The coaching carousel is almost at a stop and now we are getting closer to signing day. Who will go where? I don’t know. But one thing I do know is the Crib Sheet will keep you updated with all of the latest commitments and decommitments:
- With TCU heading to the Big East, it seems that are also heading to the big time in recruiting. Local star, Brandon Carter changed his commitment from the venerable Oklahoma Sooners over to the Horned Frogs. Maybe the Texas kids are thinking they can shine better in the Big East than the tougher Big 12?
- Jim Leavitt is going to the big time. Not Kansas State Defensive Coordinator, but San Fransisco 49ers linebackers coach. It stinks for Wildcats fans as they were hoping Leavitt would come in and fix the defense. Maybe Bill Snyder 2.0 has something else up this sleeve? Meanwhile, defensive backs coach Keith Burns is taking his show back to Ole Miss.
- ESPN and the Texas Longhorns reached a 20 year, $300 million deal for a Longhorns Network. The school will be up for a tasty profit while the broadcast network will food the technical bills. Is this the end of the Big 12? Check back here in about 2 years.
- Texas Tech dropped TCU from their schedule last year and they are doing it for the upcoming season. It seems they need some room for the tougher Big 12 schedule.
- Speaking of the Red Raiders, a Texas judges tossed out a portion of Mike Leach’s suit against the university, only allowing non-monetary claims for the firing of Leach over Adam James’ concussion. If you’re wondering why Leach has yet to be yired, look no further than here.
- It seems Kansas is picking up the trail on the recruiting side of things. Turner Gill’s stealing recruits from neighboring states. I’m guessing his pitch is like this, “I’m a Nebraska guy that’s still in the Big 12. Kansas will be the new Nebraska of the Big 12.” That can seal some kids right there.
- Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops coached the Harlem Globetrotters Sunday. I wonder if he got to toss the bucket of confetti on the ref during the game?
- Fired sportscaster Ron Franklin is suing ESPN over the incident where he called a woman, “Sweetheart” in a production meeting. She objected and he called her an a-hole. I don’t know what to think about this. In the workplace, you can’t trust anyone when you say something because they may be out to get you canned, especially if it’s gender-related. I would say it’s safer to just be quiet and act professional. That said, “sweetheart” and “a-hole” is a pretty weak case to get fired over.
- Here’s your BCS payout sheet. So the Big 12 was on the lower tier of payouts for the 6 BCS Conferences. Not bad, but if they had 2 teams in the BCS bowls then they would’ve been up higher. Notre Dame gets a pretty good chunk for being independent. The argument against the BCS right here is that the small guys are getting the smaller piece of the pie. I will merely point to TCU and how they are moving up by winning.
- Some donors have high expectations. Take Robert G. Burton, major booster for UConn. Apparently he doesn’t like the athletic director and wants his $3 million in donations back and his name taken off the stadium. I’m pretty sure once you donate something, you can’t expect to get it back. But then again, if I had that kind of cash then I’d feel like I can run anything, too.
- Ex Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins agreed to a $4,000 fine for improperly receiving exercise equipment as a gift. This should be the last we hear of this guy.
- 12 Iowa football players were hospitalized for kidney issues related to offseason workouts. What’s going up there? Between drugs, legal issues, and now improper condition, this team is falling apart. Yet, they beat Missouri in the Insight Bowl. Just think, if all of this stuff was gone, they might have contended for a Big 10 title for real.
- Welp, since TCU is leaving the Mountain West Conference, the conference retaliated by changing the site of the Boise State game with the Horned Frogs back to Idaho. It was supposed to be at TCU’s home field. Way to get your revenge, mid-con.
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.
There’s just so much to chew on from the first week of college football, we’ll just make the intro real quick. On to the Crib Sheet:
- Freshly on its own, BYU signed a deal with ESPN and Notre Dame to be shown exclusively and play, respectively. They are stepping out fresh in their independence but we don’t think they’ll get as strong as their Irish counterparts.
- The Big 10 now has divisions, so we’ll see how balanced they are in the next couple of years. The big news is breaking up Michigan and Ohio State. Since they will be the ‘yearly rival’, there’s a big chance that they could play each other again in the Big 10 Championship Game.
- Even though, Derrick Washington was booted from the team, the Missouri Tigers beat up on Illinois last Saturday. It took some time for them to find their rhythm but once they did, they looked sharp. Apparently athletic director Mike Alden said that protecting the school was the number one priority when it came between Washington and the allegations. Way to go 810 AM and Kevin Kietzman, you seem to get everyone to talk.
- The face behind the mask of the mascot for Penn State, notched an MIP for underage drinking. Clint Gyory got busted and now he’s suspended from his mascot duties. It just goes to show that football players aren’t the other ones who have to watch what they do in their free time.
- In what’s become the major theme to begin the season, another player will miss games for accepting sports agent gifts. This time it’s Alabama’s Marcell Dareus. They should suspend him for key games. Doing this at the beginning of the year means they miss the cakewalk part of the schedule.
- At the very last second, Jeremiah Masoli’s appeal was approved and he was cleared to play for Ole Miss. It didn’t help them however, as Division II school Jacksonville St. ended up beating Ole Miss in 2 overtimes. I caught the end of the game and no doubt it’s on the top so far for game of the year.
- Boise State assistant Keith Abu Bhonapha got a DUI. He should be off the team.
- North Carolina was one play away from possibly winning the game against LSU last Saturday. What’s more than amazing is that they did it with a ton of suspended players. About half of the starters didn’t play due to NCAA investigations. We’re not sure if it shows how tough the Tar Heels could be or how weak LSU looks.
- TCU coach Gary Patterson gave credit to ESPN’s Lee Corso for inspiring the Horned Frogs to a come from behind win against Oregon State last Saturday. Patterson used the right amount of moto-mojo to get his team over the tough Beavers.
- Looks like Nebraska’s schedule in the Big 10 will start out tough. There’s no surprise there. The new boys in town will get beat up for a couple of years to show that current members are strong.
- After the embarrassing loss to North Dakota State, Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins retired Tuesday. He was going to retire next year, but the school (and the boosters) decided to cough up the money to get him out of there sooner. We don’t know who the replacement AD, not interim, will be and now we don’t know who the starting quarterback will be. Man basketball season can’t come any faster for the Jayhawks.
- Apparently Reggie Bush may be stripped of his Heisman. I guess that’s what happens when it’s discovered that you might have been ineligible during your run in college. He would be the first. How many other Heisman winners may have been ineligible? Should we investigate everyone and find out?
- In MASSIVE conference expansion news, Cal Poly and UC Davis will be joining the Big Sky Conference. At first we thought it was just a conference of country bars, but with this new development we see the Big Sky in a different light.
- ESPN kicked off ESPN3D last year during the BCS Championship Game and now they have an updated schedule that started with the Boise State and Virginia Tech game. So far so good, according to the review. We’re anxious to get our eyes on it when it becomes mainstream about 20 years from now.
- Speaking of the Broncos, they jumped to #3 in both polls. Looks like if they can keep up the blowouts, they will be a contender. Meanwhile, David Ubben runs down the votes for the Big 12 teams. It’s pretty much the big 3 in the top 25 (Texas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma) then about 5 teams about a stone’s throw from the 25 threshold. If they can keep it up, we may see more Big 12 teams up there.
The heat is on. It’s on the street. Oh Glenn Fry, you save us from the sultry steam of summer with your cool saxaphone riff and Eddie Murphy praising rock music. Yes, the heat is mos def on as we hit our first hot spot of the summer. It’s just in time, too, as the rain left us watching the Beverly Hills Cop series 10 times over, including the terrible 3rd part. Cabin fever, indeed. So we’re hitting the pool this week and dreaming of the new college football season while laying in our floaties sipping some cold beverages. Hit up the Crib Sheet then do the same.
- The Kansas ticket scandal has a couple of new charges against former athletic department staffers Brandon Simmons and Jason Jeffries. They both were dinged with a count of misprision of a felony. It seems they are lining up the small bananas to get to the big gorillas in the case.
- Even if USC goes undefeated this season, they will not be ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll. This is what happens when you have recruiting violations. Lane Kiffin has a long time to wait to rebuild the program.
- ESPN and the ACC agreed to a 12 year deal which has links to all football games, including some basketball and other non revenue making sports. This looks like something that the Big 12 (10) will get into once they start negotiating their deals.
- Alabama moved its game against Georgia to a Thursday night and now because of that change, the students get a day off. Education is way more important than football. Well, not in Alabama we guess.
- Okay, here’s the Crib Sheet’s weekly police blotter: Iowa defensive end Broderick Binns arrested for drunk driving, Tennessee players Da’Rick Rogers and Darren Myles Jr. got charged for assault after a bar fight, North Carolina’s Quan Sturdivant was arrested last Saturday for possession of marijuana, and Georgia’s Dontavious Jackson and Tavarres King were arrested for drunk driving and MIP, respectively. The Bulldogs kicked the last two to the suspension dog house.
- Erin Andrews shook her almost clothed tail and now will be joining the College Game Day crew with her newly resigned contract for ESPN. If you remember, Andrews was the penultimate sideline reporter babe that ran into some peeping issues and used it to get onto Dancing With the Stars. Let’s hope she wears the same clothing for the football show.
- The gates are about to flood open with Big 12 (10) schools launching their own television networks. Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri of all schools are looking to make some cash off their own television rights. Will this set the trend for the rest of the schools across the nation? Tune in to find out.
- ESPN’s Big 12 blogger David Ubben talks about the uphill battle that Turner Gill has with his offensive line, now that starting junior tackle Jeff Spikes injured his Achilles tendon and is out for the year. I would for Kansas to fill out the bottom the Big 12 (10) North this year. The new coach has way too many broken parts and the once touted line is now depleted.
- This is a college football blog so we would be remiss not to mention that George Steinbrenner died of a heart attack this week. He used to be an assistant football coach for Northwestern.
- Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins is too busy preparing for retirement to pursue the charge of blackmail against William Dent. His job is saved and will be cruising toward closing the door on his career late next year so he really doesn’t need to recoup anything from this guy.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5363743
Texas saved the Big 12, or what we are going to call it: the Big 12 (10). The Pac 10 wouldn’t let Texas have its own network so the Longhorns opted to stay. When the Big 12 (10) first started years ago, it was because of TV and money. They led the way into the new television era and now they are doing it again. In the future, you will see each school have its own television network and it will start with Texas and the Big 12 (10). Okay, maybe Notre Dame. At any rate, Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M are getting more money to stay now. Apparently, it’s status quo time as no real commitment will be required and they are basing staying together by some magic coalition of insiders and outsiders. It’s a 10 team league with no potential for a championship game and more round robin type play on the field. Most importantly, Kansas City has some life in its sports scene now. So let’s all take a breath and check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
- The Oregon Ducks dismissed quarterback Jeremiah Masoli for drug possession and other citations. It looks as though this is no LeGarrette Blount situation. Masoli is out for good for the Quack Attack.
- The NCAA dropped the hammer down on USC and instituted a 2 year postseason ban and some lost scholarships due to recruiting violations. No wonder Pete Carroll bolted after last season.
- Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins is cleared for any wrongdoing in the blackmail of equipment case. His job is safe for now, but he still needs to clear the hurdle on ticket scandal.
- Missouri got the could shoulder big time and the local indie newspaper The Pitch talks about how hard they go the shaft. Poor Tigers. They’ve been talking smack the loudest in all of this and now they’ve been reduced to abandonment. At least they are used to it.
- Chip Brown, the guy who broke most of the actual news in this expansion talk, confirmed that last Friday was the day that Nebraska went official and joined the Big 10. It’s still early to tell, but this guy has been the one who has called it so far so we’ll trust him when he says something else is up.
- Boise State will now be in the Mountain West Conference. They were tired of dominating the WAC for so long and decided to up the competition by playing TCU and Utah every year. Will this be enough to put the Mountain West on the BCS map? Well, considering the Big 12 (10) is still around, they will have a much harder time getting there.
- Here’s the preliminary Big 12 (10) television schedule. Interesting match ups include the UCLA at K-State, Florida State at Oklahoma, and the losers leave game with Colorado and Nebraska taking each other on.
- So the Pac 10 lost out on some Big 12 powerhouses and we’ve learned that commissioner Larry Scott flew to Texas and Oklahoma, but was also scheduled to make it to Kansas City. Was Kansas a backup plan? We don’ t have to worry about it for now.
- Stanley Ikenberry, interim president for Illinois, says that 12 is a good number for the Big 10. After all that’s happened so far, we think that he means that it’s good but it could get better. Don’t be surprised if the Big 10 starts going on the hunt again, maybe even real soon.
- Dan Beebe in his working with keeping the Big 12 (10) alive, knocked his hometown conference’s fan allegiance. He says that they are about as fair weather as Missouri fans when it comes to athletic competitions. Man he pulled out all the punches for this one.
- Speaking of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon ran his mouth off again dissing outgoing schools Colorado and Nebraska. This guy pretty much shut out the Tigers from going to the Big 10 and now his state’s school needs to rebuild some bridges burned. That means he needs to get out of this and let the school handle it, please.
- The Oklahoma Sooners are interested in a television network, too. You know, instead of conference wide networks, it makes sense to do school specific. It’s the next natural progression and would benefit each school in showing other athletic events and possibly cultural and governmental ones too.
Welp, Armageddon has come. Nebraska is going to the Big 10. After the speculation, the rumors, and the threat of the Big 12 South going to the Pac 10, we have our first major move in the modern era of expansion. The Big 12 meetings last week provided some ultimatums and some wishy-washy talk. Now it looks as though Friday is the day for the official announcement from the Cornhuskers. After that, it seems the Big 12 South, sans Baylor and including Colorado, will be going to the Pac 10. The rest of the teams, well, they are left behind. Kansas City will become a ghost of a sports town. Besides all of this depressing talk, there was other news this week. Here’s the Crib Sheet:
So the athletic director and coaches meetings for the Big 12 are in Kansas City this week and the Crib Sheet is here to fill you in. We’ll start out this week with the beginnings of the meeting and then wrap up Thursday’s and Friday’s talk next week. Dan Beebe held a press conference to field questions about the first day of talks. The big picture? The league is heading into media negotiations with excitement next year because of the money the ACC got from ESPN. But they need to stay together and Beebe would like to know if they are a soon as possible, even though he knows it won’t happen. Among his case for staying together was that potential for more money, the disruption of balance in the league that could force some regulatory structuring, and that the Big 10 could very well do nothing. Beebe says it’s a young conference and would like to see it grow old together with the members. Will it happen? We’ll find out next year, but in the meantime here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- The Big East wants the NCAA to study whether or not the on field head official should be in charge of overturning instant replay calls instead of the in-booth official. We don’t think this works out to well because even though the head official is in the flow of the game, the in booth official has better looks at close plays.
- Dennis Dodd over at CBS Sports reiterates what we have been saying about Rich Rodriquez: he’s on the hot seat big time this season. Dodd puts the odds at 8-4 and a bowl appearance for him to keep his job. Any takers?
- Nebraska’s top receiver Niles Paul got his 2nd MIP and a ticket for urinating in public last week. If he keeps it up, he might be kicked off the team.
- The NCAA extended its catastrophic insurance for student athletes up through 2013. A student athlete could receive up to $20 million in lifetime benefits if they get hurt during practice or competition. That’s a pretty sweet deal.
- The cause behind the Urban Meyer drama last year finally came out. Meyer stated he had esophageal spasms and that he has some meds to take for it. The pain from the spasms made it ultra painful to eat. Hopefully the medication will work and he can continue on in his work.
- The latest road block from Texas Tech didn’t work. The judge in the case states that Mike Leach can move forward in his lawsuit against the university for his firing late last year. Notch one win for the pirates. It’s going to be quite the naval battle between these two.
- Even though Oklahoma is under some potential violations, the Sooners sent a letter to the NCAA stating that they meet the requirements set by the NCAA for their probation. A probation period that came from recruiting violations and is expiring soon. So they are out of the woods but could be right back in it soon.
- Some officials from Kansas are caught up in a ticket scandal that diverted a couple of million in tickets to 3rd parties for personal gain. Most of the 6 officials involved have either left or been fired. Meanwhile, athletic director Lew Perkins stated he didn’t know it was going on. This shouldn’t hurt the athletics department in terms of probation and what not, but Perkins image is damaged and the school has not only money to recoup but the Feds sniffing around for more.
- On to football, the Big 12 meetings this week let loose some football schedule nuggets. The Border War will be on Fox Sports Net on November 27th at 11:30 am. The Sunflower Showdown moved from Saturday to Thursday night October 14th on Fox Sports Net at 6:30 pm. Mark your calendars. Also, note that it’s exclusively on Fox. Testing for media numbers for the upcoming negotiations anyone?
- Apparently some exercise equipment loaned to Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins has come around to bite him in the form of a blackmail scheme. A former disgruntled employee, Bill Dent, tried to extort money in exchange for keeping quiet about the equipment. Dent also says that Perkins received the equipment in exchange for tickets. We’ll find out what happens here. Perkins says he is a victim, because the company that loaned the equipment went under and didn’t recover the gear.
- Meanwhile at the Big 12 meetings this week, Lew Perkins talked about that as well some talk about the expansion speculation. The big takeaway? He says expansion is a super serious threat and that Kansas may or may not have been contacted by the Big 10. Diversion tactic is a go!
It’s the middle of May and many of the big time conferences are in the middle of meetings. Athletic directors and coaches nationwide are now meeting to check up on things and discuss to goings on of their respective schools. Now usually, this will blow over with not much of a drop of news to report. This year, however, it’s getting bigger attention because of the expansion talk coming from the Big 10. Where last year there might have been one or two beat writers covering the meeting, this year it’s a media hoopla. No, the KCCGD Crib Sheet did not travel to the Big 10 meeting, but the Big 12 one is in Kansas City next week so we may crash that party. In the meantime, read up on our Big 10 expansion series and check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Blair Kerkhoff speculated last week how Kansas City could be affected with Missouri and/or Nebraska leaving the conference. We’ll cover it later this week, but this is a nice roundup of how serious of a move this is for the local area.
- Rivalries could be affected as well, especially with Kansas and Missouri. Lew Perkins hinted heavily last week that Kansas might have a hard time doing a rivalry game if it wasn’t in conference. Big time decisions with consequences are fun for Missouri right now.
- Mike Sherman’s been away to Iraq talking to Aggie troops. He went out there for the Aggie Muster, which is a roll call of fallen Texas A&M soldiers on April 21. He ended up being late and had to stay later due to the Iceland volcano blowing ash. Sherman’s got our respect here for spending his own dough and sticking through to keep up the tradition.
- Notre Dame and Miami are looking to renew their rivalry. Sounds good to us. Back in the day, this game meant national championships. Today, well, these teams are struggling to get back to the big time. Maybe this renewed tussle will help them get back on the track.
- It seems like there is some trouble going on over in Lawrence. We might have not mentioned it before, but there is a big brewhaha over former fundraiser Rodney Jones’ abuse over tickets and plane ride solicitations. On the field, first stringer defensive tackle Jamal Greene is off the team because of his arrest for a little breaking and entering and armed robbery. At least they are cleaning things up now.
- The speculation for the Big Ten expansion now grows toward the Sun Belt, according the head honcho Jim Delany. Let the fake reports triple because of this.
- Bennie F. Abram, the Ole Miss player who collapsed and died on the field during a workout, had the sickle-cell trait. The enlarged heart due to that caused the seizure. When will the NCAA institute a rule that monitors this disease in football players? Every year there’s a new kid that dies because of this. Where is the clamor?
College Sports, Kansas City style
