In the latest news of conference realignment, Butler, George Mason, and VCU are having discussions about joining the Atlantic 10 for the 2013-2014 school year.
For this to happen the schools would need to get permission from their respective school boards and would have to negotiate some kind of exit fee from their conference.
The three schools would help replace schools that are leaving the A-10. Temple is headed to the Big East and sources told CBSSports.com that Charlotte has received an “informal invitation” to the Sun Belt. The 49ers are starting up a football program in 2013 at the FCS level, but couldn't make a move to the FBS until 2015.
Creighton's names has also been thrown around, but the Atlantic 10 isn't a geographical fit for the school but there have been some strange alignments before and it wouldn't shock me if a invite were given to the Blue Jays that they would say no.
Butler, VCU, and George Mason reside in one bid basketball leagues right now, although the quality of play in the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) has improved in recent years. If the three schools mentioned join the Atlantic 10 the league would improve greatly.
I'm not predicting future Final Four berths for the conference, but with Xavier, St. Louis, and Dayton already there it would make the Atlantic 10 more competitive.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Dodgers' Ethier buying uniforms for Phoenix high school team
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder, Andre Ethier, has done a big favor for a Phoenix area high school. Ethier's buying new uniforms for the baseball team at Camelback High School. Ethier attended St. Mary’s High in Phoenix.
“I’ve been pretty excited and choked up about this,” Camelback Coach Todd Goertzen said.
Camelback reached the state finals in 1985, but the baseball program declined as the surrounding neighborhood changed. Most of the players are sons of Mexican immigrants who didn’t play baseball before high school because of the high cost of equipment. Many players come from single-parent households. Until recently, the team had one bat for the entire team.
The Spartans have won one game in each of the last two seasons; they are winless this season and lost one of their games by a 38-0 margin.
I can imagine being excited for new uniforms, especially being supplied by a major league player. A local product in this case making for a classic hometown hero story.
New Balance, which recently signed Ethier to an endorsement deal, will provide the team with shoes.
Hopefully Ethier's contributions will spark a new interest in the baseball program at Camelback.
Oswalt to the Angels?
ESPN's Jim Bowden tweeted that the Los Angeles Angels are the front runners to land Oswalt.
Bowden added that the Boston Red Sox “remain in the picture” while the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals are fading.
I still think Oswalt will take his time making a decision rather than being a late pickup in spring training. I still think he's taking a Brett Favre like approach in his decision. Maybe he just wants to make sure he's in peak condition before stepping on the mound.
FOX might look to hire Sean Payton
A report in the New York Times says that the FOX network is exploring the option of hiring Payton. Het a guy has to make a living right?
Payton will lose at least $6 million in salary from the Saints and could seek work elsewhere, perhaps in television. On Friday, representatives for ESPN, NBC and CBS indicated that they had no plans to hire him. But Fox Sports, which carries N.F.C. games during the season, is open to the possibility. “Our feeling about Sean is that he’s bright, articulate and obviously contemporary,” said Lou D’Ermilio, Fox’s senior vice president for communications. “Any network with N.F.L. rights would have to consider it.”
The league responded in a statement: “He is suspended from the N.F.L. for the season. His involvement in any non-N.F.L. employment or business matters is not our decision.”
Even though I do think the Saints should've been punished, it was a bit harsh. But maybe if Payton or Gregg Williams would've told (commissioner) Roger Goodell the truth they might've got off with a lighter penalty. But who knows. They were only doing what most in their position probably would've done and that is cover their ass.
Suh puts in a good word for incoming Nebraska basketball coach
Miles will now head up a rebuilding job in Lincoln. Athletic director Tom Osborne was impressed by the way Miles has built programs at his previous stops. But it helps when you have former players of the football program helping you get the job.
Detroit Lions defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh reportedly was one of three Nebraska supporters that recommended Miles for the job.
Miles said he and Suh have a mutual friend who put them contact this week.
Osborne joked (we think) that he wasn't about to ignore the Detroit Lions defensive tackle's recommendation.
"When Ndamukong calls, I always listen. And if I don't listen," Osborne told the Omaha World Herald, "he'll break my neck."
I guess when you donate $2.6 million back to your alma mater, that your opinions on who gets hired around there matters.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Lem Barney wishes he never played football
Barney still is in relatively good health for his age (66), but says that if he had been presented with a different choice he never would've played football.
"I call it blessed," Barney said. "It's that type of game. It's a lethal game. Again, as I tell people, 'Do you miss the game, Lem?' And sincerely, I don't miss the game."
"If I look at the game now and I look back on it retrospectively, if I had another choice I'd never played the game, at all, in my life," he said. "Never. Never. From all-city, all-state, all-conference, all-American, seven times All-Pro, I'm in eight Hall of Fames, it wouldn't be. It would be golf or tennis. I'm serious. Very serious."
His reasoning behind that. Concussions. Back when he played the league or doctors didn't diagnose concussions like they do now. Barney never knew how many he had until he went to visit a doctor when his playing days were over.
"(He) told me that he saw where I had at least seven or eight concussions," Barney said. "One (spot) was as large as a silver dollar, and he said, 'You were out for a long time.' And there was about 30 minutes that I was out -- down at Tiger Stadium playing against the Bengals. It was just amazing.
"And then the other ones that he saw -- I can remember them. The ones I remember fondly was big Rufus Mayes from Ohio State, 6-9, 290, and he put his right knee right in the right temple when I came up to cut him down on a sweep. Next thing I know, it's like la-la land. Was out for a long time.
If you were knocked around back then, you cleared the cobwebs and went back to playing.
"I related concussions to boxers," he said. "I didn't put one and two together. You get KO'd on the football (field) like getting KO'd in the damn ring, it's a concussion. I didn't put that together because, again, no doctors from middle school through high school through college through the league called them concussions. They all called them dingers and stingers."
He does have some advice for current Lions running back Jahvid Best.
"If he wants to play again, God bless him, but if he can come back and still be comprehensible and still be able to understand things and still live a real good life," Barney said. "I would tell him, if he's going to play, they've got to get some kind of special helmet for him because it's not going to take much longer if he keeps getting those dinger, stinger and bell-ringers as the boxers used to call them, or even the concussions, that he's going to be around here.
"I would tell him to maybe look at doing something else rather than coming back again after having those back-to-(back) concussions. It's a dangerous game. Like I said, I don't have anything against it, I just don't have anything for it now."
For fans that thought Barry Sanders quit on the Lions now you can see why. The man wanted to walk away with his health.
Jim Buss wants Kobe to be a Laker for life
The problem is placating Kobe and putting a competitive team around him. I guess Buss has it all figured out.
"I think about a lot of things to improve this team, to figure out how to manage the finances of it," said Lakers executive vice president of player personnel, Jim Buss, as a guest on the "Mason & Ireland Show" on 710 ESPN on Friday. "One thing I haven't thought of is Kobe being somewhere else. I don't know why that question has ever come up and I'd like to squish that one."
While it's hard to imagine Bryant in another uniform, it's had to say that Bryant will be able to compete at an elite level for the duration of his career. A caller on the show Buss appeared on went as far as saying that Bryant and the Lakers had a short window of opportunity to win a sixth championship. Buss thinks that Bryant has a lot left to give and won't sell him short.
"I might disagree with you that Kobe only has three or four years left, but we'll see," Buss said. "As you see, we make trades and our whole focus isn't to win a sixth (championship). I'm not sure I would stop there for Kobe; I would go to seven or eight if we can. ... I think Kobe is going to be a Laker for life and I'm pretty sure he's not going to hang them up after two years."
The only way Kobe leaves Los Angeles is if the Lakers are in so much disrepair that he doesn't want to stick around for a rebuilding job. His competitive juices will keep him in the game for as long as he desires.
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