I’m sure you’ve seen my previous post about the major move down to Austin yesterday. Yeah I’m still pretty shocked myself and I’m the one that knew about it for over month. Never fear, we’ll still chug along and it continues today with this week’s Crib Sheep:
- Missouri players get together and bond by paintballing. I’ve never done it myself but I imagine pelting someone square in the chest with a faux bullet brings some sort of joy.
- Even though there’s a contest at quarterback this spring for Kansas State, Collin Klein shoulders all of the expectations going into next season. Meanwhile, Bill Snyder 2.0 is trying to use that competition to blow the steam off of former #1 recruit Bryce Brown.
- They already are bucking tradition by introducing a championship game, so it makes sense that Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany is trying to push for later start times on games. Everyone knows the Big 10 starts mega early, with the Big 12, so why go and change it? I want to maximize my football watching day.
- Speaking of the Big 10, Nebraska lost its AAU membership. Ho man that just made my week. One of the strong points for Nebraska to move was its AAU membership. Now both the Cornhuskers and the Big 10 look dumb.
- Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tubberville offered his viewpoint on the whole ‘birthers’ debate. It’s few and far between when football comments on politics. I’d rather have that then the other way around.
- The BCS set the dates for the bowl games next year, but they have to wait until the NFL cleans up its mess before they can lock it down. I’m not sure how long they will wait, as the NFL can bump a month and still have a full season.
- It looks like being a part of the big boys for Boise State means having a couple of NCAA violations attached to their program. Its secondary so they won’t suffer too much. Welcome to big time, guys.
- The Pac 12 will get a mega buck deal from Fox and ESPN, much like the Big 12. Except it’s the biggest deal in history. Too bad they have 2 more teams to split up the costs with.
- The tornadoes last week missed me while I was driving down and it missed Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide’s long snapper Carson Tinker was injured, however. Auburn is even reaching out to help the area recover from the nasty storms. Just goes to show that heated rivals will always team up against mother nature.
- No more new bowls for the next three years. The NCAA will review the licensing process in that time to determine if enough is enough. Three years is plenty time for the FBS to expand so that the bowls can expand without leaving the chance of a school with a losing record in on the fun.
- ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is taking some time out from Twitter because his Ohio State homies are bashing him for being fair. The Internet is a cruel place, Kirk. A cruel, cruel place.
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.
- A frosh lawmaker backed away from hinting that a recent bill introduced in the Texas legislature to allow former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach to sue the state was money driven. Money as in money toward the guy that introduced it. Did I mention how much I love Texas?
- 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?
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
