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.
- Now that the Fiesta Bowl report came out and the bowl’s CEO John Junker got canned, people are speculating about the BCS and its ties with the Fiesta Bowl, including David Ubben. It seems that the Cotton Bowl and its home, the Jerry Jones Cowboys Stadium spectacular, would be a great fit for the BCS. It is the largest football stage out there. If the BCS moves forward with Cotton, then this report and subsequent firing will also seem a little to coincidental. The real loser here is the cancelled spring retreat for the Fiesta Bowl. Well, that and the FEC complaint against the Fiesta Bowl filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. It’s nothing a meeting with the NCAA can’t fix.
- 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.
- Former Kansas assistant athletic director Rodney Jones gets 4 years in jail for the $2 million dollar ticket scandal involving him and some other cohorts, including Kassie Liebsch who got 3 years. I’m pretty sure he’s going to get the fluffly white color crime prison and not the dark, stank, blue collar crime prison. Still, he was all Niagara Falls during the sentencing. Yet, ticket scalpding still goes on.
- 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.
This Purple Yeti is too busy chopping wood for the fire to bring you much for the rest of January. Look for some new giblets starting February. In the meantime, I have the Crib Sheet to you warm. Check it out:
- So ESPN’s David Ubben points us to the overall bowl record for conferences. The Big 12 finished at the bottom, tied with the Big 10. It’s pretty bad for the conference when they notch the same record as an overrated conference that needed to expand to stay relevent.
- It looks like an imminent NFL lock out is scaring at least some college players from coming out early. Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden and mega star Justin Blackmon are both staying behind for one more round. The Cowboys will be a tough cookie next year to chew on.
- Michigan contacted Gary Pinkel’s agent to ask for an interview. Pinkel turned it down. One dis from the Big 10 deserves a dis right back. That and Missouri already competes for the title now. It will take Michigan a couple of years before they get back on track.
- RichRod dumped about 430 maize and blue gear on the Salvation Army on his way out of Michigan. At least he did one good thing while he was up there. I wonder if he cried on his way out of the store.
- That said, things are looking up for Michigan, now that they’ve replaced RichRod with Brady Hoke. The ‘Predator’ Denard Robinson decided to stay and Hoke landed the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison. I swear this is the last Michigan news for a long, long time.
- The Big 10 is keeping the Legends and Leaders division name for the 2011. Dang, I was hoping they’d change it to the Losers and Lamers divisions.
- Help me out on this one: So the NCAA shut down a proposal that would stop head coaches from offering scholarships to kids as young as middle school age but they then want tougher rules against parents shopping around their kids. So, the NCAA wants coaches to bribe kids without parents getting in the way? Um, usually middle school kids need a legal guardian to represent them. This seems very contradictory. Or obvious. The NCAA wants to take full advantage of the kids and no one else, including the parents of the kids.
- Rodney Jones, a former university official, plead guilty to in his part of the $2 million ticket scalping scandal at the University of Kansas. Cue the Law & Order music.
- Continuing on our legal theme, John Lomax III plead no contest to the killing of UConn football player Jasper Howard. Again with the Law & Order music.
- Texas Tech was so impressed with Tommy Tuberville’s first year that they’ve already given him an extension. Can he keep it up? It’s doesn’t matter now because his buyout will probably be sweeter.
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
