No, we didn't beat Missouri but this will make you smile.
Tuesday, the best college baseball team in America walked single file into Coach’s Bricktown.
One by one, Texas players pounded fists with 8-year-old Kyle Bratcher.
"Hey, Kyle."
"Nice to meet you, Kyle."
"What’s up, bud?"
As each player passed, the magnitude of what was happening became more evident to Kyle. His head slowly lifted. His eyes opened a bit wider. Then came his million-dollar smile.
Kyle was decked out in UT gear for his Longhorn procession. He was burnt orange from his cap all the way down to the trim at the base of his wheelchair.
When he was 3 years old, Kyle was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He went through some treatments, got rid of the tumor, but it came back.
Texas going rogue? Will the Horns be independent?
The 'Horns' program is one of the few with enough resources and national appeal to allow consideration of that move, though hurdles would loom. One is state legislators' insistence that Texas and Texas A&M remain a tandem. Another is the need for a conference home for basketball and other sports.
"We've had those conversations. We've thought about it. It's a possibility, but it's not something we're thinking about seriously," Dodds says. "You could do it in football. It hurts basketball badly unless you find a conference. It's got lots of flaws."
Now the Jayhawks have problems.
There was no reason to suspect anything was wrong at the University of Kansas. The teams were winning, the stands were full, the donor money continued to roll in.
But behind the scenes, working side-by-side within the athletics department, a group of six employees had allegedly hatched a lucrative ticket-scalping scheme.
Details of the scam were outlined Wednesday in a report that found the "inappropriate" sale of at least $1 million worth of basketball and football tickets to brokers over the past five years, leaving school officials embarrassed.
Really? Phil Steele ranked the Sooners No. 1.
The Oklahoma Sooners are No. 1
At least according to one college football preseason ranking.
Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, one of the major annual preseason college football magazines, ranks OU No. 1.
Dr. Saturday has something to say about the Sooners' status.
We've established already that Oklahoma is this fall's undisputed "Mulligan Team," the perennial power granted automatic passage back into pundits' good graces on the strength of the brand. And I'm personally on record (tentatively) floating the Sooners as Big 12 South favorites over attrition-wracked Texas. Only an outfit with OU's stellar reputation could ever hope to rebound from an 8-5 plunge to the fringes of the top 10 in the span of a few quiet months, especially on the heels of sending four first-round picks – three with eligibility remaining – on to the draft. But there are mulligans, and there are borderline miracles, which is what top-shelf preseason guru Phil Steele is apparently projecting when he ranks the Sooners as his preseason No. 1 in his labyrinthine summer magazine.
Judges are supposed to be impartial. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doesn't trust us.
A native of Pin Point, Ga., near Savannah, Thomas got his affection for Nebraska football from his in-laws, the late Donald and Marjorie Lamp of Omaha. The Lamps had season tickets for decades, though they really weren’t avid sports fans, Thomas says. Thing is, the Lamps saw something in the Husker experience that went beyond a mere game.
Tuesday’s conversation predictably turned to Oct. 16, to the Texas game, to the team that benefited from one extra second in an unforgettable Big 12 championship game.
He might just have to come back to Lincoln on Oct. 16, Thomas says, adding:
"I’m going to be the timekeeper."
Baylor's Robert Griffin could be a darkhorse Heisman candidate.
Let's add Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin (right), an even more obscure name from maybe the most unlikely of programs, to that mix. Toss in the fact that Griffin is coming off an ACL injury last season that ended his sophomore campaign three games in and you might have your longest long shot of them all this season.
But if Griffin is able to build on the excitement of his true freshman campaign in 2008, when he accounted for a school-record 28 touchdowns (15 passing and 13 rushing), he could very well find himself and the Big 12 thrust into the Heisman Trophy conversation in 2010.
Sporting News has the top game day rituals.
"The Eyes of Texas": Watch a victory in the enormous stadium with the larger-than-life replay board, and you're rewarded with "The Eyes of Texas." Bonus I: The Tower lights up in burnt orange. Bonus II: Bevo.
Some coaches have a very warm seat.
Dan Hawkins, Colorado (5.0)
The conference's only coach with the top ranking, Hawkins is one of just four coaches nationally whose seats are burning up. Hawkins comes in at No. 2 in Feldman's rankings, and with a 16-33 overall record, along with no winning seasons to his name in four tries, patience with Hawkins is wearing thin in Boulder. The Buffaloes' record has gotten worse in each of the past three seasons, lowlighted by an embarrassing 54-38 loss to Toledo on national TV last season.Mike Sherman, Texas A&M (3.5)
The Aggies have finished fifth in the Big 12 South in both of Sherman's seasons at the helm, and that doesn't fly in College Station. The Aggies have plenty of believers this season, and Sherman will have to prove them right if he wants to cool down his hindquarters. His record over his two seasons is just 10-15, and improving that starts with improving the defense, but for now, he lands on Feldman's list at No. 10.
Demographics have affected Big Ten recruiting.
Fewer taxpayers means fewer schools. In Youngstown, the northern Ohio city that has given football the Stoops and Pelini families, the number of high schools has dwindled in recent years from six to two.
"This place," Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman said, referring to the iconic program where he has coached since 2001, "will change less than other places." The Buckeyes will continue to sign the best players in a football-crazed state.
But, Bollman added, "Youngstown has two high schools now. Cleveland has fewer high schools. Akron has fewer high schools. Are there players? Yeah. Are there as many overall? I don't know how there can be."