Quick somebody get us some facial tissue and some decongestants. It’s allergy season here at the KCCGD Headquarters! We’re sneezing our heads off and we’re barely making it through the week. That’s not stopping us from delivering your favorite weekly news roundup: The Crib Sheet! It’s chock full this week with a ton of diva grandstanding from college conference officials. It’s a good thing our noses are stuffed because we think alot of that talk stinks. On to the Crib Sheet:
- So the graduation rate for college athletes are on a curve. The College Sport Research Institute factored in longer years and lighter classloads to determine that the reported 79 percent rate is actually 54.8 percent, compared to 73.7 percent of other students. Looks like the NCAA needs to take some more math classes.
- All the hype leading up to the commissioner meetings this week was whether or not the Big 10 would accelerate expansion plans. Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany came out of the meetings to speak on this rumor to reporters. “Nope” was pretty much all he said. Crisis averted.
- Northwestern will play Illinois at Wrigley Field. Finally! All those people in Chicago will have an opportunity to root on two disappointing local teams that don’t play baseball. Way to go guys!
- The BCS came out with a 3 pronged formula to help determine who gets an automatic bowl bid after the 2012 season. They take the highest ranked BCS team, the total BCS numbers for the conference, and the number of teams in the top 25 to determine who gets the nod. This is an obvious gesture to the Mountain West Conference, whose Boise State team has been rolling the last couple of years and has an opportunity to start in the top 3 once the preseason rankings come out. It will be interesting to see how this adds to the pressure and expectation the Broncos have this year.
- So the first round highlights of the NFL Draft include Tim Tebow going to the Denver Broncos. Huh? What is he gonna do? Be a running back. Good thing the Big 12 represented big time with 9 picks going from the conference, including the top 4. Way to go Big 12!
- Bill Snyder 2.0 is weighing the decision to get surgery on his torn ACL and MCL. More and more we’re thinking that Snyder 2.0 is a cyborg version of the original. It’s only reason we can come up with to answer Snyder’s statement that it doesn’t hurt much. What’s up with that? A jammed finger hurts like hell. This guy just walks it off. He’s hiding a gun in his leg, we swear.
- The NCAA approved two more bowls for a total of 35, including the Yankee Bowl and the Dallas Football Classic. The later is the former Cotton Bowl and will have a place on New Year’s Day. Huzzah! This is the kind of expansion we enjoy here. Not the kind where you at more teams to the playoff. New Year’s Day next year will be mega stuffed with more football.
- We probably should let everyone know that if an expansion from the Big 10 happens, expect the SEC to counter move. Yeah, it’s going to domino all over the place. We really just need two conferences. That way we can determine a champion the easy way.
- Coming back to the somewhat near future, ESPN announced its 2010 College Football Primetime schedule and we have a whole bevy of games from the Big 12. The Lonestar Showdown with Texas A&M and Texas on Thanksgiving should be a treat. So’s the rematch between Nebraska and Kansas State on Oct 7th. Football can’t get here anytime sooner.
For the first time in about 6 months, the KCCGD headquarters opened up the windows to let the weather in. The first signs of warm weather and great tempatures can mean only one thing. No, not the start of baseball, but the start of spring practice. The recruits are signed and the players that can practice are on the field. Start the clock, we have about 5 months to go before the start of another football season. In the meantime, check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez was named in yet another lawsuit involving home deals. This shouldn’t affect his on the field coaching much this season. He’s still avoiding the hot seat, but if he turns out another poor performance, then these kind of lawsuits will be used as ammo against him.
- Meanwhile, the grounds crew and security detail for the Big House needs to get its act together. Someone broke into the stadium and lifted a big chunk of the ‘M’ in the middle of the field. What would you do with that? Make a jacket?
- Urban Meyer is back to Florida and is already spitting fire. He lashed out at Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler for reporting the comments that Deonte Thompson made about exiting quarterback Tim Tebow. It’s nice to see the fire is back so quick for Meyer, let’s hope he doesn’t drop 20-30 pounds because of it.
- Kansas coach Turner Gill is open to positions changes for the new football season and about 9 players have taken advantage of it so far. It’s time to rebuild the program and what better way to do so than with kids playing the positions they want. At least they’ll be more motivated.
- Another football player was stabbed to death. This time it’s Kendall Berry of Florida International University. This, of course, was a result of an argument and retaliation. Hopefully, they will find the guy that did it. When will players see enough of this and not get involved with off campus thugs. And a suspect has been arrested in the case.
- After much fanfare and celebration, the loved International Bowl is closing up shop. Well, there were really only around for about 4 years. The Big East team that ran over the MAC opponents will now face stiffer competition in the Yankee Bowl.
Much of the staff for the KCCGD (all one person of it) is knocked down under injury this week. Lower back pains are not an easy ailment to handle. Granted it’s no puke inducing concussion, but we know how limiting an injury can be. Usually a team would be lucky enough not to have any of their stars miss a game or two during the season. Usually you rest them at halftime or have them skip the easy games. In this BCS culture today though now you have to play your top guys all the time, even when hurt. So in that spirit, we achingly bring this week’s Crib Sheet:
- The College Football Hall of Fame is moving from South Bend to Atlanta. The promised attendance was never met in Irish-land and now they are moving down to Bulldog country. So let’s get this straight, they are moving from one program where expectations of a once great team were never met to another place where expectations of a once great team were never met? Hey, at least they’ll avoid nasty winters.
- Michigan University will no longer allow purses into the stadium for games. Sorry, RichRod, you will have to find something else to carry all of your crying tissues.
- The college football world gasped a big ole sigh when Tim Tebow went down with a concussion over the weekend against Kentucky. Apparently he was aleady sick when he took a sick hit from a Kentucky player. It’s a good thing Florida has the week off. Not for Tebow to recover, but the for the rest of the sports media to talk about the games. Hopefully.
- Sports Illustrated is attempting to bring playoff brackets into the mainstream with a half-cocked bracketing system to rank the top 16 teams and then place them in a bracket. Are they bummed that USA Today has the Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, the AP has their own poll, but they have nothing? That’s what we think. And this is the only ink we’ll give them.
- Baylor’s hope for a rise to bowl-dom blew up in their face Saturday when Robert Griffin went down last Saturday with a torn ACL in his knee. A veteran QB in Blake Szymanski will take over the helm as Baylor gets ready to head into conference play October 10. It really sucks for the Bears but will make thing easier for the North teams playing Baylor this year.
- Twitter rears its ugly head again as a couple of tweets from some Texas Tech players caused Mike Leech to ban it from the team. This was, of course, in reaction to some awesome tweets from newly suspended offensive lineman Brandon Carter and linebacker Marlon Williams. We miss it already.
- Speaking of Twitter, Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin is using his handle to retrieve 3 helmets stolen from Cougars players while storming the field during Houston’s dramatic win over Texas Tech. Twitter and Texas Tech just does not mix.
- Stafon Johnson, tailback for USC, had emergency surgery on his throat after a freak weightlifting accident. I’ve seen some bars fall with very heavy weight on them in the gym and it does not look pretty. How did it get on this guy’s throat? We hope he turns out okay.
- New Mexico head coach Mike Locksley pulled a Buddy Ryan (or a Tom Caple) on his assistant and busted his lip. We’ve seen some punches so far on the field at least once a week during the season, now we’re seeing it during coaches meetings. Oh wait, football is a violent sport. Check.
- Kansas will have condominiums in the stands in the form of seat mortgages. So while the kids are fighting on (and off) the field, the snooty rich people will be in the stands. Live sport spectating is becoming the privilege of the elite. This isn’t good at all.
- Ladies and gentlemen, we present the Yankee Bowl. The Big East #4 team and the Big 12 #7 team are signed up to meet at Yankee stadium beginning in the 2010-11 season. Granted they still need approval, but if you have the mayor of New York and the owner of the Yankees behind it, the proposal should pass. I for one wish that any ‘home’ team in New York gets beat.
- Missouri gets the dunce cap this week as the athletic department sold a box of old cell phones. Without wiping them. Hey, hook me up with an email address or phone number over here. I want some coaches to know about the blog.
College Sports, Kansas City style
