Bevo's Daily Roundup - December 18, 2009

Well, no one is perfect. Colt McCoy has been told he isn't perfect.

Colt McCoy has been told he isn't perfect. Lately by the Heisman voters, often by pro scouts.

But if he can find a television with the NFL Network, he might be inspired Saturday night. Then, the Cowboys face someone who has been perfect.

McCoy might even recognize this person. It's his twin.

An NFL scout of over 20 years thinks so. "(McCoy) looks like a bigger, stronger Drew Brees," Dave Razzano told a reporter last month.

Colt McCoy is Sporting News 2009 College Athlete of the Year.

Someone over at Tomahawk Nation doesn't like McCoy's chances against the Bama defense.

And Pat Forde doesn't like our chances against Alabama.

Why to watch: If you need to be told, you haven't been paying attention.

Who's happier to be there: Mutual ecstasy.

Moderately useful Dash fact: Texas has played two teams in the Sagarin top 30. Alabama has played seven.

Completely useless Dash fact: Mack Brown (39) now can crush $4 million man Nick Saban (40) with his wallet.

Dash pick: Alabama 21, Texas 17.

The  Los Angeles Times’ Chris Dufresne picks Texas to beat Alabama.

History may be on our side.

Overall, the No. 1 team in The Associated Press poll has met the second-ranked team 43 times, winning 58 percent of the games. The No. 1 team is 24-17-2.

The bad news for Alabama fans is when the top two teams in the AP poll meet at a neutral site, mostly in postseason games, the No. 2 team fares better. At neutral sites, the No. 1 team is 13-12-1, a winner 52 percent of the time.

More recently, when the AP No. 1 and No. 2 teams squared off in the BCS title game — which didn’t happen after the 2000, ’01 and ’03 seasons since the BCS uses a tabulation of human and computer polls to rank teams — the series is dead even at four games apiece.

Seven Longhorns were included on the All-America teams for Sporting News and the Associated Press.

Daily Texan

 "I called the athletic director and said, 'How much money will it take to get my name off" 
that field? - Joe Jamail, after UCLA humiliated Texas 66-3 in 1997.

We're loaded.

While revenue at many big-time college football programs has fallen or stayed flat last season, revenue at the University of Texas—which comes from things like ticket sales and suite rentals—jumped by 20% last year to $87.6 million, the most ever generated by a college football program and almost $20 million more than second-place Ohio State University pulled in.

The bulk of the $14.6 million increase came from the addition of a building on the north side of the stadium with 9,000 new seats that was financed by alumnus and former Minnesota Vikings owner Billy Joe "Red" McCombs.

At Texas, alumni donations fund more than one-third of the athletic department's $127 million budget. In addition to buying football tickets, Texas alumni contributions help pay coaches' salaries. Last week, the University of Texas System raised coach Mack Brown's annual pay to $5 million from $3 million—a move that disgusted a group of faculty members who this week called the raise "unseemly and inappropriate."

And we spend it, too.

At the University Co-op near campus, Brian Jewell can't keep burnt orange tree toppers, football ornaments, Longhorn-Santa pants and red-hatted Bevo shirts on the shelves.

"It's a challenge for us this Christmas, and now we're trying to find merchandise from our vendors," said Jewell, the store's vice president of marketing.

He keeps reordering the Big 12 and BCS championship items. In a little over a week, the nonprofit store has sold $500,000 worth of just caps and shirts.

The Crimson Tide

What happened to that Christmas spirit? Roll Bama Roll has already started the hate.

S)  Texas enjoys being the underdog, and they are using that as motivation to prove everyone wrong.
T)  Texas is the underdog because they haven't played anyone who is even close to a team like Bama.  Honestly, they're probably not even as good as TCU, and they're definitely not as good as Florida.

S)  This will be a close defensive struggle.
T)  No it won't.  The only "defensive struggle" will be be the Texas defense struggling to suck wind from being on the field all night with their offense watching from the bench.

kleph over at RBR continues the Texas-Alabama series.

• 1922 game in Austin
• 1948 Cotton Bowl
• 1960 Bluebonnet Bowl
• 1965 Orange Bowl
• 1973 Cotton Bowl

Basketball

It is just time to move on. They are still talking about that Rick Barnes - Dean Smith incident.

Rick Barnes needs to find room for Jai Lucas.

Coach Rick Barnes said Lucas has played both point and shooting guard in practice. Lucas left Florida because he wanted to run a team, but some analysts who've seen Lucas practice wonder if he's a true point. He's certainly an excellent shooter, having hit 37-of-85 from 3-point range as a Gator freshman.

The Horns have a big test on Saturday.

However, the question is whether Texas can beat quality competition. The Longhorns have raced to the top of the Pomeroy Ratings with a 9-0 record but their strength of schedule ranks just 225th out of the nation’s 347 teams.

Texas will have the chance in the next few days to prove it is indeed a team that should be considered a serious national title contender. The Longhorns play defending national champion North Carolina on Saturday in the first basketball game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. They then host last year’s national runner-up, Michigan State, next Tuesday.

"It’s a big game against North Carolina for us as far as national interest, but in December, there’s not a lot to get excited about except showing improvement," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "Obviously, we want to win games but when we leave that game or the next game, we’ll know if we played up to our potential as a team. These are going to be more physical and much faster games than what we’ve been in. We’ve been in a situation where we’ve been able to overpower people talent-wise but it won’t be the case in these games.

The Women's basketball team beat Ole Miss 64-58.

Update: The Horns won and have now advanced to the NCAA title game.

The win puts Texas in its first NCAA title match since 1995, and UT will take on either Penn State or Hawaii to decide the national champion.  The NCAA championship match is slated for Saturday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. Central with a live ESPN2 national telecast.  The Longhorns will be looking for their second NCAA championship and their first since 1988.

UT is on the way to another possible national championship. The Texas Volleyball team takes on Minnesota in one of two semifinal s in Tampa, Fla.

Now, the Longhorns return to the Final Four with a new mind-set — one geared toward a different outcome.

"I think being through it last year helped us a lot," said Longhorns outside hitter Juliann Faucette. "It basically felt like a national championship just getting to the Final Four, but I think this year that has changed, and we know that was a goal of ours, to get back to the Final Four.

"It was kind of expected among our team that we would earn the right to be back, and we have to be down to business and ready for Minnesota."

We're all about second chances.

At first it looked like time might have expired on the Longhorns. Their season was lost. But then a second was returned to the clock, giving Longhorns place-kicker Hunter Lawrence the opportunity to kick the biggest field goal of his life and win the championship. He and the Longhorns had a second chance.

The point was not lost on Elliott's captains. The tears of disbelief that had flowed in the Faucette household as she and teammate Destinee Hooker saw the game clock apparently run out had given way to cheers at the second chance and the winning kick.

Tonight the UT volleyball team (28-1) gets its second chance, an opportunity to finally get past a gut-wrenching loss last year in the NCAA championship semifinal to Stanford , which came back from a two-set deficit to win the five-set match.

The No. 2 Texas Volleyball team placed three players on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America Teams.

Congratulations. Texas sophomore diver Drew Livingston and Texas freshman diver Maren Taylor were selected Wednesday as the Big 12 Conference's Divers of the Week.

Texas Longhorns pitchers Taylor Jungmann and Chance Ruffin were named to the 10th Annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Preseason All-America team.

It is time to shell out some money. Baseball season tickets are available.

The Cornhuskers are going back to the basics.

"Basically, we’re humbled. We’ve got to go to work," the Husker offensive coordinator said after Wednesday’s practice. "We know what we have to do. It’s evident to us, and we’re humbled by it and we know we have a responsibility to it. We don’t shuck it. We go to work. That’s how you do it."

Work in this case includes a going back to the basics.

It is all hugs and kisses at the Texas Bowl.

"We just had our big rivalry game, and it was a great win for our program, but unfortunately I got to see some Missouri tape," he said. "It took some of the euphoria away knowing we're going to be playing such a great opponent.

"I was going to ask coach Pinkel what he's feeding his guys — the quarterback is bigger than a defensive end."

Laughter ensued, and if there was an observer either neutral in his or her feelings or simply apathetic, he or she likely immediately warmed to the Mids.

The Texas Bowl is officially two weeks away, but all sides have already seemingly settled into their roles.

OSU's Zac Robinson will be ready for the Cotton Bowl.

"Zac's not 100 percent. He had a pretty good injury, but he's going fine now," Gundy said. "My opinion, four or five days from now, he'll be at full speed. We're not limiting his participation."

Robinson has been banged up throughout the season. His streak of 34 consecutive starts was ended after he sustained a shoulder injury in the Cowboys' victory over Texas Tech, causing him to miss OSU's home finale against Colorado. He returned to action for the Oklahoma game and played through the injury.

Oklahoma fans are skipping the Sun Bowl. Maybe it has something to do with the proximity to Ciudad Juárez, the murder capital of the world? (I could have made a snide remark about Sooners and crime, but decided to be polite.)

Sooner receiver Jameel Owens is transferring to Tulsa.

"I've got to do what's right for me," Owens told his hometown newspaper. "It wasn't working out like it should for me this was a move I needed to make."

Matt Hennesy was Owens' high school coach. He said a main reason for Owens' departure includes the ill health of his mother.

Aggie Von Miller may be headed to the NFL.

An audit of Texas A&M's athletic department did not go well.

The Texas A&M athletic department lacks control of its finances, according to an audit obtained by the Express-News.

The department "requires significant improvement in its financial controls and processes," according to the 25-page report that reviews a span from September 2007 to December of last year. Six accountants from the A&M system performed the internal audit.

"I've seen what the bowl system has done for college football," 
BCS coordinator Bill Hancock told the Tulsa World. 
"I understand when I see a kid get to see the ocean for the first time."

Bill and the BCS are all about the kids.

Money just isn't that important to the schools in the BCS. It is all about the student-athlete.

In today’s installment of How Money Runs College Sports, we move to the Big Ten’s quasi announcement that having long ago outgrown that pesky number 10, it would like to stretch beyond 11 teams. In other words, it was running out of ways to print money, and to join the universe of lucrative conference championship games it needs two divisions of six teams. What the conference did not announce was plans to then arm-wrestle the Big 12 for its name and sell tickets to that, too. Send your check to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and please remember, only one E in Delany. Makes it so much easier at the bank.

We've got plenty of that. Why would the Big 10 even consider Texas as a possible addition? Money.

Yes, that's correct: Texas. No one seems to recognize the genius of this suggestion, which may be evidence of its genius. Everyone else seems to be thinking small and boring, but as I suggested not long after the Big Ten Network was conceived, Texas is the one program that could dramatically expand the money-making power of the league's cable operation. It also would enhance the competitive product of the league's two highest-profile sports.

Texas already is generating more money in the college football business than anyone else, and that's in a league that does not have the Big Ten's television appeal. Someone asked why the Longhorns would need to make more money, but I didn't see Mack Brown turn down that $2 million raise his athletic department offered. People always take more money if they can get it.

That Big 10 expansion team needs to bring their own added value to the conference.

The Big Ten does not publicly release revenue-sharing figures, but it's been reported that its rights deals with ABC/ESPN and the Big Ten Network generate about $212 million annually. (That's in addition to the league's direct profits from its jointly owned network.) Add in this season's two BCS berths ($22.3 million) and five other bowl berths (about $14 million), and we're talking a minimally estimated $248.3 million in shared revenue, or $22.6 million per team.

Therefore, any potential 12th team would have to add $22.6 million in "value" to renegotiated TV and bowl deals to prevent the others from losing money. With all due respect to Missouri, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Rutgers (the most commonly discussed candidates), there's only one viable school that could guarantee that kind of gold mine: Notre Dame. The Irish rejected the Big Ten's last invitation in 1999, and the school has given no indication it's willing to reconsider.

And finally...

A UT pottery professor is not happy about Mack Brown's raise.

"To be paid millions of dollars while professors who are helping the community with culture and peace can barely scrape by is tragic." Wheatgrass was then told that the football program makes the University over $40 million annually, and that the pottery program costs the University upwards of $300,000 annually. "The price Mother Earth pays for football cannot be quantified in dollars," Wheatgrass replied as she cashed her paycheck.

They teach pottery at UT?

Don't play Fantasy Football at work.

Working as a relationship manager in the private client group at Fidelity Investments' Westlake office, Pettigrew says he looked forward to work every day. He even remembers telling co-workers and friends that he planned to retire someday from Fidelity, the country’s biggest mutual fund sponsor and one of the world’s largest providers of financial services.

But that isn't going to happen. Pettigrew and three other Fidelity employees were fired for playing fantasy football.

"Firing a guy for being in a $20 fantasy league? Let’s be honest; that's a complete overreaction," said Pettigrew, who lives in Grapevine and has an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. "In this economic time, especially. To fire people over something like this, it's just cold."

What you have been waiting for...Weekend Bowling Schedule

Saturday, Dec. 19

New Mexico Bowl
Fresno State vs. Wyoming
4:30 p.m.
ESPN

St. Petersburg pres. by Beef 'O' Brady's
UCF vs. Rutgers
8 p.m.
ESPN

Sunday, Dec. 20

R+L Carriers New Orleans
Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee
8:30 p.m.
ESPN