I’m getting ready for Memorial Day by having a practice run today. It’s Sunday and I’m doing a tasty little Purple Yeti Roar. This week I’ll talk about Michigan, Notre Dame, Big 10, Brady Hoke, Hawaii, SEC, CBS, ESPN, TCU, Big 12, Devonte Fields, Oklahoma State, Wes Lunt, and Mike Gundy. Continue reading Purple Yeti Roar 69: Pool Day Redbird Style →
You know, I was hoping the big news of the week would be the start of the college football season. The only thing that could overshadow it was Texas A&M leaving the Big 12. Welp they announced their intention to do so. Now that it’s official, the Big 12 must look to expand, which is more than what they did last year. Everyone is saying that BYU is the most likely candidate, and they are being very careful with their words . Even though they have been talking with the Big 12. Will it happen? Who knows, but there will be a boatload of speculation in the meantime. Well and Oklahoma is looking to take the lead in blowing up the league. Let’s hit up the Crib Sheet while we wait: Continue reading Crib Sheet: Conference Armageddon Again →
It’s ever so toasty down here in Austin, so I will keep this intro short and then grab some water. I broke a sweat already. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: Another White Hot Week →
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.
The NFL Draft is coming up quick, no matter how weird it is, and will blow by even faster. This week’s Crib Sheet is just as windy. And it’s almost as windy as the weather is outside in the KC metro area. Hold on tight:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: It’s Starting to Get Drafty In Here →
The only other thing this week’s Crib Sheet needs is bacon. Grab some and check it out:
- Notre Dame’s Dayne Crist played the rest of the first drive of the game against Michigan with blurred vision out of his right eye. It was just enough blurry vision to keep him out of the rest of the first half. It was a great game and we wonder what the score would be like if he was healthy for the whole game.
- The Heisman Trust will leave Reggie Bush’s recently forfeited trophy vacated. It was the 0nly thing to do. We wonder how many other Heisman winners will give up the trophy because of money they took?
- Oh by the way, speaking of illegibility, Texas tailback Vondrell McGee is out for the rest of the year due to academic illegibility.
- If it will ever happen, Liberty Mutual will give $1 million to a charity for a penalty free college football game. The last time it’s happened was way back in 1986. Not a bad bit of promotion juice for an insurance company.
- Much like Wrigley Field of baseball, the Big House will get permanent lights for night games. Will we ever see the docket of Big 10 games go well into the night? Since the Big 10 Network is around you can bet on the conference trying to expand all of its games throughout the day and weekends.
- Speaking of stadiums, the Richmond Spiders will actually get to play a home game in their own stadium for the first time in 82 years. It seems the city owned the place they were playing at and it wasn’t even on campus. This should help Richmod realize its full potential and become a powerhouse in football for years to come.
- We see some players go from college football to major league baseball but it’s rare when the other way happens. Welp it happened with Nick Doscher. He’s playing at quarterback for Wagner College after a stint as catcher in the farm system for the Kansas City Royals. This guy must be able to manage the game because of his catcher status. If he was a pitcher we would guess he would throw all over the place in a passing attack.
- Phil Fulmer put the full frontal audible attack on Lane Kiffin last week. He used to be Tennessee head coach before Kiffin came on. He’s wondering how Kiffin uses his mojo to get the cush coaching jobs. It’s a good thing he used his smack talk on his now current CBS analyst gig. Let the media war begin.
- The Chick-fil-A Kickoff will now have two games starting in 2012. We already knew that Tennessee will take on N.C. State but now Auburn will take on Clemson, too. All this does is make me more hungry for Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
- Here’s a lesson: When you talk with an ESPN reporter, more than likely you will be on record. Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian learned the hard way when he talked about Reggie Bush and not apologizing for the Heisman/eligibility problem. Serves Sarkisian right. He was an offensive coordinator during this debacle and he should get some negative rub it too.
- Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio was so thrilled about his overtime fake field goal for the win against Notre Dame last week that he had a heart attack. He’s okay, but we think he needs to lay off the coffee a bit. Notre Dame’s not looking to good this year anyway.
- Houston, we have a problem. (I’ve been waiting so long to say that!) The Cougars quarterback Case Keenum and his backup Cotton Turner are out with season ending injuries. Keenum has a bum knee and Turner has a broken collarbone. Houston lost to UCLA in a blow out and they probably won’t recover from these damages.
- Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith is out two weeks with a broken leg. A broken leg? That sounds like more than a two week thing. Is this guy some kind of cyborg or something?
- Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins was so pumped about the Buffaloes games against Hawaii that he head butted a player and cut himself. They needed that emotion to come from behind and win but we’re not sure if it will save the Hawk’s Big 12 campaign.
- The olny Ohio player to show some emotion and gusto against Ohio State was the mascot. He jumped Brutus Buckeye and now he’s banned from being a mascot again. It also turns out that he planned to do it all along. Now that’s some mascot grudge.
- Looks like there is a deal in place for Colorado to jump ship to the Pac 10 in 2011. It’s been a back and forth report regarding the Buffaloes. The move will be costly but not as costly as Nebraska’s.
It’s the year of FCS upsets so far. The first week saw North Dakota State upsetting Kansas and Jacksonville State putting one on Ole Miss. Then last weekend, James Madison beat ranked Virginia Tech. It just goes to show you that the competition can be heated on any given Saturday. If a team gets too big for itself, it may overlook another opponent. That’s just enough to tilt the victory meter away from them. We are always humble with our conference powerhouse that is the Crib Sheet, so check it out:
- We’re heard of strange injuries before but having a ‘bowel injury’ takes the cakes. That’s what Arkansas Razorback Dennis Johnson had that left him out of Saturday’s game against Georgia. We hope he can plug it up for next week.
- What two better teams to play in Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium to kickoff the season than LSU and Oregon. Huh? That’s right, the ‘Cowboys Classic’ will be held by two teams not in the Big 12. Doesn’t make sense at all.
- We see reports of crime all the time in the Crib Sheet. Like another arrest for Missouri’s Derrick Washington. Sports Illustrated’s Jeff Benedict points this out as well. We think we’ll keep it on the down low from now on. Maybe just police blotters for the Big 12. Unless it’s some kind of harmless, whacky crime.
- Oh by the way. The lawsuit between former K-State coach Ron Prince and the university will be moving back to the courtroom. It looks as though both sides want an immediate judgement. Not sure if it’s gonna happen. We’ll keep you posted.
- All signs are pointing to Colorado joining the Pac 12 in 2012. They wanted to move earlier, but the stars couldn’t align just right. Maybe after the California whupping put on the Buffaloes pushed them back a year.
- The plane carrying McNeese State had to make an emergency landing on the way to the Missouri game. Apparently, a tire blew out on take off. That would scare the heck out of me. No wonder those kids didn’t fare to well against the Tigers.
- The New York Times points out that the Big 1o makes its money because of the fans. And the fans who would pay a massive premium to see the Big 10 games. So the Times points out what we know already: control the college sports in the conference and you can make some major bank.
- It looks like Villanova is looking over an invitation to the Big East. This would be an upgrade in the football program as they were FCS last year. They are a part of the Big East in virtually every other sport. We hope this helps keep the conference together for a little bit longer.
- One of our favorite football people, former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach, will get his own radio show on Sirius. He’s doing that and CBS. Will he ever be back to the sidelines? Maybe after these gigs pay off his lawyer fees for his suit against Texas Tech.
- A bunch of Missouri football players formed a rap group. The Kentucky Boulevard Boys look to take over the scene like they take over the football field. Yeah, whatever. Call me when they get a recording contract. Oh, and try to focus on the playbook and not your lyric book for the next couple of weeks. We know it’s a cakewalk schedule but you need to be getting better now, not in a month.
- Michigan’s Denard Robinson is your Heisman leader after two weeks and it makes real sense. He single-handedly carried the Wolverines past Notre Dame last Saturday. If he gets his wheel injured, the whole season is over for Michigan.
- Reggie Bush, on the other hand, will forfeit his Heisman. It seems the pressure and guilt for playing with a bunch of ineligible players in 2005 was just too much. Vince Young, the runner-up, tweeted that he will be happy leaving it vacant, even though he said he wanted it earlier this week.
- Speaking of Twitter, Miami of Florida’s head coach Randy Shannon just banned it for his players. It seems the beat down Oklahoma gave the Hurricanes was enough to warrant this punishment. Maybe the team can play their way back into getting access?
- The new NCAA President Mark Emmert wants to get tougher on the rule breakers. Yet, he wants to make sure the pro sports leagues and players’ unions are happy. Let’s face it. The NCAA is irrelevant. It seems all they do is choke the players from making money so they can make more money. A free education is great for these athletes, but they are stopping adults from making adult business decisions. Someone needs to stop these guys, they are like cassette tapes.
- Who will win the kicking battle in Manhattan? Will it be Athony Cantele or Josh Cherry? One thing is for sure, one of these two will lose a game for the Kansas State Wildcats.
- And it looks like the WAC is suing Nevada and Fresno State so they can stay in the WAC for the 2011-2012 season. You know, with the way expansion has been handled in the offseason, wouldn’t the WAC have some sort of contingency in place? Instead of suing, why not invite a couple of Big Sky schools in? Nope, because they are a sub par conference, they will sue their way around things. This conference will die a slow burning death.
Alrighty, I’m about halfway through my scotch and water, I blasted out another Crib Sheet, and I’m jacked up for some football tomorrow night. It’s prediction time! The offseason sucked. Period. Being in Big 12 land was not easy on this college football lovin’ Yeti and especially not easy on Kansas City. We weathered the storm and now we are here ready for some pigskin play. What will we see in this year’s volume of football? Let’s take a look in our crystal ball shaped glass full of scotch and water.
- Mike Leach will lose his CBS announcing job for making Gus Johnson stand in the bathroom with no light.
- Mark Ingram will not be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, thanks to the fresh knee injury.
- The Oregon Ducks will win the Pac 10, both for best dressed and actual gold.
- Colorado loses a bunch of games and Dan Hawkins stays on because the school is too broke to fire him out of his contract.
- Caoch Brian Kelly will talk NBC into going into commerical breaks for opposing teams’ offensive drives only. Oh and the Fighting Irish will make a bowl.
- Missouri will win the North, only because Nebraska’s ego and farewell tour will fall flat.
- Daniel Thomas will be a Heisman finalist, thanks to a solid offensive line and the fact that he will get his yards with the whole defense keying on him. Thanks, Carson Coffman.
- Boise State will go undefeated and not make the dance. People are saying its the weak schedule, but it will be because of an undefeated team in the Big 10 and one other conference. Look for Orrin Hatch to have an aneurism over this one.
- This will be Lee Corso’s last season for ESPN College GameDay. It’s been a hell of a ride, Lee, just please don’t put on the Grim Reaper’s head when it’s your time to go.
- This will be the fastest season ever for the Kansas Jayhawks. By fast, we mean the fans will be ready for basketball season about 2 games in. Turner Gill’s rebuilding starts this year, he’s got at least 3 before some magic happens.
- Iowa State will be in the bottom of the league again, but they will get an upset some big team because of a massive rain storm. Hey their practice field flooded over the summer, they should be ready.
- Texas just missed the mark in the Big 12 South. Not because of the competition, but for the cliffhanger they want to leave for next season’s Longhorns Network debut. Stay Tuned! Same horn time! Same horn channel!
- Big Game Bob goes to a BCS game but will not be game as the Sooners bob and weave from some other big team beaming game time bashings. Probably against Virginia Tech and Frank BEAMER.
- The Big East has a seasson. No one really cares.
- RichRod makes a valiant effort and gets the Wolverines into a bowl game. It will be the weakest one from the Big 10 and it will be enough to get him fired. He will then go on and make real estate deals with everyone in the Ann Arbor region.
- USC doesn’t get close to a Pac 10 championship and Lane Kiffin leaves after just one season. The Kiffin world tour moves on!
- Florida misses Tim Tebow and will miss being in the running for the SEC. Urban Meyer gets sick and dies from the piss poor play on the field.
- Kansas City sports bars will stay the same this year. No one will get 3D TVs because the mixture of 3D and beer will make everyone puke. Some new bars will crop up and the KCCGD crew will eventually puke in those anyway.
- We’re going back to our 2008 prediction about Joe Paterno dieing on the field. Now that Bobby Bowden is out, this one should get much easier. Or will he be in the booth this year?
- Okay, we called the BCS National Championship game two years ago with Florida and Oklahoma, we were halfway right with Texas last year in the big game. What will happen this year? Well, the trend says we will get it all wrong so there’s nothing to lose. I’m thinking the offseason hype for the Big 10 will lead a team to a title contention. Since the only team that’s worth a damn up there is Ohio State, then that’s our pick. Chances are the SEC will be mega tough again this year and barring any late push by an Oregon or a Big 12 team, we are going the easy route and picking SEC. Whose turn is it? Let’s go LSU. Why not. Can you say 2007 rematch?
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.
Continue reading Magnifying the Expansion Part 4: Now I’m Yelling Dominoes →
The Senior Bowl is coming this week and the NFL Network has LIVE coverage…..of the practices. Okay, so up to the minute updates on who practiced well and who practiced crappy is fine, but non stop coverage of weigh-ins and such? You gotta be kidding me. I guess we live in a day and age where picking through a player’s stool and reporting on what he had for lunch is considered news. Plus we have enough cameras out there to film it. Please, just read the Crib Sheet:
- Looks like Mike Leach’s lawsuit against Texas Tech will move forward, according the to judge in the case. Leach’s camp wanted a fast track but didn’t get it. We said it before and we’ll say it again, it may be a couple of years before this one is over. Meanwhile, a local news channel, through the use of a public records act, unc0vered no written complaints of Leach and players. Until then, here comes a mediator!
- The East beat the West last week. No, it was another exciting game of Axis and Allies, but it was the East-West Shrine Game! Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka tossed a late touchdown to help the East win. Alrighty, then.
- Boise State is celebrating another undefeated season and complaining that they don’t have a shot for the top BCS honors. Never mind the fact that they turned down a 2-1 proposal from Nebraska on their scheduling. If you remember, earlier this year, Boise State complained that they could never schedule big time opponents including Nebraska. So now this time around they turn away from an invite from the Huskers? That’s small-time mentality there.
- On the flip site, Non-BCS conferences received a record amount of bowl money this year, mainly due to the Fiesta Bowl match up in TCU and Boise State. They are still way behind their BCS counterparts, but the baby steps are moving forward.
- Tim Tebow’s planning on doing a pro-life commercial during the Super Bowl and, naturally, some women’s groups are urging CBS not to air. It is a very political issue but we’re thinking since organization backing Tebow’s appearance paid for the spot, CBS could use more green than urging to bump the commercial.
This week marks the middle of the college football season. What have we learned so far? The top teams are still at the top. Texas and Florida hold destiny in their hands. Florida might have a rougher road but the coarse has been set for the predicted title match up. The rest of pack? Not so much. Especially in the Big 12. Oklahoma fell off the map big time, with Sam Bradford getting knocked out early with a shoulder injury. Kansas State is first in the Big 12 North, which punctuates the mediocrity thriving up there. The BCS busters are hanging around, except for the teams from Utah thankfully. The KCCGD crew is batting over .500 for hitting up good sports bars. Let’s hope the last half of the season is as exciting as the first half. Here’s the crib sheet :
- Former Penn State running back Austin Scott filed suit against all of the people involved in the rape charge against him that was eventually dropped a couple of years. There was not enough evidence to bring to jury. Scoot claims that everyone involved injured his career and is seeking damages. Rape is a serious charge and if someone gets wrongly accused and is ousted because of that, then the people involved should get punished.
- Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount is on the campaign trail to revive his status with the team, this time talking in front of teens with other current players. It’s going to be a long road back but the more work he does, the better chance he will have at getting back on the field. Let’s hope he makes it.
- Dennis Dodd for CBS clearly points out the writing on the wall of Oklahoma Sooners fans, Sam Bradford’s college career is over. After going down again against Texas, we doubt he’s gonna come back and try to re injure the shoulder or something else. Landry Jones will be your guy from now on.
- On the BCS front, we have a new political action committee started to fight the BCS. Yup it’s the Playoff PAC! A bunch of Belt Way people will get together and try to elect Congressmen to vote on playoffs for the BCS. Never mind that the guy running it just happens to be a Utah alumnus. Seriously, people from Utah suck.
- Maryland and South Carolina will wear camo uniforms for their game November 14th for Veterens Day. Sweet! Now if Army could only buy a clue and bring back the sweet camo garb they sported last year. Bring it back!
- Jasper Howard, a Connecticut cornerback, was fatally stabbed after their homecoming game Saturday as well as another player. Head coach Randy Edsell claims that there wasn’t any fighting but some ‘verbal jostling’ that started it. So far there are two arrests made but they may not be connected directly to the stabbing. Our thoughts go out to the Uconn players and Jasper Howard’s family.
College Sports, Kansas City style
