Tag Archives: Nebraska

Crib Sheet: Nobody Saw This Coming

Okay this close to the season and we still have major, er mid-major, moves regarding conference expansion.  So BYU started to teeter and now the WAC blew up.  Further out west there are questions of Pac 10 allegiance.  Please, will the powers that be put all of this on lockdown so we can focus on actually playing football instead of this crap.  The season is about 2 weeks away!  We’re not sure they’re listening so in the meantime, everyone else clue them into this week’s Crib Sheet:

Crib Sheet: (Not So) Secret Agent Ban

Apparently there’s still some fallout from the NCAA’s investigation of schools regarding sports agents and football players.  Read all about it below.  Our take on the whole thing?  The times they are a changing and much like any other huge organization, change comes slow.  This week’s Crib Sheet points out that while the NCAA is running around doing investigations, they are cutting drug testing budgets.  We think the NCAA needs to lean down more and seriously reconsider just how sports are played today.  On the Crib Sheet:

Crib Sheet: Camp KCCGD

It’s time to go camping!  The teams are gearing up and we geared up for our own camp adventure last week. :

Crib Sheet: Hot and Heavy

The beating heat of the summer is getting to us.  We’re producing an inordinate amount of swass underneath while compiling this week’s very beefy Crib Sheet.  We’re going for some lemonade and to air our sweat regions.  Here’s the Crib Sheet:

Crib Sheet: Media Blitz

We’ve been sacked from the Big 12 Media Days on this week’s Crib Sheet.  We’ll go over the last media day next, as we have a major pile of news dump on you.  Here we go:

Crib Sheet: Tasting a Buttload

Okay the holidays are over and we are in the middle of summer.  College football is so close right now we can taste it.  You know how we can tell?  We have a buttload of news to go over in this week’s Crib Sheet.  So enough jibba jabba, here’s the sheet:

Crib Sheet: In Bed With College Football

Okay, after a rough week of moving and celebration, we are back in the swing of things at the KCCGD headquarters.  This week’s Crib Sheet reminds us that politics and law cover college football like a blanket during the night-time of the offseason.  Sure once the sun rises in September and the action goes back on the field, it will all be forgotten.  For now, let’s take this week’s edition to plod through the behind the scenes maneuvering that will most certainly shape the year to come.

Crib Sheet: More Than Black Snakes and Pop Snaps

Summer’s in full swing and we are heading straight into one of the most celebrated holidays of the year:  Independence Day!  It’s been quiet for the last couple of weeks so we are anxious to roll out some explosives and blow some stuff up.  If anything, it will help put a sparkly glow on the news we have for you this week.  It seems the aftermath of expansion is an unending line of duds on wet bottle rockets.  So fire up the grill and we’ll fire up the display of news to blast in front of your patriotic eyes.  On to the Crib Sheet:

  • So we knew that Texas A&M received an invite from the SEC, but now it turns out that Oklahoma also got one.  The SEC was real quiet in all of the expansion frenzy and it seems they prefer to strike like a ninja instead of a minutemen.  At least we know their strategy the next time this happens.
  • Chip Brown has been the Woodward and Bernstein in the expansion saga, and Sports Illustrated gives him his due.  Brown went from sports writer at the Dallas paper to professional blogger and he’s well on his way to becoming the premiere one, next to us of course.
  • The Kansas Jayhawks hired an auditor to help police the ticketing scandal that came out in the last couple of months.  They could hook up with StubHub, as they are becoming the front door internet-wise for school specific ticket sales.  Ain’t technology grand?
  • The NCAA proposed to delay scholarships for athletes to July 1 before their senior year.  This may help cut down on recruiting kids before they even hit high school.  We’re sure Lane Kiffin is already finding away around this.   He’s going to need it with the lockdown USC has for the next couple of years.
  • Missouri might come out with their own TV network, not just Texas.  This is one advantage the Big 12 (10) has over most other conferences.  They have the freedom to create their own networks, not only for smaller sports but for arts, education, and other items.  Think public access but on a larger scale.  We’re going to see this trend quicker in the next couple of years and conference with television networks.
  • We here at the KCCGD loves the Twitter (follow us @kccgd).  We especially love how coaches are coming up with creative ways to recruit using the technology.  Look at Jim Harbaugh.  He could be quoting Greek mythology but he’s really talking about a recruit.  Great stuff indeed.
  • The Colorado Buffaloes are following Nebraska’s lead and are looking for a way to get out of the Big 12 (10) a year early.  Will they eat the cost more or send in the sharks to find a way around the massive exit fees?  No matter how it turns out, it should mean more cash for the remaining members of the conference.
  • New Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tubberville thinks the Big 12 (10) won’t last much longer with the new deal.  He goes back to the original argument about the uneven revenue sharing.  Seeing as he came from the SEC, it makes sense that he prefers the older model.  If he makes the Red Raiders a bigger winner than what it was before, he may change his tune though.

Crib Sheet: Meet The New Boss, The Same As The Old Boss

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.

Crib Sheet: Hold On To Your Butts

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:

Crib Sheet: Pow Wow Kansas City Style

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!

Magnifying the Expansion Part 7: Show Us Your Cards

Okay, we’ve reached the final showdown for our week-long series on the Big 10 Expansion.  Please take a moment to read up on all of the posts that led us to this point.  All of the information we dumped the last 7 days will show what we think will end up happening, as well as what we wish to happen.  It’s been a bumpy ride, but it’s only going to get bumpier.  We know change is coming, and now we will call out our cards and show you what our predictive hand plays, all in for the pot.

Continue reading Magnifying the Expansion Part 7: Show Us Your Cards

Magnifying the Expansion Part 6: Fanning the Flames

Okay, we talked about the Big 10 expansion with all of the good bits on the business side of things, but what about us?  What about the fans?  How will the average stool jockey be affected if and when the Big 10 decides to expand out beyond its current bounds?  From the Trojan sporting LA type to the gator chomping tanned Floridian, the effect could be small.  Or it could be big.  The closer the proximity to the Big 10, the more the fans will experience change, especially right here in Kansas City.  Let’s see what can happen as we narrow the focus down to right here at the KCCGD headquarters.

Continue reading Magnifying the Expansion Part 6: Fanning the Flames

Magnifying the Expansion Part 5: And the Winner Is…

So who all will fit in the glass slipper that the Big 10 is dangling out in front of the college football landscape?  In our series, we talked about how the traditional Big 10 aims to scratch their expansion itch and what could happen to every conference around them when they do.  Today we look at the candidates either actively or inactively campaigning to be ones who get the golden ticket of an invite.  There are oddball choices as well as solid, sensible choices in this competition.  Not all will be covered, but we’ll see the ones that matter.  Then after that, the swimsuit competition!  On with the show!

Continue reading Magnifying the Expansion Part 5: And the Winner Is…

Magnifying the Expansion Part 4: Now I’m Yelling Dominoes

We laid the foundation with our last 3 post for the Big 10 expansion.  Now let’s talk about how other conferences are reacting.  Some of them could be massively depleted whereas others are moving to counteract the possible Big 10 growth.  Every major BCS conference has about two cents to toss in and little brother mid major conferences are chirping in as well.  It’s time for the conferences to lay down their tiles and see just how much they could change.

Continue reading Magnifying the Expansion Part 4: Now I’m Yelling Dominoes