Air Force’s name is one that’s popped up in possible Big 12 expansion candidates, and according to a report in the Denver Post , the conference explored the possibility of adding the Falcons. The reception? “We were approached by the Big 12, and I told them we’re not a good fit for that conference. In the Big 12, geography makes sense, the economics make sense, but recruiting makes no sense for us. I can’t recruit against Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State,” [Air Force athletic director Hans] Mueh said. “That’s why I turned down the Big 12. I can’t do that to my kids, because they’ll get beat up. I’d love the extra $12 million or whatever it would be per year from the TV money. And I know how I’d spend the money. I’d build a new soccer stadium, and I’d build a new baseball facility, all in one year. But I can’t do that.” Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Did I just hear an administrator consider the competitive element of sport, rather than chase money or embrace a misguided machismo of an upgrade in athletic conference? I had to read it twice to make sure. Mueh is absolutely right. Air Force may bring with it a national audience, but the admission standards and lifestyle of students in the Air Force would make life extremely difficult on any service academy in a major conference. Recruiting against Oklahoma and Texas at a level that would allow them to be consistently competitive really would be impossible. “There are terrible, terrible hard feelings in college athletics,” Mueh said. “I’m so disappointed with my fellow athletic directors. I think we have put the student-athlete in second place while chasing the dollar.” At the core, one could argue that all of the recent conference moves, Big 12 and abroad, boil down to wanting money, but they’re also more complicated than that. Regardless, we know there’s at least one major administrator left who isn’t trumpeting the idea of “student-athletes first” and immediately trampling all over the ideal. Interesting stuff from the Big 12 side, too. Unless others turned the league down, I doubt it ever would have progressed to the point of an offer, but it’s always interesting to hear any decision-maker speak frankly about how they see their institutions.
Read this article:
Big 12 advances spurned by Air Force?
Filed under Baseball, Football by on Oct 10th, 2011. Comment. 
Just when we thought we were out of the expansion business, they pull us back in . Or does Missouri’s wandering eye — away from the Big 12 and toward the SEC — mean anything for the Pac-12? It could but probably doesn’t in the short-term. Jon Wilner, as usual, provides some informed speculation here . You’ll note his story is mostly about the SEC, Big East and Big 12. And he makes clear who the villain is here — besides, of course, Texas. Writes Wilner: Make no mistake, folks: The SEC’s desire to sign a new TV deal — and its frustration that the little old Pac-12 has a better deal — is driving the realignment. There wouldn’t be anyplace for A&M and Mizzou to go without the SEC opening its doors. In other words, Texas laid the groundwork for the demise of the Big 12 — at least as we know it – but the SEC is carrying out the execution. Of course, the Big 12, upon losing its third and likely fourth team in two years could go hunting for a new pair — or foursome to get to 12 teams again – but the choices are limited, and most have a downside. What about the Pac-12? The idea of a Pac-16 isn’t dead, but it will only happen on commissioner Larry Scott’s — and the Pac-12 presidents’ — terms. The truth is Scott, who still believes the future will be superconferences, will have to win over the presidents to the justifications of further expansion. The presidents got their TV contract — their money – so now they’re pulling back inward. Texas would still be the centerpiece of a best-case, read lucrative, scenario, but the Longhorns would have to agree to the Pac-12 terms: 1. Equal revenue sharing; 2. The Longhorn Network joining the framework of the Pac-12’s regional networks. The problem is inding anyone who thinks Texas will give up the Longhorn Network. Texas has another issue. Pac-12 folks don’t trust Texas. Those exact words were said to me recently by an administrator at a Pac-12 school, and various versions of those sentiments have been repeated to me for months. The general feeling inside the Pac-12 office is that it continues to believe it operates from a position of strength. If it needs to expand as the landscape changes, it will have plenty of options. The SEC landing a TV contract that eclipses the Pac-12’s deal? Well, that’s just a market reality that will surprise no one. It’s hard to imagine things are becoming stable. The Big East and Big 12 on not on firm footing. That means the discussion of expansion scenarios hasn’t ended inside the Pac-12 office.
View post:
Does Missouri have relevance for Pac-12?
Filed under Football, News by on Oct 5th, 2011. Comment.
The total has not moved off the opening line of 48 points. Those backing the road favored Texas Longhorns on the money line will lay â350 odds with the home underdog Iowa St Cyclones returning +290 odds to pull off the home… Source: Tonys Picks
See the original post here:
Texas Longhorns versus Iowa St Cyclones FX TV Saturday October 1st 2011 College Football Odds Sports Betting Pick Preview
Filed under Football, News by on Sep 29th, 2011. Comment.
With Syracuse at the center of conference expansion news, one might think Jim Boeheim would stick with the script. In his official statement following the news that the school, a founding member of the Big East, would leave for the ACC he said simply, “In the ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics, each school has to find the best fit. The Atlantic Coast Conference has a great basketball tradition and we look forward to contributing to that.” Ever the traditionalist, Boeheim can’t help but express his feelings even though it is Syracuse that isn’t acting traditionally. He told Andy Katz that leaving the Big East would be hard after a memory-filled run in the league. Speaking in Birmingham, Ala., on Monday Boeheim stated that while he was surprised that this is all happening so quickly, his belief is that super conferences would soon emerge following a high-stakes game of musical chairs. For Boeheim, it’s easy to explain why, according to the Birmingham News : “If conference commissioners were the founding fathers of this country, we would have Guatemala, Uruguay and Argentina in the United States,” Boeheim said. “This audience knows why we are doing this. There’s two reasons: money and football. “We’re going to end up with mega conferences and 10 years from now either I’m going to be dead wrong — and I’ll be the first to admit it — or everybody is going to be like, why did we do this again? Why is Alabama playing Texas A&M this week and going to Texas Tech next weekend? And why is Syracuse going to Miami in basketball this week and next week they’re going to play Florida State?” Even as of last summer when expansion was in the headlines, Boeheim seemed incredulous that so many things were changing in the collegiate landscape. In fact he made his statement with a Lexycast , an audio blog service that is now defunct. “It’s really that crazy. Driven by football. Football all the way. And it’s ironic that basketball raises 90 percent of the money for the NCAA, and football’s making all these decisions. It’s amazing really when you think about it.” Boeheim has to accept this new reality, because Syracuse is expected to make financial gains. But as his comments reveal, it’s all still a little surreal and a lot to process even for the coach whose school is at the forefront of change.
Read this article:
Jim Boeheim doesn’t mince words
Filed under Basketball, Football, News by on Sep 20th, 2011. Comment.
Texas would have to add Pac-12 (soon to be 16) content to the [Longhorn Network] programming. The Longhorns would be able to keep all of their revenue from the network. However, if one-sixteenth of the money the Pac-12 receives… Source: Examiner.com
See the original post here:
Major compromise close, Texas to Pac-12 gaining traction
Filed under Football, News by on Sep 18th, 2011. Comment.
The Pac-12 blog is worried about Utah. Now that Utah is in the Pac-12, a member of the privileged class, is it going to forget how to properly dislike BYU? Is it going to eyeball the Cougars on Saturday and think, “You know, blue really brings out their eyes!” This thought vexes the Pac-12 blog, which feeds on the often irrational passion of college football. So, Utah, we’ve brought back a friend to remind you how you should feel about BYU because this is how BYU feels about you. “I don’t like Utah,” former BYU quarterback Max Hall said after the Cougars beat the Utes in 2009. “In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything … I think the whole university, their fans and their organization, is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don’t respect them, and they deserve to lose.” Utes, the Cougars are going to be gunning for you hard Saturday. There’s the natural state rivalry, sure, but there’s a third, highly-motivating color involved other than red and blue: green. Green as in the money Utah is soon going to be making in the Pac-12. And green as in the green-eyed monster of jealousy: BYU isn’t happy the Utes jumped to the Pac-12 and it wasn’t invited. And, by the way, BYU is pretty darn good, having won at Ole Miss and falling just short at Texas. Ten starters are back on offense, including quarterback Jake Heaps , from a team that went 7-6 in 2010. Further, this game has been highly competitive in recent years. Five of the past six have been decided by a touchdown or less. Two of those went into overtime. Last year, Utah rallied from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 17-16. The game was decided when the Utes blocked a 42-yard field goal attempt as time expired. Utes linebacker Chaz Walker didn’t seem too concerned that BYU and Utah fans and players will start palling around. When asked if the so-called “Holy War” was a bitter or friendly rivalry, he spoke carefully but without much ambiguity. “Probably a little bit on the dislike side,” he said. “There’s not many BYU players you see hanging out with Utah players.” The feel of the game will be different, though. For one, it no longer counts in the conference standings. In previous seasons, the matchup often had significant Mountain West Conference ramifications. Further, instead of the chill of a season-finale in late November, this one will feature the pleasant weather of mid-September. For Utah, it also brings the grind of the new Pac-12 schedule front-and-center. The Utes must regroup and refocus after a tough, physical loss at USC. It’s likely the bye week that follows will feel pretty good. Perhaps the Pac-12 blog shouldn’t worry. After talking to a few folks on the Utah end of things, it seems clear BYU has the Utes’ attention. And always will when they go nose-to-nose. Said coach Kyle Whittingham, “It’s the biggest single sporting event in the course of a year. It’s the biggest thing that happens in this state.”
The rest is here:
‘Holy War’ is going to feel different
Filed under Football by on Sep 14th, 2011. Comment.
The season of scandal, highlighted by controversies at Auburn, Oregon and Ohio State, all BCS participants, has given way to summer conversations about changing the way college sports operate. Maybe that’s changing the rules. Maybe it’s changing the circumstances. Should players be paid? Or at least get more assistance from the schools that profit from their efforts? The Big 12, which has remained relatively scandal-free throughout the past year, has at least one big advocate for giving players a boost. “It definitely needs to happen,” Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. ”Something needs to be done.” Tuberville doesn’t support an outright “pay-for-play” scenario, but says changes in college athletics and the world within which it exists, necessitate something being done. “The first priority should be the athletes, because they’re the ones that do the competing and do the hard work,” Tuberville said. “I think the money is out there. I just think it’s gotta start from the top and work down.” Teams that go to the BCS cash an extra large paycheck, a portion of which goes back to the conferences. “Each school gets a cut at the end of the year of TV money and bowl money. But then the conference gets a cut of that. Why isn’t there a cut there for the players?” he said. “Say, ‘OK go split this up in the conference, all your players.’ I’m talking NCAA basketball tournament, everything. There should be some kind of cut for the players. It’s just getting too expensive to live and it’s getting to the point where we’ve got to show the athletes that we want to take care of them, and I’m all for that.” Extended summers — for all sports — means players can’t take the time off and work part-time jobs like Tuberville did as a player at Southern Arkansas in the 1970s. “They have two full-time jobs: going to school, and athletics now in any sport is full-time,” Tuberville said. “They just don’t have enough time.” Details are difficult, but if a plan could be hatched, Tuberville would have support from his coaching brethren, Big 12 and elsewhere. “I’m for anything we can do within the rules to help our kids,” Texas coach Mack Brown said.
Continue reading here:
The Big 12 and the pay-for-play debate
Filed under Basketball, Football by on Jul 18th, 2011. Comment.
Heading into the season, I see five teams in the Big 12 with a realistic chance to win the league. I’ll be breaking them down in order (which won’t be the same as my post-spring power rankings ) of their chances to leave the season with the Big 12 title. No. 1 on the list was the favorites: Oklahoma Today, we take a look at my No. 2: Texas A&M. Why the Aggies will win the Big 12 1. They’ve got the most complete offense. Center Matt Allen is the only offensive starter not returning, but the Aggies have a solid line, headlined by a maturing, but already talented pair of bookends with big potential, tackles Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews. At the skill positions, you won’t find anything close to a weakness. Texas A&M returns the best running back corps in the league and maybe the best 1-2 punch in the nation with Christine Michael and Cyrus Gray . All of the team’s top five receivers return, and Jeff Fuller , who chose to return for his senior season, is arguably one of the five best in the country. Ryan Tannehill doesn’t have a ton of starts (six) under his belt, but he was great in a tight spot last year, and led the team in receptions his first two years on the field. 2. They’re especially strong in great places on defense
Continued here:
Assessing the contenders: Texas A&M
Filed under Football by on Jun 30th, 2011. Comment.
Back when Josh Selby announced his decision to enter the NBA draft after a disappointing freshman season at Kansas — Selby’s NBA leap was motivated more by his ability to create a better life for his mother, so it’s tough to criticize — I, strangely enough, got a little bit excited. For some reason, I felt like I had a slightly sneaky piece of information. Selby was bad as a freshman, yes, but he was ineligible, then injured, then spent most of his time trying to crack a cohesive group of senior guards that were clearly more comfortable running Kansas’s high-low motion offense with each other. But Selby was still hyper-athletic. He still had the size, speed, and strength that caused some recruiting services to call him the best player in the class of 2011. Had his season panned out, he might have been a lottery pick. Now, he was a possible steal in the mid-to-late first round, and I was interested to see which intelligent NBA front office would make a play. Apparently, the answer is … none of them. ESPN Insider Chad Ford released his Mock Draft 6.0 Tuesday , and Selby is nowhere to be found in the first round. In fact, in Ford’s projection, Selby has dropped all the way to No. 37 , several picks into the second round (which, in Ford’s mock, means a trip to L.A. to play for the Clippers). By my count, there are currently 12 guards ranked higher than him in the draft, including players like Iman Shumpert and Travis Leslie, guys whose upsides seem vastly lower than Selby’s. Just a few weeks ago, scouts raved about Selby’s individual workouts. Now, nothing. It begs the question: What happened? These answers are always hard to decode, and we’re still 36 hours from the draft, so anything can still happen. But it appears Selby’s individual workouts haven’t done enough to convince scouts he’s worth the risk of a first-round pick. Or, as the Lawrence Journal-World’s Tom Keegan writes , some NBA team may be intentionally deflating Selby’s stock in the hopes of snatching him risk-free in the second round: What’s up? Maybe scouts are a lot like Kansas fans. The more they saw of Selby, the less they liked him. Or could it be, as one NBA insider wonders, that one team desperately wants Selby to drop to them and has spread rumors that they think he’s a bust waiting to happen? If one NBA team is able to torpedo a player’s stock among the rest of the league, well, you have to hand it to them. That is one effective front office. Another possible problem is the Avery Bradley factor. In 2009, Bradley was the No. 1 player in the ESPNU 100 rankings , arriving at Texas with fanfare matched only by Kentucky guard John Wall. Wall, of course, was a national player of the year candidate and went on to be the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft. Bradley had a so-so freshman season, jumped to the NBA early anyway, was drafted No. 19 overall by the Boston Celtics, and eventually found himself playing as many minutes in the NBA Developmental League as the NBA itself. Does that mean Bradley won’t turn into a solid pro? Of course not. But if I’m an NBA team, and I want to make the most of my first-round pick, maybe I look at Bradley and Selby as similar entities. Maybe I’m hesitant to take the high-risk, huge-upside one-and-done player who failed to make an impact in his eight months on a college campus. Maybe I’m worried Selby is just in the draft for the money. Maybe I’m fretting about his injury history. Maybe he didn’t interview well. Maybe NBA scouts saw Selby’s absence in yesterday’s Seebpomd as a prohibitive sign. (OK, OK, not so much.) It’s hard to divine these sorts of things in the run up to the draft, because you really never know what’s going to happen when David Stern takes the podium. Still, it’s hard to believe that in this draft — a weak one by all accounts, and one that features more undersized, risky combo guards with their varied share of negatives — that Selby isn’t at least worth a late-first round flier. As I wrote back in April, one man’s one-and-done bust is another man’s sleeper. Apparently, as of today, the NBA doesn’t seem to agree. Now watch the Spurs get Selby in the second round, and watch Selby turn in a DeJuan Blair-esque rookie season. The NBA is so weird.
See more here:
What happened to Josh Selby’s stock?
Filed under Basketball, News by on Jun 22nd, 2011. Comment.
While he will have to be lured away from his commitment to Texas ; the Red Sox have the money to do entice him. Still not finished, they then nabbed Henry Owens at 36th overall. One of the top high… Source: Bleacher Report
Read the original post:
MLB Draft 2011: Report Card for Every Single MLB Team Wrapping Up the Draft
Filed under News by on Jun 9th, 2011. Comment.
