s a tasty Crib Sheet this week as I’m packed up and ready to head to Austin for SXSW. I might stop by Daryl K Royal Stadium and give homage to the team that Kansas State has owned the last couple of years. That is if I can make it there between the haze of tech and music. The next Crib Sheet might be heavily abbrieviated. Just sayin. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Crib Sheet: Signing Hype Day
It’s national signing day! Okay, so it’s not that exciting, but we have some Big 12 updates flying in and I don’t want to take away from the exciting coverage. Usually half the kids that are worth something don’t pan out anyway. It’s a good thing that ESPN covers this overhyped event in the only way that ESPN can over hype. Now on to the Crib Sheet:
- Another person involved in the Kansas ticket scandal, Charlette Blubaugh, plead guilty in court. Her husband will soon plead guilty as well. It looks like legal system works in the case of these folks.
- The Iowa Board of Regents ordered into an investigation as to why 13 Iowa football players were hospitalized after offseason workouts. The news just keeps getting worse up there. Take an investigation on perhaps illegal medical record access? It’s not the first time school athletes had this issue, either.
- Nebraska ended it’s apparel deal with quarterback Taylor Martinez’s dad, Casey. It was all on the part of Casey, too. Hey when your son is the starting quarterback for a school you just so happen to have a licensing deal with, things tend to look too fishy.
- Bill Snyder 2.0’s son, Sean, will coach the special teams as Associate Head Coach for the Kansas State Wildcats. Nepotism? Well, he was an All-American punter for the ‘Cats and was a staff member on the team for a very long time. How long? 17 years. He’s worth it.
- ESPN’s Erin Andrews is kind of a freak of media exposure. By exposure I mean the nude video taped in the hotel room that begat her appearance on Dancing With the Stars. Now, she’s taking that controversy and lackluster sideline reporting to Reebok. Some journalists are complaining that this throws the ethics out the winder but I’m afraid they forgot that Andrews is more of a pretty face than an actual sports reporter.
- Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder looked great in the Senior Bowl as he led the South over the North in a 24-10 victory. Texas A&M’s linebacker Von Miller had the defensive tops as well.
- USA Today talks about the trend of colleges oversigning players. Schools will dole out scholarships only to revoke them later for someone else or make kids ‘greyshirt’, which means have them enroll in January instead of the fall. Florida president J. Bernard Machen agrees that greyhirting blows. They talk about how the kids are the victim of this. It looks like one more reason to pay the kids that play big time ball to me.
- A bunch of Missouri players sold tickets to former footballs players in 2009. So the current players got a cut of the kickback for them. That’s a secondary violation for the NCAA. Yet another why the NCAA is useless.
Crib Sheet: We’re Committed
The coaching carousel is almost at a stop and now we are getting closer to signing day. Who will go where? I don’t know. But one thing I do know is the Crib Sheet will keep you updated with all of the latest commitments and decommitments:
- With TCU heading to the Big East, it seems that are also heading to the big time in recruiting. Local star, Brandon Carter changed his commitment from the venerable Oklahoma Sooners over to the Horned Frogs. Maybe the Texas kids are thinking they can shine better in the Big East than the tougher Big 12?
- Jim Leavitt is going to the big time. Not Kansas State Defensive Coordinator, but San Fransisco 49ers linebackers coach. It stinks for Wildcats fans as they were hoping Leavitt would come in and fix the defense. Maybe Bill Snyder 2.0 has something else up this sleeve? Meanwhile, defensive backs coach Keith Burns is taking his show back to Ole Miss.
- ESPN and the Texas Longhorns reached a 20 year, $300 million deal for a Longhorns Network. The school will be up for a tasty profit while the broadcast network will food the technical bills. Is this the end of the Big 12? Check back here in about 2 years.
- Texas Tech dropped TCU from their schedule last year and they are doing it for the upcoming season. It seems they need some room for the tougher Big 12 schedule.
- Speaking of the Red Raiders, a Texas judges tossed out a portion of Mike Leach’s suit against the university, only allowing non-monetary claims for the firing of Leach over Adam James’ concussion. If you’re wondering why Leach has yet to be yired, look no further than here.
- It seems Kansas is picking up the trail on the recruiting side of things. Turner Gill’s stealing recruits from neighboring states. I’m guessing his pitch is like this, “I’m a Nebraska guy that’s still in the Big 12. Kansas will be the new Nebraska of the Big 12.” That can seal some kids right there.
- Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops coached the Harlem Globetrotters Sunday. I wonder if he got to toss the bucket of confetti on the ref during the game?
- Fired sportscaster Ron Franklin is suing ESPN over the incident where he called a woman, “Sweetheart” in a production meeting. She objected and he called her an a-hole. I don’t know what to think about this. In the workplace, you can’t trust anyone when you say something because they may be out to get you canned, especially if it’s gender-related. I would say it’s safer to just be quiet and act professional. That said, “sweetheart” and “a-hole” is a pretty weak case to get fired over.
- Here’s your BCS payout sheet. So the Big 12 was on the lower tier of payouts for the 6 BCS Conferences. Not bad, but if they had 2 teams in the BCS bowls then they would’ve been up higher. Notre Dame gets a pretty good chunk for being independent. The argument against the BCS right here is that the small guys are getting the smaller piece of the pie. I will merely point to TCU and how they are moving up by winning.
- Some donors have high expectations. Take Robert G. Burton, major booster for UConn. Apparently he doesn’t like the athletic director and wants his $3 million in donations back and his name taken off the stadium. I’m pretty sure once you donate something, you can’t expect to get it back. But then again, if I had that kind of cash then I’d feel like I can run anything, too.
- Ex Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins agreed to a $4,000 fine for improperly receiving exercise equipment as a gift. This should be the last we hear of this guy.
- 12 Iowa football players were hospitalized for kidney issues related to offseason workouts. What’s going up there? Between drugs, legal issues, and now improper condition, this team is falling apart. Yet, they beat Missouri in the Insight Bowl. Just think, if all of this stuff was gone, they might have contended for a Big 10 title for real.
- Welp, since TCU is leaving the Mountain West Conference, the conference retaliated by changing the site of the Boise State game with the Horned Frogs back to Idaho. It was supposed to be at TCU’s home field. Way to get your revenge, mid-con.
Crib Sheet: Winter Break
This Purple Yeti is too busy chopping wood for the fire to bring you much for the rest of January. Look for some new giblets starting February. In the meantime, I have the Crib Sheet to you warm. Check it out:
- So ESPN’s David Ubben points us to the overall bowl record for conferences. The Big 12 finished at the bottom, tied with the Big 10. It’s pretty bad for the conference when they notch the same record as an overrated conference that needed to expand to stay relevent.
- It looks like an imminent NFL lock out is scaring at least some college players from coming out early. Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden and mega star Justin Blackmon are both staying behind for one more round. The Cowboys will be a tough cookie next year to chew on.
- Michigan contacted Gary Pinkel’s agent to ask for an interview. Pinkel turned it down. One dis from the Big 10 deserves a dis right back. That and Missouri already competes for the title now. It will take Michigan a couple of years before they get back on track.
- RichRod dumped about 430 maize and blue gear on the Salvation Army on his way out of Michigan. At least he did one good thing while he was up there. I wonder if he cried on his way out of the store.
- That said, things are looking up for Michigan, now that they’ve replaced RichRod with Brady Hoke. The ‘Predator’ Denard Robinson decided to stay and Hoke landed the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison. I swear this is the last Michigan news for a long, long time.
- The Big 10 is keeping the Legends and Leaders division name for the 2011. Dang, I was hoping they’d change it to the Losers and Lamers divisions.
- Help me out on this one: So the NCAA shut down a proposal that would stop head coaches from offering scholarships to kids as young as middle school age but they then want tougher rules against parents shopping around their kids. So, the NCAA wants coaches to bribe kids without parents getting in the way? Um, usually middle school kids need a legal guardian to represent them. This seems very contradictory. Or obvious. The NCAA wants to take full advantage of the kids and no one else, including the parents of the kids.
- Rodney Jones, a former university official, plead guilty to in his part of the $2 million ticket scalping scandal at the University of Kansas. Cue the Law & Order music.
- Continuing on our legal theme, John Lomax III plead no contest to the killing of UConn football player Jasper Howard. Again with the Law & Order music.
- Texas Tech was so impressed with Tommy Tuberville’s first year that they’ve already given him an extension. Can he keep it up? It’s doesn’t matter now because his buyout will probably be sweeter.
Bowl Pick It and Stick It Standings: New Year’s Resolutions and Bowl Settings
It’s the last week of college football and we’ve had enough drama to fill up the entire bowl season. Happy 2011 to everyone out there and I hope you survived any New Year’s Party you decided to attend. New Year’s day saw my annual tradition of going over to Jolly’s parents house and planting myself in one spot for 12 hours of college football. It was a good day for me as the overrated Big 10 went 0-5 that day and the Big 12 went 2-0. That and the left over ham from the New Year’s Party served us well in between meats, cheeses, and crackers. Beefy indeed. Here’s this week’s standings going into the last week:
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Bowl Pick It and Stick It: The Bowl Nine Yards
Here we are in the middle of bowl season. I got some good gear for Xmas and I hope you got some too. The bowl action was light in the last week, but we are now ramping up into the meat of the schedule. Most of the Big 12 schools will be playing this week and there will be ample action in between. Meanwhile, I Bowl Pick It and Stick It standings are out are some peeps jumping out of the gate quick. Let’s look at that first:
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Crib Sheet: Silent Night, Bowly Night
Happy Holidays from everyone here at KC College GameDay! We’ll be taking a break over the holiday weekend and soak in some presents and bowls. I hope you all have a great time and we’ll see you next Tuesday for an update to the Bowl Pick It and Stick It. In the meantime, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- So Colorado will end up playing California next year. You’re saying, “Duh, it’s a home and home!” Yes, but next year will be different as Colorado will be in the Pac 12 conference starting next year. What does that mean? It means that they are considering calling that game a non-conference game. Weird, right?
- Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen will be the new West Virginia offensive coordinator and the head coach the following year. I guess the coach in waiting thing has been sped up. I also wonder what this does for coaches who are at the top and don’t want to step down.
- So Mark Cuban is thinking of funding a college football playoff system. Wow. Just wow. He failed at buying two baseball teams and he’s itching to spend his money in some other sports arena. Cuban’s plan involves hitting up college athletic directors and presidents to drum up support. He needs to talk to the bowl people. Better yet, he needs to keep funneling money in his non-championship winning NBA franchise. BCS president Bill Hancock bitch-slapped him away, btw.
- The Big 12 Championship Game was the 4th highest rated football game for the season. The ones above had BCS title implications. Just goes to show you that the Big 12 brand can still run strong.
- The New York Times has a nice story about Rowan University football player Matt Hoffman. Hoffman gave up a game to donate some stem cells and saved a guy’s life. Good job, everyone should think about donating something at some point.
- ESPN has an article up about weak tickets sales for some bowls this year. Who’s not on the list? The Missouri Tigers. Good job by the fans for knocking out some tickets sales and showing up.
- Kansas was so close to getting a new athletic director from Tulsa, but Bubba Cunningham turned them down. Strange huh? I’m thinking Tulsa came up with the dough and Kansas didn’t look as posh as Cunningham though. This looks pretty bad for the Jayhawks.
- Big Ten Commissioner Jim Dlenay said that they may rethink the division names for the conference. Why? ‘Legends’ and ‘Leader’s is hilarious. Please keep it, Jim, so I can go back to it when I need a good chuckle.
- Another day, another Nebraska Cornhusker gets a DUI. This time it’s safety Ricky Thenarse. Looks like he won’t be going to the Holiday Bowl.
- Turner Gill landed a pretty great quarterback recruit from the hands of Colorado due to their coaching change. Apparently, Brock Berglund is a dual threat type guy. Let the slow rebuild begin.
- While the Cornhuskers are going through a rough patch of arrests, the fans are having a hard time getting up for the bowl game. Nebraska is actually offering free pairs of basketball tickets for people who buy bowl ticket games. I’m not sure they’ll make their allotment. Awesome.
- Oregon’s head coach Chip Kelly is your AP Head Coach of the Year. When you go undefeated, it makes winning this award easy.
- ESPN’s David Ubben reminds us that the Big 12 had the most consensus All-Americans of all of the conferences. They may be losing teams, but they still have the talent.
2010 Year End Reviewards
Yes, it’s the 2010 edition and first ever annual KC College GameDay Year End Reviewards! What’s a revieward? Welp, it’s a half assed attempt to round up the year in review and then dole out some nameless awards out to who or what I think mattered in the year of college football. It applies to the regular season only as I really don’t want to come back to this. At any rate, I’m shooting from the hip so all you midgets our there better watch your heads.
Crib Sheet: Season’s Greetings
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Happy holidays from KC College GameDay! It’s bowl season and I’ll do a couple of recaps in the next couple of days as well as run down some bowls I’m in to. In the meantime, we have a fat Crib Sheet so let’s get to it:
- Iowa’s Derrell Johnson-Koulianos got the hook by the police for a bunch of drug charges. It looks like he’s suspended from the Insight Bowl against Missouri. That should help out the Tigers defense immensely as Johnson-Koulianos was the Hawkeye’s all time leader in receptions and receiving yards. And yes, two of their running backs are out as well. It should be an easy game for the Tigers.
- Here are some national award winners from the Big 12: Texas defensive end Sam Acho won the William V. Campbell Trophy or the Academic Heisman. Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones wins the Sammy Baugh Award for the nation’s best passer. Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon won the Biletnikoff Award. Meanwhile, fellow teammate Dan Bailey wins the Lou Groza Award.
- Meanwhile, the Nebraska Huskers suspended defensive tackle Baker Steinkuhler for getting a DUI last week. He’ll be out of the Holiday Bowl and the Husker’s rematch against Washington.
- Even though I think Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany is evil incarnate, I do agree with him on holding back the college football playoff. His reasons come from a wealth of ego. Delany says that the Big Ten sacrificed enough by letting other conferences play in the Rose Bowl. There’s enough ego around other commissioners that there would be no way a playoff would bubble up.
- Urban Meyer resigned from Florida. The only reason this is news is that he should’ve stayed gone last year. Urban Meyer’s resignation was again due to health concerns. It seems as though this time, Florida didn’t give him a chance to second guess himself.
- Let’s take a look at how some Big 12 coaches voted in the final coaches poll of the year. Interesting stuff here, especially the one where Bo Pelini ranked his Cornhuskers #8 even though they lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game.
- Speaking of coaches, the USA Today has a break down of some interesting contract provisions for some of the coaches out there. Bill Snyder 2.0 gets a free ride and tickets to basketball games. If Mack Brown resigns, he’ll be reassigned to another a part of the school. Mike Sherman gets a cool $100K for appearing or being named a national champion.
- Keeping with Bo Pelini, he had to shoot down rumors of taking the Miami job that’s up for grabs now. Usually, when rumors like that happen, it means that something is ticking. It makes sense, too. Miami got rid of an upstanding Randy Shannon because he wasn’t winning games. Shannon did turn around the program in terms of class act athletes. Bo Pelini coaches the opposite way.
- It looks like Missouri is putting on a cheap-o way to get down to the Insight Bowl. Bus rides and hotel stays abound! They are pulling hard to shake the no fan travel stigma. I hope it works.
- Conference expansion time! Hawaii is joining the Mountain West Conference for football only in 2012 and will be doing all other sports in the Big West Conference. It looks like the WAC is falling apart.
- Auburn quarterback Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy. No surprise there. I watched him torch South Carolina in the SEC Championship game and knew then he had a lock on it. It didn’t stop the proud sports media to take pot shots at him. Some writers left him off completely and he was absent from the Football Writers Association of America’s All-American team.
- Okay, there’s been huge amount of coaching changes in the last week. Let’s run them down. Northern Illinois hired Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Doeren. Louisiana-Lafayette hired Mississippi State assistant coach Mark Hudspeth. The Miami Hurricanes notch down Temple head coach Al Golden as their new head coach. The biggest move, of course, goes to Florida hiring Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp as their new head coach. The Longhorns thought they had him next in line for whenever Mack Brown retires, but it looks like Florida was too big of an opportunity not to pass up. Texas had a down year this year and it looks like rebuilding may take longer than expected.
- The Big Ten unveiled it’s new logo and what the division names, the ‘Legends’ and ‘Leaders’, for next year when Nebraska joins the league. I’m glad they got rid of the eleven hidden in the logo. The color is a little bit lighter than I expected though.
- Just in case you were wondering, Oregon will have new digs for the BCS National Championship Game. Fashionable Ducks, they are.
Pick It and Stick It Final Standings 2010
It was an anti-climatic weekend and an anti-climatic end to this year’s Pick It and Stick It. We had some small pickings for the last week and that helped solidify the victory for Huskers All the Way. Even though the football team lost the Big 12 title to Oklahoma, Huskers All the Way held onto the lead and rode out the clock. With the last weekend of football we’ll also have your final BCS Standings for the year. No surprises there but we’ll get to the after we check out the final Pick It and Stick It standings.
Crib Sheet: It’s Almost Over
It’s the last real week of college football for about a month so let’s get down to Crib Sheet business. Bowls are coming, invitations are going out, and we have a good chuck on news for you to nibble on. Let’s check it out:
GameDay: KCGGD’s Best Weekend Evar
Okay, so no, I’m not talking about VH1 and guests like Chris Jericho and the unfunny guy from The State, I’m talking about college football! Every year I’m reminded that we get piles upon piles of traditional football matchups on top of piles and piles of turkey. This year is a little different, however. The rivalry games are all over the place, but alot of them have national title implications. It’s only halfway through the weekend and already the BCS title race has been blown up, kinda.
Homespotting: My Home and Yours for Turkey Day Weekend
You know, when I started this blog, it was all about going out. My main reason was to watch college football at its maximum potential. I couldn’t afford a rig so a bar was the next best thing. I’ve watched some football before at home but this time I’m going all out. The games are spread out perfectly, not unlike a Thanksgiving dinner, this weekend so I figured what better way to graze on the games while I graze on leftovers by staying home and watching it from KCCGD Headquarters. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there and I hope you have as much fun watching the great action as I do.
Continue reading Homespotting: My Home and Yours for Turkey Day Weekend