Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/edsbs/rss2/~3/O2durtcXJ3w/35-for-35-the-texas-bowl-podcast
Fritz Schneider Darrell Schultz Tommy Searle Gary Semics Andrew Short
Friday, December 31, 2010
The NCAA is still trying to explain why it let Cam Newton walk
Like all arbiters of power, the NCAA is used to being raked over the coals as a matter of course. But bureaucrats are people, too, and the latest barrage of criticism that rained down on the entire organization last week for its decision to suspend five Ohio State players for the first five games of 2011 – while somehow still allowing them to play in the Sugar Bowl next week – apparently hit a little close to home.Specifically, the NCAA wasn't pleased with comparisons between its decision to suspend Ohio State players less than a month after clearing Auburn quarterback Cam Newton to play in the SEC and BCS championship games and claim the Heisman Trophy, despite its finding that Newton's father and a third party "worked together to actively market the student-athlete as a part of a pay-for-play scenario in return for Newton’s commitment" to Mississippi State. In the NCAA's eyes, these cases are nothing alike, and it issued an unusually blunt statement today to demonstrate why:
While efforts are being championed by NCAA President Mark Emmert to further clarify and strengthen recruiting and amateurism rules when benefits or money are solicited (but not received), current NCAA rules would be violated and students declared ineligible should a parent or third party receive benefits or money, regardless of the student's knowledge.
Put simply, had Cam Newton's father or a third party actually received money or benefits for his recruitment, Cam Newton would have been declared ineligible regardless of his lack of knowledge.
[…]
… the notion that the NCAA is selective with its eligibility decisions and rules enforcement is another myth with no basis in fact. Money is not a motivator or factor as to why one school would get a particular decision versus another. Any insinuation that revenue from bowl games in particular would influence NCAA decisions is absurd, because schools and conferences receive that revenue, not the NCAA.
That's a long way from the usual aloofness of "Student Athlete A" and "Student Athlete B." But to recap: Reggie Bush? Received improper benefits. A.J. Green? Received improper benefits. Marcell Dareus? Received improper benefits. Marvin Austin? Received improper benefits. Terrelle Pryor, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey and Mike Adams? Received improper benefits.
Cam Newton? According to the NCAA, there's no evidence of improper benefits. Nor (again, according to the NCAA) can they connect anything to his father. If you assume otherwise, its investigators would probably be very interested in the evidence in your possession.
Otherwise, the "benefits" part of the equation is pretty straightforward. The ongoing hangup, though, is why asking doesn't qualify for the equivalent of a conspiracy charge.
Based on the standard articulated here (and in the initial release on Newton's eligibility, in murkier terms), there are one of three ways to be declared ineligible re: improper benefits: a) Accept the benefits; b) Ask for benefits with your kid's knowledge, even if you don't receive anything; or c) Ask for benefits, then send your kid to the school you solicited, whether or not anyone received anything or the kid knows anything.
It's possible that the Newtons are the first case the NCAA has ever encountered that managed to slip through all three layers of that net, according to the official ruling: No benefits, no knowledge, kid went somewhere else. (If dad's only askin', well, alright. Just keep him at arm's length so he can't ask anymore, OK?) Depending on how well the ambitious fathers of America are able to cover the money trail, though, it's a good bet it isn't going to be the last, until that loophole is airtight and somebody finds out the hard way. Then, we'll hear some real complaints.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
Jeff Stanton Rex Staten James Stewart Jr Brian Stonebridge David Strijbos
Headlinin': Sugar Bowl execs kept troubled Buckeyes in the game
Making the morning rounds.• Thank goodness they're preserving the integrity of this year's game. While five Ohio State players were busy Tuesday apologizing to teammates and fans for selling championship rings, jerseys and other memorabilia and landing a five-game suspension for the first five games of 2011, Sugar Bowl officials were entirely un-apologetic about lobbying to keep the players eligible to play against Arkansas on Jan. 4. Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan said he learned about the possible suspensions on Dec. 7, three days after the Buckeyes were formally selected to play in the game, and went to work to make sure OSU starters Terrelle Pryor, Boom Herron, DeVier Posey and Mike Adams would see the field for his very special event.
"I made the point that anything that could be done to preserve the integrity of this year's game, we would greatly appreciate it," Hoolahan said. "That appeal did not fall on deaf ears, and I'm extremely excited about it, that the Buckeyes are coming in at full strength and with no dilution." Too bad the same thing can't be said for the integrity of NCAA rules. [Columbus Dispatch]
• The company you keep... At least the players aren't the only ones taking fire so everyone else can turn a profit: The local tattoo parlor where players allegedly received free or discounted tattoos in exchange for autographs and memorabilia is under federal investigation by the FBI and IRS for undisclosed reasons. Most of the evidence against the players was recovered in the course of the investigation. [Columbus Dispatch]
• OK, this time I'm really ready for my closeup. Miami's quarterback controversy may have been temporarily solved Tuesday when freshman Stephen Morris, working with the first team, left practice with a sprained ankle and spent the rest of the afternoon on crutches. Morris' absence puts veteran Jacory Harris in line to start for the first time since being knocked out of the lineup with a concussion in the 'Canes' Oct. 30 loss at Virginia – and to get a leg up on the competition heading into 2011, a make-or-break year for Harris' career as a senior. For his part, interim head coach Jeff Stoutland didn't rule Morris out against the Irish and said the competition has been "real close between the two." [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
• It's a definite maybe. Urban Meyer's turn as a talking head during last week's Las Vegas Bowl wasn't a lark: He's "seriously considering" joining ESPN next year as an in-studio analyst. "We went and had three of the greatest days we've ever had together and (ESPN) called up and said, 'Why don't you drive up for the day?' So I brought my son and he loved it," Meyer said at Tuesday's press conference for the Outback Bowl. "What I found out, what a place, what great people." [Gainesville Sun]
• No, Maryland still has not hired Mike Leach. But while the Pirate Coach is still expected to drop anchor in College Park after today's finale in the Military Bowl, the Terps have been reaching out to other spread gurus to replace outgoing head coach Ralph Friedgen – specifically, to a) SMU coach June Jones, whose agent insisted Tuesday that Jones isn't going anywhere despite acknowledged contact with other schools, and b) Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who skipped a scheduled media appearance after Tuesday's practice for the BCS title game. His boss, Gene Chizik, told reporters "there are possibilities of contact" between Malzahn and another school, but wouldn't offer details "because I don't have any." [Dallas Morning News, Associated Press]
Meanwhile, Friedgen called the build-up to his final game after a decade as his alma mater's head coach "like a slow death," albeit one that includes a stopover in the White House. [Associated Press, Washington Post]
• Godspeed. Of all the things that have gone horribly wrong this week at the Pinstripe Bowl, Syracuse got a boost Tuesday with the return of punter Rob Long, who rejoined the team for the first time since undergoing surgery to remove a benign brain tumor earlier this month. Last week, tests revealed malignant cells that will require Long to undergo further treatment for level 3 astrocytoma. In the meantime, he's trying to boom as many kicks around the New York Jets practice facility as he can get in ahead of Thursday's game in Yankee Stadium. [New York Post, Syracuse Post-Dispatch]
• Honoring Bell. If you're tuning in to the Gator Bowl on Saturday, yes, that is a quarterback wearing No. 36: Mississippi State starter Chris Relf will trade in his usual No. 14 against Michigan to honor former teammate Nick Bell, who succumbed to a newly diagnosed brain tumor in early November. MSU coach Dan Mullen said fans e-mailed him with the idea to put the QB in Bell's jersey for the one of the most high-profile games in recent Bulldog history, and Relf was on board. [Clarion-Ledger]
• His status was 'lame duck.' On the other end of the spectrum, there's West Virginia running back Shawne Alston, who summed up the Mountaineers' dismal effort in the Champs Sports Bowl Tuesday when he admitted after the loss to checking into Facebook during halftime. Profile notwithstanding, something tells me that Alston's interests do not actually include Association Football. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Quickly… LSU will wait another week to learn running back Stevan Ridley's fate for the Cotton Bowl. … Georgia and Ohio State sign on for a home-and-home in 2020-21. … Florida defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was briefly hospitalized Monday with mild gastritis. … Texas may be losing another assistant coach. … Mark Ingram is finally getting acquainted with his offensive line. … Ricky Stanzi, Cover Girl. … And at least somebody is making money off the bowl games.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
Anthony Boissiere Frederic Bolley Xavier Boog Damon Bradshaw Goat Breker
ECG device connects to your iPhone to keep track of heart
We always see some crazy gadgets at CES and sometimes the ones that sound really odd can be the most help to a few out there. Take this new gadget for the iPhone that will be showing up at CES next month. It comes from a company called Alivecor and it is an ECG system [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/ZvQbQzFE9nA/
Yves Demaria Gilbert De Roover Clement Desalle John DeSoto Tony DiStefano
Superlatives: The best plays of 2010
Revisiting the best (and worst) of the season. Today: Unwrapping the plays of the year. Merry Christmas.
10. David Wilson takes it to the house. Before there was DeSean Jackson, there was Virginia Tech's David Wilson, and his 90-yard dagger in response to a long, tying touchdown drive by Georgia Tech on Nov. 4:
Wilson's sprint capped a 21-point fourth quarter rally for Tech, pushing the Hokies over the top in the closest call of their 11-game win streak en route to the ACC title.
9. Jamie Harper lays out. Before the epic comeback in Tuscaloosa, Auburn's season was never in greater jeopardy than again Clemson on Sept. 18, after Jamie Harper got horizontal to put the visiting Tigers up 17-0 in the second quarter:
Auburn stormed back for the overtime win, of course, the first of its many harrowing moments over the season, but for once the play of the night didn't belong to the big guy wearing No. 2 in blue.
8. Andrew Luck gives Sean Cattouse a shiver. By late November, Luck had already demonstrated his prowess as a headhunter and a human cannon. Against Cal, Luck showed off his wheels in the first quarter of the Cardinal's 48-14 obliteration of their cross-bay rivals, with a special gift at the end for Golden Bear safety Sean Cattouse, who's no shrinking violet himself:
Luck isn't the most coveted passer by NFL scouts for his speed, but the 58-yard gallop in Berkeley was his third 50-yard run of the season – all coming on third down – and briefly left him with the highest yards-per-carry average in the nation.
7. Broderick Brown's sideline tip drill. With all the top-shelf playmakers Oklahoma State has populating the nation's No. 1 offense, the odds of the play of the year coming from the middling Cowboy defense are long, to say the least. But Broderick Brown and freshman Shaun Lewis set out on Nov. 27 to mock your probabilities – as well as a Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones' pass efficiency rating and the general concept of gravity:
The gravity-defying tip drill is what we refer to in the biz as "Pulling a Dansby," although in this case, the vaunted OSU offense wasn't able to capitalize on the turnover. In fact, it wasn't able to capitalize on much of anything in the first half: Through eight possessions, the Cowboys were forced to punt four times and turned it over twice en route to a 47-41 loss that sent the Sooners on to the Big 12 Championship Game instead.
6. Alshon Jeffery beats 'Bama one-handed. If Oct. 9 was the day South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia earned his wings as a top-shelf SEC passer in an upset over top-ranked Alabama, he borrowed at least one of them from high-flying receiver Alshon Jeffery, owner of two impressive first-half touchdowns to extend the Gamecocks' early lead to 21-3. But it wasn't until the fourth quarter, with the Tide back within 28-21, that Jeffery briefly entered another dimension on the one-handed catch-and-run of the year against 'Bama corner Dré Kirkpatrick:
Freshman running back Marcus Lattimore took it from there, finishing off the final five yards on three consecutive runs to push Carolina's lead to 35-21, right where it would end a few minutes later to snap the Tide's 29-game regular season winning streak.
5. LaMichael James pinballs through Neyland. Tennesse charged out to a surprising 13-3 lead against Oregon on Sept. 11, and was still hanging on at 13-13 early in the third quarter, when James sent the Vols careening over the edge:
The Vols recovered roughly two months later, but neither James nor Oregon has slowed down yet.
4. Moore and Young (temporarily) save Boise State's season. For a minute, everything was back in its place. The Broncos had survived a 24-point fourth quarter rally by Nevada, salvaged their undefeated record and kept their hopes for the Rose Bowl – and possibly the BCS title game – very much alive, thanks to Titus Young's diving, 53-yard grab on a Hail Mary bomb from Kellen Moore with one second on the clock:
All the Broncos had to do was knock through the chip shot from the middle of the field and take the first plane out of Reno at 12-0, and then … well, you know the rest. If kicker Kyle Brotzman's epic choke on the subsequent field goal(s) hadn't stolen the spotlight, Idaho would have sprung to have a mural of the Moore-to-Young connection painted on the dome of the state capital.
3a. Mark Dantonio's Little Giants. Revel, peasants, in the overflowing testosterone of Michigan State's fake field goal to beat Notre Dame in overtime on Sept. 18, aptly named for the stones on coach Mark Dantonio for daring to eschew the tying field goal in favor of letting his holder put the ball in the air for the win on 4th-and-13:
That's the kind of call, if it goes the other way, that can help get you fired later on, which is part of its brilliance in the "so crazy it might actually work" sense. Twice down the stretch, Irish coach Brian Kelly elected to kick on 4th-and-1 with the score tied, punting with the ball at his own 43 with two minutes to play in regulation and taking the field goal with the ball at the MSU 16 in the first frame of overtime. With just a yard to go, neither decision would have been quite as crazy in theory as the Michigan State's tricky gambit to win. In practice, the Spartans moved to 3-0 en route to an 11-1, Big Ten championship season, and Kelly's Irish dropped the second of a three-game September slide en route to a midseason crisis. This time, the meek did not inherit the victory.
3b. LSU rolls the dice. Only an insane man, down 29-26 on the road with 35 seconds to play, would call on his kicker to run on 4th-and-3 from his opponents' 36-yard line. Fortunately, LSU's coach is the best kind of insane:
If it doesn't work – if the ball isn't guided along the 42-yard line on an invisible rope that keeps it from becoming an incomplete forward pass, if it doesn't bounce perfectly into Josh Jasper's waiting arms at full speed, if Jasper's 171-pound frame doesn't go lunging past two Gators for a first down – then half the LSU student body tries to burn Miles' house down.
But of course, it does work, because it is too insane not to work. LSU scored the winning touchdown three plays later to move to 5-0.
2. A.J. Green gets mile high. NASA can send a man to the moon, but I'm pretty sure it could never come up with an equation to replicate the combination of altitude and precision on display by A.J. Green on his first touchdown of the season at Colorado:
Georgia had a rough night in the Rockies, and a rough season, in general, even after Green's return from a four-game suspension to a 1-3 team in free-fall. But it might have been an unmitigated disaster without him.
More 2010 Superlatives
• Dec. 8: Best Upsets
• Dec. 11: Most Overachieving Teams
• Dec. 13: Most Overachieving Players
• Dec. 15: Most Underachieving Players
• Dec. 16: Sharpest Turning Points
• Dec. 20: Most Underrated Players
• Dec. 21: Best Breakthrough Players
• Dec. 8: Best Upsets
• Dec. 11: Most Overachieving Teams
• Dec. 13: Most Overachieving Players
• Dec. 15: Most Underachieving Players
• Dec. 16: Sharpest Turning Points
• Dec. 20: Most Underrated Players
• Dec. 21: Best Breakthrough Players
1. Cam Newton fulfills his athletic potential. Sports mythology, like most other kinds, doesn't do very well in the 21st Century: Too much documentation, and too many ways to disseminate it. Amazing athletic feats are instantly replayed, slowed down and rewound to the point that awe is replaced by mechanical dissection, like trying to spot exactly where the magician was hiding the rabbit. The best of those are sucked into a spin cycle of highlights that replenishes itself every few days, and the best of those ascend into the matrix that envelops sports fans in a never-ending feedback loop of the once spectacular. The hitter never misses, the ball always goes in, and whatever fleeting thrill they once provided gives way to mere respect.
In the big picture, that's a good thing: We see more great players and understand them better than ever before. At the same time, that saturation also threatens to rob us of that essential moment when we watch in disbelief as a play like Cam Newton's winding, 49-yard touchdown run against LSU on Oct. 23 unfolds in real time – and knowing full well in that moment that the few seconds you just witnessed is destined for the canon. No matter how many times you see it, the physics will never change: Burst through the line, cut right, dodge left, cut back to the middle of the field, accelerate into the end zone. He'll always keep his balance before dodging Brandon Taylor. He'll always drag Patrick Peterson across the line. You will never be surprised. But it will always be great because of that split-second that your jaw hit the floor:
Newton was already the best quarterback in the country over the first half of the season, but it was the sheer velocity of his 6-foot-5, 245-pound frame in the open field that instantly defined his run to the Heisman Trophy, and Auburn's run to 13-0. If he can do that against a defense like LSU's, there was clearly no limit for him or whatever team he happens to be playing for.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
Thomas Allier Håkan Andersson Victor Arbekov Les Archer Nicolas Aubin
Overeem finishes Duffee in 19 seconds
Alistair Overeem is making this fight stuff look too easy. Just two weeks after muscling his way to a K-1 kickboxing title in Japan, he ran roughshod over former UFC super prospect Todd Duffee. Overeem walked straight ahead against the powerful puncher. He delivered a vicious knee to the body, a right to the side of the head and a left hook. That was it. Duffee collapsed into the ropes and Overeem spared him what could've been some nasty punishment. All that in just 19 seconds at Dynamite!! 2010 in Saitama, Japan.
Frankly, Duffee was in over his head. The 25-year-old is a solid prospect but he only had seven pro MMA fights under his belt. This was fight No. 46 for Overeem. The size difference was also alarming. Duffee is massive at 6-foot-3, 249 pounds, but Overeem looked like a giant and fought like one.
Christophe Martin Mickael Maschio Connor McGechan Jeremy McGrath Andrew McFarlane
Ride along with Robby Gordon at the 2010 Baja 1000
We already know Robby Gordon can and will drive pretty much anything with four wheels, but what's it like riding along with him? Let's join him for a segment of this year's Baja 1000, shall we?
Gordon would go on to finish second in his division. And he's now preparing for the Dakar Rally in Argentina, which will run through much of January. By the time he's done with that, Daytona's going to feel like a Sunday morning drive to church. Follow all his wacky adventures at PlanetRobby.com.
Zach Osborne Trampas Parker Travis Pastrana Gautier Paulin David Philippaerts
Happy Birthday Boy!: Chicago's A.J. Pierzynski
As we head into 2011, Big League Stew will honor one birthday boy per week — players will be culled from both past and present — by taking a longer look at his career highlights and lowlights. First up is a notorious catcher from Chicago's South Side.
Anthony John Pierzynski turns 34 today. He's been in the league since the Minnesota Twins brought him up as a 21-year-old catcher for a cup of coffee in 1998. That was the same age at which Joe Mauer got his first taste of the big leagues in 2004, the year after the Twins traded A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants in one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history: Pierzynski for Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. The Giants chucked him after just one season, and he wound up playing for Ozzie Guillen on the South Side of Chicago in 2005.
Though he'd rubbed teammates and managers the wrong way for years, he seemed to click with Ozzie, who explained:
"If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less."
He's been behind the plate at U.S. Cellular Field ever since.
There's a reason the Giants wanted him, though. It really is difficult to find a catcher who can hit well, and while he's no Mauer, A.J. has been one of the better catchers in the league for a decade. He has 120 career home runs, a feat managed by just 47 other catchers. And as he continues his climb up the all-time ladder, we wish him a very happy birthday.
Best year 2003: .312/.360/.464, 11 HR, 74 RBI
This was his career year, and the Twins knew it, trading him at the peak of his value in one of the biggest trade heists in baseball history. The Giants compounded their mistake by non-tendering him after just one season of decent production, but they didn't have much of a choice. He couldn't fit in with teammates and, on one occasion, kneed the team trainer in the groin.
Worst year 2010: .270/.300/.388, 9 HR, 56 RBI
If not for the fact that top Sox catching prospect Tyler Flowers had an awful year in AAA, Pierzynski would probably be on another team or searching for one right now.. In his contract year, Pierzynski posted the worst numbers of his career, and he had to rally hard after a first half in which he hit .247. As it was, the White Sox had no better options behind the plate, so they swallowed hard and offered him a two-year, $8 million extension. But this may not be the last low point. Thirty-four-year-old catchers don't typically improve with age, so the Sox may have just thrown good money after bad. He's guaranteed the money, but he isn't guaranteed a roster spot.
Claim to fame "Punch A.J." — the successful campaign to get A.J. Pierzynski on the 2006 AL All-Star Team, as the White Sox rallied their fans to punch A.J. on the ballots. The movement, of course, got its name after he famously got into a donnybrook with Chicago Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, where Pierzynski ran over Barrett on a play at the plate and Barrett responded by slugging him in the jaw. Pierzynski's teammate Mark Buehrle responded:
"Once Barrett hit him, I think the whole league wanted to give Barrett a pat on the back."
Outside of baseball Pro wrestling. He appeared on Spike TV's Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2005, jumping into the ring and slammed home plate over another wrestler's head while wearing a White Sox jersey. On ESPN's Cold Pizza in 2006, he challenged the WWE's John Cena to a match, though Cena turned him down. In 2009, he appeared alongside Bob Barker in a WWE Raw segment called "The Price is Raw." Could anyone possibly be surprised that baseball's biggest heel secretly wants to be a pro wrestler?
Marc de Reuver Michele Rinaldi Joël Robert Ken Roczen Stephane Roncada
Headlinin': Why bowl games still want their USC
Making the morning rounds.• Same Trojan time, same Trojan channel. The Wall Street Journal crunched the numbers and found that the most attractive bowl teams of the BCS era are in the background again this postseason – and the biggest draw, probation-wracked USC, isn't on the stage at all. Television ratings for the Trojans' ten bowl appearances since 1998 outperformed the expected ratings for those games by 28.7 percent, best in the country, followed by Florida State (+22.6), Notre Dame (+20.8), Miami (+15.7) and Michigan (+12). On the other hand, outside of former heavy hitters FSU and Miami, nobody's tuning in for the rest of the ACC: Four of the five worst performing bowl teams in terms of TV were Virginia (–18.3), N.C. State (–17), Georgia Tech (–14.7) and Clemson (–7.9).
Frankly, with 33 of the 35 bowl games this season, I think ESPN wins no matter what. [Wall Street Journal]
• We hardly knew ye. Cincinnati receiver Vidal Hazelton, once a five-star, top-10 signee at USC, is declaring for the NFL Draft after a single season at Cincinnati – almost all of it spent on the bench after tearing an ACL in the Bearcats' season-opening loss at Fresno State. Among Hazelton's peers at the top of the freshman class of 2006: Percy Harvin, Andre Smith, Beanie Wells, Gerald McCoy, Sergio Kindle, Matthew Stafford and C.J. Spiller, all first-round picks except Kindle, who went early in the second. Hazelton, however, is unlikely to be drafted without some eye-popping workouts. [Cincinnati Enquirer]
• Should I stay or should I go? Florida quarterback John Brantley, primary scapegoat for the Gators' severe offensive regression this year, still hasn't decided whether or not he'll return next year under new coach Will Muschamp and an as-yet unnamed offensive coordinator. As a redshirt junior with one year of eligibility remaining, Brantley's options for leaving are a) Taking the Masoli route as a graduate transfer after he earns his degree in Gainesville, b) Transferring to a Division III school, or c) Taking his chances in the draft, where he has a chance to convince pro scouts that he really was the big-armed blue chip he was advertised to be, just stuck in the wrong offense. At any rate, that decision won't come until after Saturday's Outback Bowl date with Penn State. [Gainesville Sun]
Of more immediate concern to the Gators, All-SEC cornerback Janoris Jenkins and three other Florida seniors – offensive lineman Maurice Hurt and defensive tackles Terron Sanders and Lawrence Marsh – will miss the bowl game after undergoing surgery this month. Assuming Jenkins goes pro, it's likely the end of the college careers of all four. [Gainesville Sun]
• This may not be the 'opportunity' we were led to believe. Outgoing Texas Tech defensive coordinator James Willis might be in talks with Florida about joining Will Muschamp's developing staff in Gainesville, but his departure from Tech over the weekend also coincides with an ongoing domestic dispute investigation after Lubbock police were called to Willis' residence last week. No one was arrested or transported to the hospital in the incident, and police were tightlipped Monday about Willis' involvement, but they did confirm to various outlets that a woman suffered "minor injuries" and that the suspect is a 38-year-old male. (Willis is 38.) [Fox 34, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]
• Return of the eye in the sky. Notre Dame employed a hydraulic scissor lift to film Sun Bowl practice Monday, the first time the Irish have used one of the lifts since student videographer Declan Sullivan was killed when high winds toppled a lift in October. The return of the lift was cleared by the university's risk management office, though the investigation into Sullivan's death is ongoing. [Chicago Tribune]
Quickly… Joe Paterno's wife shoots down rumors about his health and future on the sideline. … Nittany Lion quarterback Robert Bolden says he's still out to win back the starting job from Matt McGloin. … Notre Dame receiver Duval Kamara will didn't travel with the team to the Sun Bowl for undisclosed personal reasons. … Defending the Big Ten's new logo. … Measuring the progress of black head coaches, by the numbers. … How Arizona buttered up the Alamo Bowl. … Tennessee players face an early curfew in Nashville. … A South Carolina columnist takes a gratuitous shot at Florida State's "Seminole" motif. … Andy Dalton puts on the chef's hat for the annual "Beef Bowl." … And this headline might just as easily be reversed.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
Alessandro Puzar Gaston Rahier Steve Ramon Tyla Rattray Chad Reed
Thursday, December 30, 2010
?Apple will totally do a 7-inch device? insists lead Android advocate
Steve Jobs minced no words back in October 2010 when he described 7-inch tablets as “dead on arrival”, telling investors that Apple had decided “this size isn?t sufficient to create great tablet apps.” Now Android developer advocate Tim Bray has offered up some advice of his own to Jobs, suggesting that “Apple will totally do [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/-809XBkoI1w/
Victor Arbekov Les Archer Nicolas Aubin Rene Baeten David Bailey
John Isner, Nicolas Mahut Provide Top Sports Moment of 2010
You are arm wrestling and your opponent has the exact same strength you have. Neither of you can budge.
One weak second, and you would be done. One lapse of concentration, and it's over. Same is true for the other guy.
And the moment doesn't just last a few seconds. Or minutes. Or hours. It lasts three days. How do you do it? How do you keep it together?
That's how I saw tennis' biggest moment of 2010. The year in tennis belonged to Rafael Nadal, really, as he recovered from an injury that threatened his career, won three majors, reestablished himself as the world's best player and entered the argument about best player of all time.
But the most incredible moment is not in debate. It was John Isner beating Nicolas Mahut on a side court at Wimbledon on a Tuesday.
Also, on a Wednesday.
And a Thursday.
Source: http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2010/12/29/john-isner-nicolas-mahut-provide-top-sports-moment-of-2010/
Rene Baeten David Bailey John Banks Mark Barnett Jonathan Barragan
UConn made the BCS, and all it got was this looming financial burden
UConn! You've just finished the best football season in school history to earn an improbable berth in the Fiesta Bowl! What are you going to do next? According to the New Haven Register, the university's going to take a financial bath.
[Related: Change comes to BCS game]
BCS games are supposed to be a big payday, and on paper, they are: The Fiesta Bowl is doling out $17 million to both the Big East and the Big 12. Based on the Big East's revenue-sharing plan, the Huskies are guaranteed somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million of that, with other revenue streams bringing their cut of the conference pie up to about $3 million. Not bad, until you start to add up the expense of traveling to a major bowl game, beginning with ticket obligations:
The Fiesta Bowl distributed 17,500 tickets to UConn, and the school is responsible to sell them all. The cheapest of those tickets cost $111 (in the lower end zone) and can cost as much as $268 for club level.
… and hotel obligations:
[…] a total of 550 rooms at three different hotels ranging in price from $125-225 a night, not including tax, with blocks reserved for either three or seven nights. Additional expenses include a chartered flight and meals for the team, staff and 300-member band, as well as a $100,000 bonus to coach Randy Edsall, and smaller bonuses for assistants, per their contracts, for getting the team to a BCS bowl.
… and obligations to move all that inventory, or eat the cost (emphasis added):
Cost of any tickets or hotel rooms that go unfilled are absorbed by the university, with the exception of the 150 rooms at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, where UConn is on the hook for only half of money owed on unsold rooms at the $225-a-night hotel.
Whether UConn maximizes its revenue opportunity will depend on the amount of tickets it can sell. The school will almost certainly take a bath. As of Monday night, only 4,000 tickets had been sold, meaning UConn was still holding roughly $2.5 million in unsold tickets.
Meanwhile, on StubHub.com, Terrace Level tickets are starting at $25 – barely a fifth of the cost of the cheapest tickets allocated to the university. Which is how coach Randy Edsall has found himself in the position of acting as a pitchman for the greater Phoenix area just to get his own fans to come to the biggest game in school history:
"If you have the opportunity and the wherewithal to make it happen, (you) should make it happen, because this is a once in a lifetime experience for the most part," Edsall said. [… ]
"[I]t's a lot warmer in Phoenix than anyplace in Connecticut from December 26 to January 2. I'm glad I'll be in Phoenix. I might be shoveling, but it will be sand, not snow, and I'll be sitting by a pool."
That's par for the course, by the way, whether or not the coach goes out of his way to stump for the destination. When Florida won the BCS championship in 2008, the university's profit from the advertised $17 million payday amounted to $47,000 – and that was with in-state travel, to Miami. The Gators took a loss on their 2006 BCS title trip to Glendale, as did their opponent, Ohio State.
[Rewind: Pro team faces $120 million debt]
Further down the chain, Nebraska is almost certainly going to lose money on its return trip to the Holiday Bowl, because it's footing the bill for the band this time. (The 'Huskers broke even on their trip to San Diego last year, in part by making the band pay its own way to the game.) Those scrubby bowl games that have popped up over the last decade to fill afternoon airtime on ESPN over the holidays – many of which are subsidized or owned outright by ESPN – regularly take back a significant chunk of the payout in the form of ticket guarantees.
Just about everybody loses money on bowl games, or comes close – except television and the bowl games themselves, which is why they continue to exist. No one has ever turned down a bowl for financial reasons ("Hey, highly touted recruit, you won't even go to a bowl game at Rival U because they're too cheap!"), and won't anytime soon. But remember that they're usually paying for the privilege.
[Related: Staggering cost of London Olympics]
- - -
Hat tip: SbB.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
Other popular stories on the Yahoo! network:
• Most startling photos of 2010
• Video: 49ers defender ejected for shoving official
• Paralyzed athlete given the gift of a lifetime
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
UConn made the BCS, and all it got was this looming financial burden
UConn! You've just finished the best football season in school history to earn an improbable berth in the Fiesta Bowl! What are you going to do next? According to the New Haven Register, the university's going to take a financial bath.
[Related: Change comes to BCS game]
BCS games are supposed to be a big payday, and on paper, they are: The Fiesta Bowl is doling out $17 million to both the Big East and the Big 12. Based on the Big East's revenue-sharing plan, the Huskies are guaranteed somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million of that, with other revenue streams bringing their cut of the conference pie up to about $3 million. Not bad, until you start to add up the expense of traveling to a major bowl game, beginning with ticket obligations:
The Fiesta Bowl distributed 17,500 tickets to UConn, and the school is responsible to sell them all. The cheapest of those tickets cost $111 (in the lower end zone) and can cost as much as $268 for club level.
… and hotel obligations:
[…] a total of 550 rooms at three different hotels ranging in price from $125-225 a night, not including tax, with blocks reserved for either three or seven nights. Additional expenses include a chartered flight and meals for the team, staff and 300-member band, as well as a $100,000 bonus to coach Randy Edsall, and smaller bonuses for assistants, per their contracts, for getting the team to a BCS bowl.
… and obligations to move all that inventory, or eat the cost (emphasis added):
Cost of any tickets or hotel rooms that go unfilled are absorbed by the university, with the exception of the 150 rooms at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, where UConn is on the hook for only half of money owed on unsold rooms at the $225-a-night hotel.
Whether UConn maximizes its revenue opportunity will depend on the amount of tickets it can sell. The school will almost certainly take a bath. As of Monday night, only 4,000 tickets had been sold, meaning UConn was still holding roughly $2.5 million in unsold tickets.
Meanwhile, on StubHub.com, Terrace Level tickets are starting at $25 – barely a fifth of the cost of the cheapest tickets allocated to the university. Which is how coach Randy Edsall has found himself in the position of acting as a pitchman for the greater Phoenix area just to get his own fans to come to the biggest game in school history:
"If you have the opportunity and the wherewithal to make it happen, (you) should make it happen, because this is a once in a lifetime experience for the most part," Edsall said. [… ]
"[I]t's a lot warmer in Phoenix than anyplace in Connecticut from December 26 to January 2. I'm glad I'll be in Phoenix. I might be shoveling, but it will be sand, not snow, and I'll be sitting by a pool."
That's par for the course, by the way, whether or not the coach goes out of his way to stump for the destination. When Florida won the BCS championship in 2008, the university's profit from the advertised $17 million payday amounted to $47,000 – and that was with in-state travel, to Miami. The Gators took a loss on their 2006 BCS title trip to Glendale, as did their opponent, Ohio State.
[Rewind: Pro team faces $120 million debt]
Further down the chain, Nebraska is almost certainly going to lose money on its return trip to the Holiday Bowl, because it's footing the bill for the band this time. (The 'Huskers broke even on their trip to San Diego last year, in part by making the band pay its own way to the game.) Those scrubby bowl games that have popped up over the last decade to fill afternoon airtime on ESPN over the holidays – many of which are subsidized or owned outright by ESPN – regularly take back a significant chunk of the payout in the form of ticket guarantees.
Just about everybody loses money on bowl games, or comes close – except television and the bowl games themselves, which is why they continue to exist. No one has ever turned down a bowl for financial reasons ("Hey, highly touted recruit, you won't even go to a bowl game at Rival U because they're too cheap!"), and won't anytime soon. But remember that they're usually paying for the privilege.
[Related: Staggering cost of London Olympics]
- - -
Hat tip: SbB.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
Other popular stories on the Yahoo! network:
• Most startling photos of 2010
• Video: 49ers defender ejected for shoving official
• Paralyzed athlete given the gift of a lifetime
Torao Suzuki Gareth Swanepoel Ivan Tedesco David Thorpe Rich Thorwaldson
Behind Jordan Taylor's heroics, Wisconsin holds off Minnesota
In a hotel bar somewhere in the Midwest, Bob Knight is probably still gushing about the shot fake Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor unveiled late in Tuesday night's victory over rival Minnesota.
With the Badgers clinging to a one-point lead and less than 90 seconds to go in the second half, Taylor forced 7-foot Ralph Sampson III to switch on him and then tried to beat him off the dribble. Cognizant that Sampson had swatted away one of his previous layup attempts, Taylor shot faked in the lane, drew a foul and converted a three-point play with 1:12 left to propel Wisconsin to a hard-fought 68-60 victory over the Gophers.
"I should have known the first time," Taylor said in a postgame interview on ESPN2. "Coach preaches the shot fake. I just tried to learn from that and make the play the second time."
The late three-point play from Taylor capped a brilliant performance from the junior point guard. Taylor overcame a poor outside shooting night to score 22 points, dish out seven assists and commit only one turnover, helping Wisconsin win despite a 37-24 rebounding disadvantage against the taller, longer Gophers.
After a breakout sophomore season in which he averaged 10.0 points and 3.6 assists, Taylor has upped those numbers to 15.4 and 4.8 so far this season and is shooting a career-best 41.2 percent from behind the arc as well. It was enough for ESPN analyst Dan Dakich to declare him the Big Ten's best point guard on Tuesday, ahead of the likes of Kalin Lucas from Michigan State or Demetri McCamey of Illinois.
Whether or not Taylor is worthy of that title, his playmaking and outside shooting provide Wisconsin a perimeter complement to Jon Leuer.
Much like the Badgers are perennially underrated nationally, it's time for Taylor to stop flying under the radar as well.
Bryan Wade Akira Watanabe Adolf Weil Jake Weimer Jimmy Weinert
Rating the Alamo Bowl: Arizona holds its ground against overwhelming firepower
Bowls: There are a lot of them. As a public service, the Doc is here to rank each game according to five crucial criteria, with help from the patron saint of the game in question. Today: The Alamo Bowl! Teams. Arizona Wildcats (7-5) vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys (10-2).
Particulars. Dec. 28 (Today), 9:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Favorite: Oklahoma State (–5½)
Patron Saint: Lt. colonel William B. Travis, highest-ranking officer in the Texan Army present at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, where he was killed along with at least 182 fellow Texans at the age of twenty-six. Travis was a South Carolina native who spent his formative years in Alabama, but became a Lone Star icon with his doomed pledge "To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World" to "never surrender or retreat," which he did not.
• Locale. The Alamodome ("America's Favorite Square Dome") opened in 1993 with vague hopes of luring an NFL franchise to the Mission City, and : Besides the Alamo Bowl, the dome's regular tenants have included the San Antonio Spurs, an ill-fated CFL franchise, three Big 12 championship games, the annual Texas Football Classic to kick off the high school season and the prestigious U.S. Army All-American Bowl for the nation's top high school seniors.
The closest it's gotten to the NFL, though, is six preseason games and a three-game stint as emergency home to the New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina, followed by a failed campaign to lure the franchise – owned by San Antonio mainstay Tom Benson – to the city.
More 2010 Bowl Ratings
• Dec. 17: New Mexico Bowl
• Dec. 18: Humanitarian Bowl
• Dec. 18: New Orleans Bowl
• Dec. 22: Maaco Bowl Las Vegas
• Dec. 23: Poinsettia Bowl
• Dec. 24: Hawaii Bowl
• Dec. 26: Little Caesars Bowl
• Dec. 27: Independence Bowl
• Dec. 28: Champs Sports Bowl
• Dec. 29: Texas Bowl
• Dec. 17: New Mexico Bowl
• Dec. 18: Humanitarian Bowl
• Dec. 18: New Orleans Bowl
• Dec. 22: Maaco Bowl Las Vegas
• Dec. 23: Poinsettia Bowl
• Dec. 24: Hawaii Bowl
• Dec. 26: Little Caesars Bowl
• Dec. 27: Independence Bowl
• Dec. 28: Champs Sports Bowl
• Dec. 29: Texas Bowl
• Tradition. The Alamo Bowl has been through four different title sponsors since 1993 but held fast to the basic "Alamo" theme and, until this year's Pac-10 incursion, to its trusty Big 12-Big Ten tie-in: The game was a solid Midwest-on-Midwest clash every year from 1995-2009, featuring at least one ranked team – and occasionally two – in 12 of 15 games over that span.
It's also featured a pair of soon-to-be Heisman winners (Charles Woodson, Eric Crouch) before they went on to headline national championship games as upperclassmen*, as well as future Heisman finalists/BCS heroes Drew Brees and Colt McCoy as a sophomore and redshirt freshman, respectively.
• Swag. The Alamo gift bag does players right on multiple levels, hitting them with the big-ticket electronics (a Microsoft Xbox 360 with Kinect; iPod Shuffle), the everyday niceties (a Fossil watch) and the sentimental keepsakes (a team panoramic photo). They throw in a pair of headphones and a $20 Game Stop gift card, too, which is about all a 19-year-old with a long offseason ahead of him can ask for.
• Sponsors, trophies and other ambiance. The weekend's "Minute to Win It" competitions included teammates engaged in a toilet paper-rolling race, the easiest trivia quiz ever and whatever this is, between Arizona linebacker Paul Vassallo and safety Joseph Perkins:
• This year's match-up. Oklahoma State brings in the face-melting stats you'd expect to accompany the nation's No. 1 total offense, but the only one number really stands out for Arizona: Four.
The Wildcats lost four straight to close the season after an impressive 7-1 start, yielding 36 points and 454 yards per game in the process against the best offenses they saw all season – and only Oregon (537 yards, 84 points against 'Zona on Nov. 26) can compare to the attack they'll see tonight against the Cowboys.
• Star power. Oklahoma State is the only the only offense in the nation with a top-10 passer (Brandon Weeden), top-10 rusher (Kendall Hunter) and top-10 receiver (Justin Blackmon), a rare feat that Cowboy fans should probably enjoy while they still have the chance: After tonight, Hunter's eligibility will expire, Blackmon will be eligible to jump to the NFL and whiz kid offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen will be on his way to West Virginia as the Mountaineers' head coach-in-waiting. The good news: Statistically speaking, their version of "going out with a bang" could be the equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb on the box score.
Final rating: out of five.
Even if Arizona struggles to keep pace, the Wildcats are going to put up more than enough points to keep it interesting past midnight.
- - -
* Future Heisman winner Troy Smith was also slated to lead Ohio State in the Alamo Bowl as a sophomore in 2004, but was suspended from the game for, yes, allegedly accepting improper benefits.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
James Stewart Jr Brian Stonebridge David Strijbos Kevin Strijbos Chuck Sun
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