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.
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:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: The Road to Austin Bekons →
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:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: Weeping Willows →
The bowl season ended Monday and there was a ton of news that happened over the last week. It’s mostly who’s coming and who’s going. It’s what I like to call the Carousel Hell. So put your seatbelt on get ready to go round and round, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Mike Leach’s legal battle with Texas Tech may have cost him the Maryland job. He said that he thought he was the frontrunner, but the Terps went with UConn coach Mike Edsall. He hasn’t been contacted by other schools at the moment.
- RichRod is officially out of Michigan now. Blow up the program part two. It makes me warm inside to think the same thing that happened to Nebraska a couple of years ago with Bill Callahan is now happening with another team I dislike immensely. Good days.
- It’s even better for Brady Hoke. The former Michigan alum and former San Diego State head coach is now your new Michigan head coach. They wanted a Michigan man and they got one. I give it about another 3 years before a turnaround happens.
- After showing up Michigan’s Denard Robinson and holding the team to 14 points, Manny Diaz will take his talents to Texas as defensive coordinator. He leaves Mississippi State and will be belting buckles in Austin. Let’s hope he didn’t fall for that ‘coach in waiting’ stuff.
- No surprises here. Fox has the rights to the Pac 12 Championship Game. They already show conference games on Fox Sports Net so it makes sense they do the title game.
- The Playoff PAC is looking to stir up some smoke on the BCS. They are filing a complaint with the IRS regarding a cruise the Orange Bowl put on for college athletic directors over the summer. Shady or not, this seems like arrows instead of missiles for the Playoff PAC people. If there’s going to be a change, they can’t dink and dunk it.
- Stanford’s Andrew Luck is staying behind for another year of college. This will make Blaine Gabbertt a sexier pick for the NFL Draft coming up in a couple of months. He’ll have to battle for the top quarterback spot with Arkansas’ Ryan Mallet, though. Gabbert may see his Aldon Smith in the NFL as well.
- So TCU won the Rose Bowl. Someone then paid for a billboard congratulating the team. Except it was in Columbus, Ohio. Yeah someone with big pockets wanted to rub it in the Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee’s face. He was running his mouth earlier about the mid-con teams not being worthy and now I guess he gets to eat crow.
- Speaking of the Horned Frogs, head coach Gary Patterson notched himself a 2 year extension with the program. You go undefeated in two regular seasons, you deserve that and a ham sandwich.
- Stud Oklahoma receiver Ryan Broyles will be coming back for another year.
- A Boise State assitant coach is going to big time. By big time I mean Texas Offensive Coordinator. It seems Mack Brown and company lured Bryan Harsin away from the Broncos to infuse the team with a flashier offense.
- Texas Tech told the NCAA that they texted too much. That’s alliteration. And that’s the news!
- Head BCS Honcho Bill Hancock reminded everyone that a playoff is way below in priority for the college bowl partners. He said that even the old way of bowls would be considered first. Seriously, he does a great job of stirring the pot.
- Kansas State athletic director John Currie also gets a two year extension to his contract chock full of some tasty incentives. He’s done an alright job. The goal now is to maintain it.
- The BCS Championship Game happened Monday and it garnished the best cable ratings ever. Yet, the actual viewership is down. This is what happens when the biggest game of the year ends up on cable. Seriously, why didn’t Disney toss the game on ABC instead of ESPN? Television is becoming more live sport driven than anything else. Still, until I can replicate the experience of a sports bar in my basement, I will be going out for the games.
- LSU’s Les Miles went to Michigan to talk about an open job but decided to stay with the Tigers. Listen up childrens, this is the classic strategy head coaches employ to get them off the hot seat or get a raise.
- Man we feel for UGA VIII, the mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs. He didn’t make the trip to the bowl game last week and now we know why. UGA VIII has lymphoma. Jinkies, is the team as cursed as this dog is?
- Former South Florida football coach Jim Leavitt settled out of court for some extra cash from the school. He was canned for reportedly striking a walk on student. He’s a defensive guy and because of that, the rumors are now flying about Leavitt coming back to Kansas State to take a defensive coordinator position. Tune in next week, this is getting hotter.
We are knee-deep in some serious day job related stuff but fortunately we build the Crib Sheet piece by piece, day by day. Here ya go:
- Much of the details of last week’s agreement between the Big 12 and outgoing schools Nebraska and Colorado came out. Dan Beebe talked about why Nebraska has to pay $9 million and Colorado has to pay $6 million. Also, don’t look for expansion anytime soon. They haven’t decided on how to divvy out the cash, but chances are it will be the same formula used for the revenue sharing in general.
- Irish eyes will be smiling when Notre Dame will play Navy in Ireland 2012. We’re not sure where they will play but more than likely there’s a good chance they’ll all go out together after the game and get drunk.
- In preparation for last week’s game against Boise State, Oregon State coaches had their practice field painted blue. That’s some great thinking there. It’s almost like using loud speakers to emulate crowd noise except messier.
- Communication issues have tormented Turner Gill and the Kansas Jayhawks. His solution? Yanking cell phones from players the day before the game and then giving it back in the locker room after the game. How will the players wake up in the morning or talk to their mothers? I guess that’s what computers are for. We wonder how many more losses it will take for Gill to yank computer privileges too.
- The NCAA leaped to action regarding the issue of sports agents and collegiate players by writing a letter. A letter. They asked for cooperation. Nothing else. Just another reason the NCAA needs to upgrayedd or just disband. These guys are getting real irrelevant.
- The Playoff PAC, the special interest group formed to blow away the BCS and instill a college football playoff, will file a complaint with the IRS regarding the tax status of the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowl. They used a load of lawyers and one accountant to pick apart the tax returns and public documents of the BCS bowls and found that some loans and director salaries were just too much. Whether the IRS will remove the tax status, we won’t know. But we do know that the Playoff PAC is digging into every crook and cranny to blow away the BCS.
- Meanwhile, the PAC 10 is thinking about having their title game in Las Vegas. Okay that’s a little crazy as there is no team in the Pac 10 from Nevada. It is centrally located, but they need to have it in California.
- Texas is signing up another (somewhat) tough opponent in Maryland for the 2017 and 2018 season. Will this be the game on the Longhorns Network?
- Because of past troubles, USC will be barred from playing the Pac 10 Championship Game in 2012, if they are good enough to get there. Bide your time Trojan fans. Once Lane Kiffin blows up your program and you rebuild, you’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of the title game.
- It seems Landry Jones of Oklahoma will have a higher calling after he is done calling plays. Jones says he’s 98% sure that he wants to become a pastor after football. Just goes to show you all walks of life come to play football. We wonder how many Hail Marys he’s tossed compared how many he’s recited.
- He’s just hanging with Tim Brewster. He’s not going for the head coaching job. That’s what Minnesota is saying after Mark Mangino was spotted on the sidelines of a game, supporting his buddy. Minnesota should’ve gotten right out in front of this. There is no way no one would not recognize Mark Mangino hanging out on the sidelines. The nose bleeder seats would’ve been able to see him.
- Apparently along with the no cell phone rule for players, Turner Gill’s Kansas Jayhawks can’t be with the ladies after 10 pm. That’s a harsh rule. It’s on any night. Do mothers count? Like as in visit and talk to. Keep your mind out of the gutters, people.
- Nick Saban said his Alabama team should be set to face Michigan in the Jerry Jones Super Mega Cowboys Stadium Dome in 2012. It sounds like more college games will be played there than pro games. It’s good for Dallas we suppose.
- Looks like Kansas backup, and former starter, Kale Pick will be out a couple of weeks with a leg injury. Not sure if he will ever see a snap again.
- Bill Snyder 2.0 is starting to look alot like the first version. The Wildcats snagged a top ranked junior college quarterback Justin Tuggle from Blinn, much like another former one by the name of Michael Bishop. This looks to be the next year.
- The NHL’s Stanley Cup showed up at the Notre Dame game last week. It will be awhile before the Fighting Irish will see another title of any kind down in South Bend.
- Strange things are afoot for Missouri. First off, cornerback Munir Prince left the team due to the transient quadriplegia he suffered in the preseason. If he plays anymore it could get permanent. Next up, senior safety Jasper Simmons has been suspended indefinitely from the team. He had knee surgery after the Illinois game. Are they just trying to drop a scholarship or something? At any rate, some very unusual things are going down in Columbia.
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.
- Meanwhile, Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe spent most of his time this week drumming up support for more TV exposure for the conference. Part of which includes tossing around the idea of making the new Cowboys Stadium the permanent home for the Big 12 title game. Beebe needs to hurry up because the other big television friendly conferences are pushing out further and further.
College Sports, Kansas City style
