Last week it was reported that West Virginia was going to Big 12, and now it is official. There was some late swinging by Louisville to take their place but in the end West Virginia won out. I guess when politicians get involved, it can turn ugly. Louisville isn’t out the race yet. When the Big 12 looks to expand here in a couple of years, they will be next on the list. The next best thing to politicing is lawyering (he says sarcastically). West Virginia won the former and is now pushing the latter by suing the Big East on the grounds that the conference and their commissioner is crappy. I say they have a case. On to the Crib Sheet:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: West Virginia For Realz →
The ESPN/USA Today coaches preseason bowl came out and there’s no surprise with Oklahoma notched at number 1. That happened a couple of years ago and they lost their first game. Yup, it doesn’t matter who’s where right now, but what matters is that it’s the horn blasting the announcement that the college football season is ramping up for real now. Another thing to note, the Big 12/0 has half of their teams in the Top 25. Usually they have 6 but since a couple of teams left, they can only muster 5. Fair enough, on to this week’s Crib Sheet:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: Coaches Poll Leaves No Surprises →
It’s national signing day! Okay, so it’s not that exciting, but we have some Big 12 updates flying in and I don’t want to take away from the exciting coverage. Usually half the kids that are worth something don’t pan out anyway. It’s a good thing that ESPN covers this overhyped event in the only way that ESPN can over hype. Now on to the Crib Sheet:
- Another person involved in the Kansas ticket scandal, Charlette Blubaugh, plead guilty in court. Her husband will soon plead guilty as well. It looks like legal system works in the case of these folks.
- The Iowa Board of Regents ordered into an investigation as to why 13 Iowa football players were hospitalized after offseason workouts. The news just keeps getting worse up there. Take an investigation on perhaps illegal medical record access? It’s not the first time school athletes had this issue, either.
- Nebraska ended it’s apparel deal with quarterback Taylor Martinez’s dad, Casey. It was all on the part of Casey, too. Hey when your son is the starting quarterback for a school you just so happen to have a licensing deal with, things tend to look too fishy.
- Bill Snyder 2.0’s son, Sean, will coach the special teams as Associate Head Coach for the Kansas State Wildcats. Nepotism? Well, he was an All-American punter for the ‘Cats and was a staff member on the team for a very long time. How long? 17 years. He’s worth it.
- ESPN’s Erin Andrews is kind of a freak of media exposure. By exposure I mean the nude video taped in the hotel room that begat her appearance on Dancing With the Stars. Now, she’s taking that controversy and lackluster sideline reporting to Reebok. Some journalists are complaining that this throws the ethics out the winder but I’m afraid they forgot that Andrews is more of a pretty face than an actual sports reporter.
- Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder looked great in the Senior Bowl as he led the South over the North in a 24-10 victory. Texas A&M’s linebacker Von Miller had the defensive tops as well.
- USA Today talks about the trend of colleges oversigning players. Schools will dole out scholarships only to revoke them later for someone else or make kids ‘greyshirt’, which means have them enroll in January instead of the fall. Florida president J. Bernard Machen agrees that greyhirting blows. They talk about how the kids are the victim of this. It looks like one more reason to pay the kids that play big time ball to me.
- A bunch of Missouri players sold tickets to former footballs players in 2009. So the current players got a cut of the kickback for them. That’s a secondary violation for the NCAA. Yet another why the NCAA is useless.
So last night’s Insight Bowl happened. I’m still sleepy from the late running game. Iowa held off Missouri for a 27-24 victory, with the biggest play in the game going to Blaine Gabbertt tossing a pick six in the 4th quarter to give Iowa the game. Later on there was controversial overturn to receiver T.J. Moe on 4th and 6. Really, the story of the game was a Tiger defense that let a 3rd string running back set an Iowa bowl record for rushing yards. Missouri’s offense chugged along fine except for a few mistakes. Overall, the team looked way less into than Iowa and I think the fight in the heart of the Hawkeyes made the score that we see today. Now let’s check out the bowl edition of the Crib Sheet:
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Happy holidays from KC College GameDay! It’s bowl season and I’ll do a couple of recaps in the next couple of days as well as run down some bowls I’m in to. In the meantime, we have a fat Crib Sheet so let’s get to it:
- Iowa’s Derrell Johnson-Koulianos got the hook by the police for a bunch of drug charges. It looks like he’s suspended from the Insight Bowl against Missouri. That should help out the Tigers defense immensely as Johnson-Koulianos was the Hawkeye’s all time leader in receptions and receiving yards. And yes, two of their running backs are out as well. It should be an easy game for the Tigers.
- Here are some national award winners from the Big 12: Texas defensive end Sam Acho won the William V. Campbell Trophy or the Academic Heisman. Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones wins the Sammy Baugh Award for the nation’s best passer. Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon won the Biletnikoff Award. Meanwhile, fellow teammate Dan Bailey wins the Lou Groza Award.
- Meanwhile, the Nebraska Huskers suspended defensive tackle Baker Steinkuhler for getting a DUI last week. He’ll be out of the Holiday Bowl and the Husker’s rematch against Washington.
- Even though I think Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany is evil incarnate, I do agree with him on holding back the college football playoff. His reasons come from a wealth of ego. Delany says that the Big Ten sacrificed enough by letting other conferences play in the Rose Bowl. There’s enough ego around other commissioners that there would be no way a playoff would bubble up.
- Urban Meyer resigned from Florida. The only reason this is news is that he should’ve stayed gone last year. Urban Meyer’s resignation was again due to health concerns. It seems as though this time, Florida didn’t give him a chance to second guess himself.
- Let’s take a look at how some Big 12 coaches voted in the final coaches poll of the year. Interesting stuff here, especially the one where Bo Pelini ranked his Cornhuskers #8 even though they lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game.
- Speaking of coaches, the USA Today has a break down of some interesting contract provisions for some of the coaches out there. Bill Snyder 2.0 gets a free ride and tickets to basketball games. If Mack Brown resigns, he’ll be reassigned to another a part of the school. Mike Sherman gets a cool $100K for appearing or being named a national champion.
- Keeping with Bo Pelini, he had to shoot down rumors of taking the Miami job that’s up for grabs now. Usually, when rumors like that happen, it means that something is ticking. It makes sense, too. Miami got rid of an upstanding Randy Shannon because he wasn’t winning games. Shannon did turn around the program in terms of class act athletes. Bo Pelini coaches the opposite way.
- It looks like Missouri is putting on a cheap-o way to get down to the Insight Bowl. Bus rides and hotel stays abound! They are pulling hard to shake the no fan travel stigma. I hope it works.
- Conference expansion time! Hawaii is joining the Mountain West Conference for football only in 2012 and will be doing all other sports in the Big West Conference. It looks like the WAC is falling apart.
- Auburn quarterback Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy. No surprise there. I watched him torch South Carolina in the SEC Championship game and knew then he had a lock on it. It didn’t stop the proud sports media to take pot shots at him. Some writers left him off completely and he was absent from the Football Writers Association of America’s All-American team.
- Okay, there’s been huge amount of coaching changes in the last week. Let’s run them down. Northern Illinois hired Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Doeren. Louisiana-Lafayette hired Mississippi State assistant coach Mark Hudspeth. The Miami Hurricanes notch down Temple head coach Al Golden as their new head coach. The biggest move, of course, goes to Florida hiring Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp as their new head coach. The Longhorns thought they had him next in line for whenever Mack Brown retires, but it looks like Florida was too big of an opportunity not to pass up. Texas had a down year this year and it looks like rebuilding may take longer than expected.
- The Big Ten unveiled it’s new logo and what the division names, the ‘Legends’ and ‘Leaders’, for next year when Nebraska joins the league. I’m glad they got rid of the eleven hidden in the logo. The color is a little bit lighter than I expected though.
- Just in case you were wondering, Oregon will have new digs for the BCS National Championship Game. Fashionable Ducks, they are.
So yesterday there was a big hoopla about Kansas coach Mark Mangino and his reported abuse of players earlier this year. What’s the abuse? From what we’re read so far it’s yelling and poking a player in the chest. Okay, so if this guy gets canned over just that, then it’s an indictment on the culture that is Kansas athletics. It’s college football people. If you don’t do your job, you will be disciplined. Now if it turns out he did more, then it’s more on Mangino’s wide shoulders and his lack to control his emotions. Our take? Kansas is in a losing streak and the fair weather, bandwagon, and easy to over hype their expectations players, player’s parents, and fans have shown their true colors. What coach will want to come there to lead a football team when the everyone at Kansas University whine and cry like a bunch on babies? Oh and superstar, Pullitzer prize winning Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock says this happened because Mark Mangino is fat. Great reporting there, guy. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Now this is what rivalries are all about. The Idaho athletic director refused to board an airplane because it was painted in Boise State colors. We love hearing stories like this. Hopefully they paint a jet or a helicopter in Idaho colors soon.
- USA Today has an article about the two biggest money making conferences, the SEC and Big 10. They fill up the media outlets. The SEC inked a deal with ESPN and they are pumped everywhere. Meanwhile, the Big 10 has their own flipping channel. The difference? The SEC is actually winning games. We’re tired of both conferences.
- Speaking of Boise State, they are now selling stock in their program. Yes, a big time college program needs to generate money by offering shares in their program. Do you see Texas or Florida doing this? Nope. That’s because they actually have a fan base.
- Tennessee student Corey Zickafoose won’t press chargers against the three Volunteer football players that attempted to rob him last week. That’s pretty hardcore. Most people are calling him stupid. We’re not sure where we land on this one. Second chances are American, but is doing it for the sake of your favorite football a good reason to give one? Oh and Tennessee went ahead and dismissed two of them from the team.
- Ole Miss chancellor Dan Jones banned their fight song at games because the students typically chant “the South will rise again” at the end. While the intent is to remove the stigma that the Rebels have regarding racial insensitivity, students chanting that the south will rise again seems a little small compared to other methods he could employ. Banning the use of the rebel flag (which they have) makes just a little more sense than banning the fight song, especially when it comes to recruiting players.
College Sports, Kansas City style
