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.
Okay it’s not as exciting as signing day or the first day of summer practice, but it’s enough to get us here at the KCCGD excied for some more college football! This week’s Crib Sheet dives into cracks and pulls up some loose change and football news. It doesn’t matter, it’s great to see the kids on the field getting ready for another season. We’re saving the change for stadium popcorn. On to the Crib Sheet:
We’re heard stories about college players getting arrested for drug and/or alcohol related crimes, but we haven’t heard the story about other players removing student newspapers that feature such crimes on the front page. Welp, it happened in Texas and the coach is backing his players for the removal. Is it suppression of free speech? Or is it a team rallying together? We don’t know, but we do that a campus full of students walked into class that morning without a crossword puzzle to distract them and that’s just wrong. At any rate, the coach later apologized.
Dan Beebe told everyone to chill about the permanent championship homes for the Big 12. At least not until June. It looks as though the rumor was Football in Jerryville, Baseball in OKC, and Basketball at the Sprint Center in KC. Maybe he’s holding out for more money from Jerry Jones, but my guess is that the Big 12 can get more from each city in the Big 12 area when putting the location up for grabs each year.
The Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, let slip the possibility that the Fighting Irish may have to join a conference and lose its independence if expansion happens all around them. This could be a bad thing for the Irish and a great thing for the conference that nabs them.
Coaches in Texas and Maryland get a one year reprieve from the new rule that limits successors in waiting to recruit for the team. The gates are open, boys, take as much as you can before the clock runs out!
Speaking of Notre Dame and Maryland, they will be playing each other at FedEx field in 2011. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be the home team. Huh? FedEx field is IN Maryland. Okay now we see why this independence is going away for the Irish. That’s just ridiculous.
President Barack Obama honored the Alabama Crimson Tide at the White House this week for winning the BCS National Championship. It must be be tough for a Big 10 guy to honor an SEC team, but hey, he’s a politician and he rolls with the tide.
Welp last week was a big rush. This week, all is calm and all is bright. Christmas is in a couple of days and we are expecting some major snow. So we can chalk up the lack of news to that and everyone getting ready for bowls. We are done with Christmas shopping and got our Topsy’s popcorn, so we will be taking a few days off ourselves. We’ll probably do something around Christmas, but look for a Bowl Pick It update Monday. Until then here is this week’s meek little Crib Sheet:
Former Kansas coach Mark Mangino gets a $3 million settlement from the university for his resignation and termination fo his contract. He had about $9 million left to go. Welp he doesn’t have to work for a couple of more years and gets a fat holiday check. Mangino made out pretty well.
It looks like Bill Snyder 2.0 and the Wildcats are looking to pick up scraps leftover from new Kansas head coach Turner Gill’s blowout of the staff. They are interviewing former defensive coordinator Clint Bowen to fill the vacancy left by Vic Koenning’s departure to Illinois. This has happened before. Joe Bob Clements went to Kansas as a defensive line coach even though he played for Kansas State. He went back home to Snyder 2.0 though and we won’t be surprised if Bowen doesn’t do the same thing.
Even though he didn’t come home with a Heisman, Ndamukong Suh has been picking up plenty of awards. The latest one happens to be the AP Player of the Year. This is the first time a defensive player ever won the award. I’m sure his Nebraska head coach, Bo Pelini, congratulated him while chewing gum openly.
Another road trip is coming our way. Find out tomorrow where. But first we need to sift through the week’s news on the Crib Sheet. It’s a divisional beat down for the next couple of weeks in the Big 12 North. Nobody wants to win it and we’ll see who has just enough heart to show up against Texas in the Big 12 Championship game. Who will win it? Drop a comment below with your thoughts. Meanwhile, here’s the Crib Sheet:
Tennessee showed up to their game against ranked South Carolina in a Halloween flavored black shirt with orange pants. It helped them spook the Gamecocks to an upset victory. They should wear those more often.
Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh received a ticket for negligent driving after nailing some cars to avoid a cat. Oh he also blew a 0.035 after admitting some drinking. It’s all legal, he just did some car damage. Would you swerve to avoid a cat?
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe wants the NCAA to consider teams with 6-6 records as having a winning record. Before those teams could only go if there was a contract to use on a bowl game. We’re thinking this has to do with how bad the conference is doing right now. Nice try, Dan.
Former Very Highly Touted recruit Darrell Scott is leaving the Colorado Buffaloes. Apparently he’s frustrated with how bad the program is and is looking to transfer to UCLA after the semester. Dan Hawkins, your time is almost gone.
This week finds us smack dab in the middle of Big 12 Media days. This is the week of the year where all of the schools congregate and spit words into a hungry set of microphones in preparation of a new college football season. Next week camp starts and before you know it, it’s football time! But to sum up this week so far, Kansas was media voted #2 in the north and they have a chip on their shoulder, Missouri is regrouping, Nebraska doesn’t feel like number 1, the South teams are the bomb, and nobody is really interested in the new head coach for Iowa State (Paul Rhodes). We’ll talk a little about the teams left next week. For now, hold on tight because we just exited the gate and are starting to build steam to a new season. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Pittsburgh State football player Joe Windscheffel is out for the season with an arm injury due to a Zebra charge. He needed to paint a fence and had to move some zebras. The male zebra charged and he’s out for the season. Be careful childrens, animals are wild.
If you are tired of SEC talk, then cover your eyes for this one. The SEC is striking deals with regional television stations to broadcast games, most notably in regions that cater to the Big 12 and the Big 10. The hype machine is in full swing and they have the national titles to back them up. I guess we’re gonna see more and more of the SEC until some other conference pins them down.
So last week, we talked about Army playing Yankee Stadium in 2010. Welp a couple of days after news of that came out, they announced that they will be playing there for the next 4 out of 5 years. Great stuff. They used to play there every year and now they are bringing back the tradition. Let’s hope they keep the new tradition of camouflage gear.
Our favorite analyst Kirk Herbstreit is suing the IRS for taxing Herbsreit on a burnt down house. So Kirky wanted to build a new house on his current and caught wind of the local fire department needing some training. He ‘donated’ the house to the fire department and they promptly torched it. Now he thinks he should get the tax credit for the donation but the IRS is saying no way. What a dumbass. Quoting Kritter, “He should fire his accountant.”
Looks like some team from the Mountain West Conference manned up and is scheduling some big time schools. Boise State will play Virginia Tech next year. Welp if the Broncos go undefeated next and beat Va-Tech, then they should have a shot at the title game.
Lou Holtz and his Notre Dame alumni beat up on Japan this year in the Notre Dame Japan Bowl. It’s nice to see some aged alumni hit the field and play again for the Irish. We wonder if the folks over in the land of the rising sun though Lou was drunk the whole time he was there. Don’t worry guys, he sounds that way all of the time.
The Rose Bowl tweaked some rules with the current BCS contract to allow non BCS schools to play in to the bowl. If one of the automatic qualifiers for the Rose Bowl goes to the national title game, then the slot is open to anybody. That’s a break from how things were done in the past. It used to be only Big 10 and Pac 10 teams. This is a good first step and this should help to even things out just a little bit more.
