Only this time it’s smaller. Presidential hopeful Rick Perry open his mouth and pulled a Jay Nixon by saying that there are talks between Texas A&M and the SEC for a big move. Next thing you know, the whole damn college football world is on fire. Red fire! I’ve chosen to stay out of this one over the weekend. If I learned anything last year, it’s that nowadays rumors are 95% of the ‘reports’ out there and the other 5% has a shred of truth to it. So as of right now, the SEC is staying chill, The Texas A&M president has power to explore realignment as well as take his time, the NCAA may get involved, and Rick Perry now says he doesn’t expect Texas A&M to leave. If you’re asking me what will happen, I’m saying that A&M is out at the end of the BCS contract (2014). Why? The Big 12 will blow up after the restructure of the BCS and somehow, sadly, Texas finds the vacated ‘Notre Dame Automatic Bid’ and dumps the conference. The rest of the teams fill out the Mountain West, Big 10, and SEC.
So yes, a Big 12 North guy is now in the heart of most of the North’s rivals, Texas. I moved down here for the job and got the side benefits of being in the belly of the football beast. Granted there’s no more North or South, but I do get tout my Kansas State pride a little more because of the recent record we’ve had against them. Back to my point. The Longhorns are burnt orange color because that’s what the grass looks like most of the time. It’s either wildfires, winter, or both. It’s a good think this week’s Crib Sheet is inflammable:
It’s that time of year. It’s time to pop open the windows and enjoy the weather a bit. Summer is just right around the corner and I’m happy that I’m not breathing recycled air at night. It’s a good time of the year for college football, too. The bones inside the players, the coaches, and the fans are just starting to itch. Warmer weather means practice is getting closer and games are not that far off. It’s especially exciting with the prospect of being the only kind of organized football on in the fall. Tune in later this year but in the meantime, hit up the Crib Sheet:
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:
With tornadoes blowing down south and southeast, wildfires burning all of Texas, rain and hail pelting the land, and Missouri levees falling apart, it seems like the whole world is falling apart. But it’s merely weather changing bits and pieces of the land. There can be bigger changes afoot across the land. I have one coming up very quickly. But first let me spit out a kind of late Crib Sheet. Take notes and then take cover:
ESPN’s David Ubben talks about the quiet action taking place at Kansas State. Bill Snyder 2.0’s all quiet about the major transfers they have coming into the season. I’ll talk more about the kids later. David Ubben should know by now that Snyder is a master of saying nothing while talking alot. Hey, he did a pretty good job covering the new turf that’s going up at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
UMass will pull an upgrade in the football program and join the MAC starting in 2012. There’s plenty of room at the big boy table if you have the cash to pay the entry fee.
Here’s a couple of numbers regarding the unequal TV distribution of Big 12 money. It seems it’s a lot closer than disparate and if you look at profit of the athletic departments it’s about the same as the Big 10 (who has equal TV revenue distribution).
Big Mo at Missouri is need of a face lift and the fraternities in charge are asking for help to replace it. I suggest a giant drum machine instead so they can rock out some hip hop chants.
The hammer is falling down hard on Ohio State’s Jim Tressel and the NCAA is bearing the handle. They are rebuking him big time for withholding information about known violations and what not. Could he be out of the job by the start of the season?
9 of the 11 members of a panel who will review the Fiesta Bowl’s status in the BCS went on paid for junkets by the Fiesta Bowl in the past. Methinks that Fiesta Bowl should get off, right? People will complain about this but they will forget pretty soon.
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.
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.
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.
Spring is in the air and unfortunately, some of it stinks. Now I could be talking about the Fiesta Bowl scandal or perhaps the NFL lockout. Nope, it’s none of that. It’s the fact that I have to suffer through another summer of baseball before the real American pasttime takes the stage. Fortunately for me I have the Crib Sheet to keep my occupied. Oh and thank you Beano Cook for being awesome.
A former Texas A&M coach said that Willie Lyes, the same guy who was paid $25,000 from Oregon and is under NCAA investiagion, approached him and stated that he had beat $80,000 for a star recruit. With all of this money blowing up and flowing around college football, it was onlya a matter of time that recruitment services looking to get a cut of the pic made moves like these.
The Pac 10 is open for business and they’re letting the world know it. The exclusive negotiating rights for Fox expired and now it’s time to shop the conference across all of the television networks. Oh, they’ll get bank. It’s the big time now.
ESPN filed suit against Conference USA for dipping into the FX deal for prime time football games. It’s always cute when television stations and football conferences fight.
Soslan Gagloev was a Russian in Japan’s waters and kicking it sumo style. And he was winning. But he was busted for weed and now he’s playing some college football at Webber International Univeristy. Defensive back he ain’t. That said, sumo and any other kind of wrestling requires leverage work and that applies fantastically to line work in football. He should do alright.
Here’s a shocker: drug policies across all facets of college sports completely varies in policy. I think the AP suggests to streamline the whole process.
Colt McCoy’s younger brother, Case, is looking to take the reigns for the Texas Longhorns. He had a stellar spring practice. Who knows? Maybe that magic can happen again.
Speaking of Texas, their new network will be called the ‘Longhorn Network.’ There’s no deal for satellite deistributors but I’m guessing that it will blow up once they annoucne a couple of football games on the network.
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.
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?
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:
We’ll get to the big story of the week in the Crib Sheet, but first I wanted to preface that by saying, ‘Huh?’ I can understand that tradition is the lifeline of college football. I get that. I’m just having a hard time imagining why there’s all of this hooplah surrounding the first news item. I mean when I went to K-State, we used to toss spray painted chickens on the court before the Kansas again. PETA was all up in arms and that was it. It seems like everyone in the world is sad about this latest stunt. Read on for the story:
Back again and were in love. The Crib Sheet today reminds us that every single thing, including the offseason lull, makes up the whole of our love for college football. Now, I’m not going to get all smushy and corny, but I will say that if college football was a person, I would hand it a candied heart that says, “Don’t Stop.” Now on to the Crib Sheet:
So a thrid party approached Wisconsin and TCU about a week and half after the Rose Bowl to see if they were interested in an opening day rematch next year. Wisconsin was all about it and TCU had better things to do. My guess that someone from the Big 10 couldn’t stand a mid-con whupping up on a stalwart in the hallowed gardens of the rose. This bit of news just made my day.
So instead of using students to make sure Kansas players go to class, the school is using really old people. It’s like the movie Red without the bullets and missles. I guess it’s a dream job for that retiree who wants to relive the glory days of Kansas and it’s great basketball team and weak football team.
Congrats to former Kansas State alum Jordy Nelson on his Green Bay Packers Super Bowl win. The game was pretty entertaining as I watched with friends. Maybe Jordy took a chunk out of Cowboys Stadium like I did for Chowboys Stadium? INSERT PHOTO
It looks like college football will once again try to emulate the NFL by adopting some of their rules again. The biggest one seems to be the 10 second run off rule. Let’s just hope that college football doesn’t adopt the ridiculous overtime rules the NFL had for the playoffs. INSERT LINK
Ruh-roh. The Fiesta Bowl hired a lawyer that specializes in the federal crime defense. I wonder what’s going on here? Maybe that Playoff Action Committee is pushing the right buttons? Or is the fact that chairman John Junker being placed on administrative leave have something to do with it? It looks like he dumped some money on politicians. I’m not sure this will damage the BCS but this will get interesting.
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has a bromance with Justin Bieber of all people. It seems Bieber has Gundy’s “I’m a Man! I’m 40!” rant as a ringtone and Gundy has a Bieber song on his. Oh that’s so cute.
It’s the middle of the bowl season and we’ve had some great games so far. What’s cool about this time right now, is that coaches are making jumps left and right, either to the NFL or back down from the NFL. Players are also declaring their intentions for the big time as well. So while we try to keep up with who’s going where and who’s staying, we get some great bowl action left. Well, at least through Monday. Until then, here’s the Crib Sheet:
So Kansas State got burned on an excessive celebration penalty in their loss in the Pinstripe Bowl to Syracuse. A simple salute to the fans cost the Wildcats 15 yards and a missed shot for a 2 point conversion to tie the game up. The officials had some lame-o explanation and because of that it may be reviewed next year. Overall the game was pretty sloppy for the Wildcats but you can’t end the game on a penalty.
One of our favorite mascots, Georgia’s UGA (number VIII this time), missed the Liberty Bowl trip due to a sickness. Let’s wish him a good recovery. If you remember this UGA took over duties because to previous died at a very early age.
Florida’s on a rampage. We know they got Will Muschamp from under Texas as their new head coach. Now they signed up Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss. I figured Weiss was a short termer for the Chiefs but leaving so soon to go back to college is kind of a scratcher. Maybe he will have free reign?
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:
