Man I don’t even know where to start. The reports are spinning right round, baby right round about anything and everything related to conference alignment. Everyone knows what’s going on as of now. I would dump here in the Crib Sheet, but going over my starred items in Google Reader is proving to be a fruitless endeavor. Stuff as new as earlier this afternoon is now wrong. I just can’t drop it in here as a developing item when it will more than likely be false. The Crib Sheet is just too good for that. The only thing I can say is that the Big 12 is in huge trouble and will more than likely go away next week. That’s about it. No links or nothing. There’s plenty out there to read from. If you’re looking for something other than conference Armageddon then check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
- A booster from Ohio State admitted that he helped give some cash to Ohio State players that missed the first two games of the season. You know, if there were more legitimate ways to pay players, we wouldn’t be seeing this kind of stuff.
- Okay, is everyone getting on the uniform bus. Maryland had some crazy ones and now Michigan State is getting some snappy ones. It’s too much. Just look at the dude covering it for ESPN. He’s the uniform watch columnist. Yes, there is a position like that. I just threw up in my mouth a little.
- Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill left the hospital last Thursday, after suffering a seizure on the field last weekend. I think he coached the game. I wish him all the best.
- The College Football Hall of Fame flooded its basements over the weekend due to an improper sprinkler fitting. Doh! It’s located in South Bend, Indiana so I guess bad luck is going on all over around there.
- This is how rivalries should be between fans: A Notre Dame fan had a heart attack at the Michigan game and was revived via CPR by another fan in the stands. Take note, everybody, it’s just game. Rivalries should be held in high respects but not to the point where you wish damage on the other.
- How fans should not act: The kid who wore the Iowa State mascot uniform known as Cy fell from the stands an broke his arm. He didn’t say anything happened to the cops, but he posted on Facebook that some Uconn fans pushed him. Wow, not cool people. Not cool.
- A Texas associate athletic director Cleve Bryant was canned for sexually harassing someone. Yup, you can’t go and do that even when you think you run the state, partner.
- So Nevin Shapiro apparently ponzied Miami and now Luther Campbell, former 2 Live Crew kid and Miami booster, wants to sue him. The charge? Defamation. Apparently the guy who rapped about being so horny doesn’t like other people raking his name through the mud.
- Osceloa, Kansas wants the University of Kansas to drop the name ‘Jayhawk’ because of its Civil War connotations. Too early? Um, too late. The response was hilarious though. I mean come on, they need to keep that name. How else can I call them Chickenhawks?
- So you know how War Eagle flew into a window during Auburn’s pre game last week? Welp, PETA assembled and is scratching for some publicity by calling out against having any eagles during Auburn’s pre game. What a shocker. Go back to funding your porno website PETA, nothing to see here.
- A former Northern Illinois student sued the NCAA for its concussion rules. Apparently he suffers from the classic chronic symptoms of concussions and blames the NCAA for not doing a good job. You think conference alignment is going to change football, wait until the concussion stuff bubbles up. 7 on 7 two hand touch, I’m not kidding.
- Oklahoma State linebackers coach Glenn Spencer left the team during the three hour weather delay to be with his family. His wife died shortly after the game started. My condolences go out to his friends and family.
- South Carolina athletes were accused by the NCAA for receiving over $55,000 in impermissible benefits. Again, it’s getting to the point that ESPN (and Disney really) is pumping money out the yang for television. These players are the ones doing all the work. This kind of stuff would go away if they actually got paid.
- Bob Stoops got a seven year, $34.5 million extension Monday. He’s sitting prettier than alot of the schools in the Big 12 right now.
- The Sugar Bowl revealed that they may have made a couple of illegal donations to a politician in the mid 2000s, and the Playoff Pac jumped all over it. That’s right, the almighty complaint to the IRS will strike down on the Sugar Bowl and slowly but surely ruin any chances for the current BCS system to service. Check and Mate for the Playoff Pac.
- The New York Times has an interesting article about a South Korean kid named Seung Hoon Choi who started for the Nebraska Cornhuskers over the weekend. I usually thought it was Samoans from across the seas that get line work. South Koreans? I didn’t know. Fascinating.
- Ho man, chalk one up to Texas A&M and the creative billboard they dumped in Waco, the home of the Baylor Bears. Now as much as it sucks for the Big 12, it still is pretty funny.
The ESPN/USA Today coaches preseason bowl came out and there’s no surprise with Oklahoma notched at number 1. That happened a couple of years ago and they lost their first game. Yup, it doesn’t matter who’s where right now, but what matters is that it’s the horn blasting the announcement that the college football season is ramping up for real now. Another thing to note, the Big 12/0 has half of their teams in the Top 25. Usually they have 6 but since a couple of teams left, they can only muster 5. Fair enough, on to this week’s Crib Sheet:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: Coaches Poll Leaves No Surprises →
Mascot Monday is back and we are racing to make it in under the wire. Fortunately for use, we will be looking at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Rowdy the Roadrunner. In celebration of instituting their very first year of football, I’m gonna do a fly over on Rowdy and see if he can stack up well against veteran mascots right out of the gate. I’m going to toss in a preview of some of their opponents for the next couple of years as well as talk about the legendary coach that’s taking his shot at building a program from the ground up.
Continue reading Mascot Monday: Rowdy →
It looks as though the NFL cracked down on concussions and big time hits, doling out suspensions for head on collisions now. What does this mean for college football? Probably the same type of suspension. I’m not sure they will completely lock down like they do in the NFL. I’m guessing that this sport may be going away in the next 15 years, or at least it will turn into more of an arena style of play. Even for the colleges. Now check out the Crib Sheet:
- Looks like Kansas State’s leading receiver Brandon Smith is out for the year with a broken leg suffered from last week’s Nebraska schilacking. Chris Harper will have to step up to fill the role. We’re going to wait and see about the Oregon trasnfer.
- We’ve heard of backups on the field, but backups for mascots? That’s what Georgia had with “Russ” when UGA VII died unexpectedly. Welp last Saturday saw the return of the starter in UGA VIII. He’s officially registered as “Big Bad Bruce” but he’ll be UGA VII for everyone here on out.
- Right before his potential start in the NFL, Colt McCoy will have his jersey retired at Texas. He’s the sixth player from Longhorn country to get his jersey retired and it may be the last one for awhile. Even though the guy never won a national championship, he has won more games in 4 years than any other in college football history. That deserves the rub.
- After a bad call by a couple of suspicious replay officials in the BYU and San Diego State game, the Mountain West Conference decided to ban host school employees and alumni from working the replay booth at the games. You see? The mid-majors can act just like the big boys.
- Your new Ole Miss mascot is: The Rebel Black Bear. Okay, so it was from a William Faulkner story and he went there so it makes sense. We can’t help but think that Admiral Ackbars would’ve been a better fit. Oh, and there is some controversy with the name still.
- Michigan will play Alabama in 2012 at Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium to open up the season. Looks like Jones will be filling the stadium all year with college football games. Hey, the NFL talent sucks right now so he’s gotta put butts in the seats.
- Another coach banned Twitter for his football players. This time it’s Butch Davis and North Carolina. He needs to ban them from talking to sports agents. While he’s at it, he needs to ban assistants from talking to sports agents, too.
- The Nebraska Regents approved the Big 12 settlement deal and will pay about $9.25 million and $8.755 if they make a BCS bowl. So long and farewell Cornhuskers.
- Get your claws ready, Missouri Tigers fans, ESPN College GameDay is heading to Columbia. Did you know it’s the first time they’ve been there? It’s about time, too, as I think they’ve been to Manhattan and Lawrence before.
- Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand was left paralyzed from the neck down due to a tackle he made against Army last Saturday. It really sucks when this happens but players have walked again from this kind of injury. Let’s hope he can get up off the chair real soon.
- Local sports radio guy Kevin Kietzman has been on Nebraska fans for the last couple of weeks. He’s talking about how unclassy they really are. Welp after a Nebraska fan vandalized a Texas fan’s car and Nebraska’s own Niles Paul shut down his Facebook page because of heckling, I say I totally agree with Kietzman. Nebraska fans just aren’t that classy at all.
- Pace University football player Danoy Henry was killed by the police in a freakish accident. The police were saying that Henry tried to escape the police and ran into another officer, which led to officers firing into the car and killing him. The other side says that the cop jumped on the hood and fired. We may not know whatever happened and this is certainly a tragedy.
- Former Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins is now the proud owner of an official government complaint regarding the $15,000 in exercise equipment that was loaned to him. He may have to foot the bill for the equipment or at least be subject to the penalties regarding the law he may have broke in accepting gifts as a public official.
The Crib Sheet returns! We’re in the first lull of the year as Spring Practice is right around the corner. The second lull is the summer, of course. We here at the KCCGD find many things to pass the time. Dodgeball for instance. It’s not exactly football, but it is alot of fun. We think that colleges should catch on to this trend and officially support dodgeball in their athletic programs. It can work. We all just have to will. DUCK! Here comes the Crib Sheet:
After a well deserved week off, we are back to bringing you some tasty college football. Alot happened during our mini hiatus so we are playing catch up with the Crib Sheet. We have alot to get to here with the start of bowl season this weekend. Tune in soon for a couple of year end reviews, bowl picks, and some bowlspots. Until then, here’s a very chunky Crib Sheet:
- Alabama took the high road when it announced that they will cancel classes for the BCS National Championship. That’s nice for football fans, but the last time I remembered there are people who actually don’t like football AND go to college. It seems kinda chintzy to lob off classes for everyone during the bowl game. Then again, this is South and it is football.
- Congress will crack the whip on the BCS soon and vote on a bill to ban promotion of the NCAA division I football series unless they get a playoff. The argument against it is that they have better things to do (health care bill, anyone). The argument for it is that the NCAA is a business and they should treat the conferences like companies in an industry. Problem with that one is that then the argument will come up that the students should get paid then (on top of free college). The slippery slope just got some juice.
- Charlie Strong is you new Lousiville head coach. This guy was rumored for the Kansas job, but right now the hot note is Buffalo’s Turner Gill. Anywho, back to Strong. This guy was co-defensive coordinator for Florida and looks to be a real good hire. Good luck to Cardinals.
- Tennessee confirms that there is an investigation into their Orange Pride group and possible recruiting violations. Basically, the Orange Pride comprises mostly of very attractive Volunteer females that drive around and persuade recruits to join the program. They would even friend them on Facebook. Did they break any rules? Who knows? This has been going on for a long time, however. The power of gender persuasion is a might force, my friends.
- Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh hired his dad Jack to be interim running backs coach for the Sun Bowl. It’s nice to see that the Harbaughs like to keep in the family. His dad won some titles in Division II and his brother John just happens to the head coach of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.
- Notre Dame took the plunge and finally hired a head coach. His name? Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly. It’s a good fit for the Domers. They guy won the Big East the last two years and has won at least 10 games the last three. Let’s hope the boosters expectations aren’t too high this time around, otherwise we’ll be seeing this dance again in three years.
- Mack Brown from Texas is getting an extra $2 million per year on the rest of his contract for doing such a great job. The guy now will make about $5 million per year. Meanwhile, an Iowa senator complains that coaches are being paid too much. Nevermind that Texas brings in about $100 million a year via the athletic department. Oh and don’t let Kirk Ferentz or Paul Rhoads hear this guy. They might go somewhere else and the voters will vent on their frustration in the voting booth.
- Colt McCoy wants a bowl playoff. He’s thought about long and hard. Did he think about it while he almost blew the game for the Longhorns at the Big 12 Championship? Maybe that’s why he wants playoff. It would’ve covered up his mistake. Doh!
- A handful of awards were handed out on ESPN last week to college football players. We’re not going to go through the whole list but we will say that Big 12 was represented very well. Congrats to Colt McCoy and Ndamukong Suh.
- So Kansas ended its coaching search over the weekend. Some people thought it was Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, but that was denied big time. So the Jayhawks fell to their 2nd choice, Turner Gill. This guy turned around Buffalo from perennial losers to a decent MAC team, even winning the title last year. Some people have overlooked that and started a fire-this-guy website. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.
- Congrats to Northwest Missouri State who became the Division II champions over the weekend. It was their first title since 1998. Good job guys!
- Mark Ingram won the Heisman over the weekend as well. The race ended up being the closest ever with Ingram taking it over Gerhart, McCoy, Suh, and Tebow respectively. The sexy pick leading up to it was Suh, but that’s why it was sexy. No chance of winning and you get to appear smart. That said, there was no clear leading guy running up to it, so it’s no surprise it was this close.
- Kansas State special teams stand out Brandon Banks was released from jail after beating a women while stoked on some stimulants. Ruh Roh. At least there’s no bowl to damage for the Wildcats. Hopefully this guy will get his act together and salvage his draft status, if there’s any left.
- Looks like Illinois will hire Kansas State co-defensive coordinator Vic Koenning to be their sole defensive coordinator. He was with Clemson for a couple of years before his one year stint with the Wildcats. Hopefully the Wildcats defense won’t suffer that much.
- Looks like the Big 10 will finally come into the century and explore a possible 12th team and conference championship. Who will it be? Some say Missouri or Iowa State. We know Missouri would listen. Others are point toward the Big East and Syracuse, Rutgers, or Pittsburgh. Let’s hope they keep it Big East for the east coast television money too.
- The NCAA, following the lead of the NFL, will recommend keeping an athlete out of the game if they lose consciousness or show signs of a concussion. Head trauma is big news nowadays and the NCAA is quickly stepping in to cover their own heads with this rule. Now I get the old folks harping about leather helmets and poor pads being a better sport. We’ll be talking like that in a c0uple of years.
Record heat flies by and the next thing you know, a tropical storm drops in outta no where. The rain was swirling from all directions and it almost seemed like a tornado or hurricane was brewing right over Kansas City. I snapped a couple of pics to document the torrential rain. It looks like the light is at the end of the storm. That’s where we are at in college football. We still must weather the baseball season, but basketball and hockey is over. There’s still some storms a brewin’, especially in Manhattan, but we know we are getting ever so closer. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Social Networking is big here at the KCCGD which is why it’s great to see stuff like Darius Darks of Iowa State using Facebook to garner support for the him and the team. We’re surprised we don’t see official football pages on facebook now and hope that some schools pick it up for the future.
- Former Alabama Crimson Tide coach Bill Curry will play his former team in 2010 as the head coach for the first year program Georgia State. It’s always good to see former coaches go against their team. Chances are this game will be out of hand, but an upset would be nice.
- Iowa offensive linemen Kyle Calloway got the hook from the cops for tooling around town on a moped while intoxicated. So Kyle will lose a game and get some counselling for running into a barricade on the little bike. The image of a big drunk linemen on a tiny moped is hilarious. Kids: don’t do that at home.
- So after the Ron Prince debacle, it seems another former official for the K-State athletic department is getting a sweet deal. Pile that on top of a nasty audit, and what we have here is a good ole fashion free for all in Manhattan. The Purple Yeti will be clutching his checkbook tightly for the next year or two until this gets settled.
- Help William & Mary find a new mascot! Since April 1 they’ve been taking submissions and it’s growing everyday. As we’re sure you know about the Mascot Monday here and how mascots are near and dear to our hearts. Take part and let’s see who wins! I’m voting for the question mark.
Flipping through the Sunday paper, I couldn’t help notice how light it seemed. Not just the whole paper, but specifically the comics section. I remember back in the day there were at least 8 full pages of colorized comics to pour through. Being a kid at the time was great. Nowadays it may be four and many of the classics moved aside to make room for the ‘parents with a newborn’ comic copycats. What does this have to do with mascots? When researching some candidates, I discovered that this week’s inductee just happens to be inspired by a classic comic strip. After reading some more on Peter the Anteater, I knew we had to tell this mascot’s 3 paned story.
Continue reading Mascot Monday: Peter the Anteater →
College Sports, Kansas City style
