Here's the Big 12 tourney line up:
Wednesday, May 26 Game 1: No. 4 Texas A&M vs. No. 5 Texas Tech 9:00 a.m. Game 2: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 8 Missouri 12:30 p.m. Game 3: No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 6 Baylor 4:00 p.m. Game 4: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 7 Kansas 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 27 Game 5: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 5 Texas Tech 3:00 p.m. Game 6: No. 4 Texas A&M vs. No. 8 Missouri 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 28 Game 7: No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 7 Kansas 3:00 p.m. Game 8: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 Baylor 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 29 Game 9: No. 5 Texas Tech vs. No. 8 Missouri 9:00 a.m. Game 10: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 4 Texas A&M 12:30 p.m. Game 11: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Kansas State 4:00 p.m. Game 12: No. 6 Baylor vs. No. 7 Kansas 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 30 Game 13: Division 1 Champion vs. Division 2 Champion {FSN} 1:00 p.m.
Plan your week accordingly. From the Big 12 site:
Live action from the Championship will be video streamed free on the Big 12 Conference’s official Web site, Big12Sports.com for the fourth year in a row. Audio from the webcast will also be broadcast on Sirius XM Radio (Sirius 217-best of XM/XM 231), a Big 12 corporate partner.
Each game leading up to the championship final (Wednesday-Saturday) will be available. All contests and press conferences will be archived in their entirety, along with the postgame celebration on Sunday afternoon. FSN will televise the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship title contest at 1 p.m. CDT on Sunday, May 30. Check local listings for more information.
Brandon Loy has an MRI.
“He can’t lift his left hand up to his shoulder,” Garrido said. “We’ll make a decision based on what the doctor sees on whether to send him back to Texas for further evaluation.”
Rivals analyzes the national seeds and regional hosts.
There is hope for all of you.
Garrett Gilbert is the reason for all the optimism.
Texas will be among the nation's elite again because of new QB Garrett Gilbert.
Once things settled down last year in the BCS National Championship Game, Gilbert stood tall in the pocket and played with confidence for much of the second half in place of injured Colt McCoy. Gilbert has a big arm and a nice mix of resiliency and moxie on the field, and humble actions off it.
When I was flying home from the BCS game last January, Gilbert sat in the row in front of me and was besieged by fans once they realized who he was. And they weren't Texas fans. Alabama fans hounded him for most of the 90-minute connecting flight to Salt Lake City; taking pictures with him and telling him how well he played.
He never flinched the entire flight. Never turned down pictures or autographs, always smiled and acted appreciative. You rarely see that behavior, that acknowledgment of the bigger picture, from a freshman. So much of success is between the ears, and when you also have a big arm, big things will happen.
Horns to the...
I can’t speak for anyone else, but we’re in the state of Texas neighborhood,
and we watch and enjoy the success that Texas, and [Texas] A&M
and [Texas] Tech have all experienced and respect it greatly.
And we understand, in many ways, the goals and aspirations of the
schools in Texas are the same as the goals and aspirations
of the people in the SEC.- SEC commissioner Mike Slive
Rumors. Are we in the SEC plans for expansion?
More love for Texas.
Of all the teams considered, Texas is the one that would bring the biggest immediate impact. The Longhorns have a record of 110-19 in the past 10 years in football, and the basketball program has produced a mark of 251-93 (a two-sport winning percentage of .763).
Congratulations to the Sooners. Their current round of probation ended on Sunday! Oh, wait...
Will the Sooners get a harsh penalty?
That makes them a repeat offender—this is the third major violation of the last five years for the football and basketball programs—and if a newly ferocious NCAA infraction committee wants a basketball equivalent for the USC program, Oklahoma is a fat hanging curveball thrown by a sixth-grader.
The Tiny Gallon situation is a royal mess.
Something smells rotten in the state of Oklahoma. The Sooners could be headed for another date with the high court, the NCAA’s committee on infractions. They’ve been there twice in the last five years; once for football (Rhett Bomar); once for hoops (Kelvin Sampson’s telephone).
Despite the down year in football and basketball, the Sooners have had great success in other sports.
Someone with way too much time on their hands. There is a blog that celebrates Mike Gundy's hair and other messes.
Is Nebraska this year's Alabama?
This team was coming off a season with a double-digit victory total, but had gone more than a decade without winning a national championship. It most recently had faced Miami with the national title on the line.
Coming off a conference runner-up finish, it had questions at quarterback but was deep at running back. Its offensive line was rebuilding and had a junior college transfer at tackle. It also had a powerful defense featuring a defensive tackle and a cornerback with All-America capabilities. It had a dangerous punt returner and an extremely accurate kicker.
Furthermore, its coach was involved with a national championship team at LSU.
Obviously, last season's Alabama team fit that description.
This season's Nebraska team does, too.
Mark Mangino has moved to Naples, Florida.
Moving Day
The state of Texas is very, very attractive.
Expansion is not about geography. If that was true, why would Texas be mentioned in Big Ten expansion talk? The addition of Penn State took the league beyond its traditional Midwestern makeup, but the 11 current teams are in eight contiguous states.
Texas is three states away, about 850 miles away from the nearest current Big Ten members, Illinois and Iowa.
But there are about 25 million people in Texas. The Dallas-Fort Worth TV market alone is the nation's fifth largest.
(I know, UT isn't in Dallas-Fort Worth. But the Longhorns are a huge draw there.)
Who's in, who's out?
Q: You mentioned on a radio interview that you would like to know by the Big 12 meetings in Kansas City in a few weeks who’s on the plane and who’s off. From a practical perspective, what does that mean?
A: First of all, that isn’t the exact characterization of what I said. I said I want to present to the board the question of how do we get to a place where we determine who’s on the plane and who’s off. I want there to be a time — on our time schedule, not any other conference or entity’s time schedule — where we say, OK, here’s who’s committed to this conference, and we’re going forward and we’re going to continue to prepare for our negotiations with television next spring, which looks like it’s going to be a highly profitable situation for us, whether we collaborate with the Pac-10 or do it on our own. We need to continue to plan and strategize for how we’re going to maintain our position as one of the pre-eminent conferences in the country. To do that, we can’t be sitting there being perceived as being unstable or having members who might have their eye on other places.
It’s fine, it’s an obligation of institutions to perhaps from time-to-time see if they should be associated with other institutions, but we can’t allow it to continue on, in my judgment. Now, I’m just the commissioner, I don’t have a vote. It’s my position that I’m going to take with the board that we want a frank conversation about this and we want to see what options are available to get commitments to who’s on the plane and who’s not. It may not come right at this meeting, but I want to suggest a plan that gives us a date certain when we have a full understanding and commitment.
Will Missouri miss us if they leave?
And while it's a safe bet that Kansas and Missouri would continue as an annual nonconference rivalry, a jump to the Big Ten could mean no longer seeing the Huskers, Buffaloes, Wildcats, Sooners or Cowboys on a regular basis (although the Nebraska rivalry could be preserved if the Huskers also make the jump to the Big Ten, which has also been rumored).
Galloway and Company’s Ian Fitzsimmons and Jon Berger interviewed Big 12 Commish Dan Beebe. (Full podcast interview here.)
Q: Are you worried at all about the Big 12 could be going the same way as the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference if things don’t go as you hope they do?
Beebe: If you qualify it "at all," yes. But that’s a small degree. And I think I’m being paid to worry about all scenarios. So I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. I’m making all the plans and work that I can do to make it not happen. But I think that you can’t assume that you’re going to be in a certain position. You’ve got to act like any scenario is possible and try to plan to prevent total disarray."
The Big Ten and the SEC just want a little Big 12 love.
Excuse the name-dropping, but it was Mike Slive on the phone the other day.
I called first. He called me back.
Why does the commissioner of the most powerful college football conference in the land -- the SEC -- call me back?
Because he likes us.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
There is no free lunch and there is a side effect of a big expansion to 14 or 16 teams. It will change this football conference. By splitting into two divisions of seven or more teams it will erode some cohesiveness and rivalries in the league.
Has the NCAA lost control? Did they ever really have it in the first place?
Has the NCAA lost control of college sports? If you look closely at the motivation of the major athletic conferences, now in an intense chase to gather up more treasure with TV contracts, the answer is "yes."
If you note how the NCAA can discipline an athlete for accepting a breakfast from a booster but is impotent at controlling millions raked in by a school, you get the picture. This has led to college expansion that could impact the Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences, where Utah, BYU and Utah State play.
It's a showdown: Congress vs. BCS.
Hatch, upset when undefeated Utah did not get a shot at the 2008 national championship (while No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Florida did), fired back with a statement released from his office: "Today, the BCS simply confirmed what most fans of college football have known for some time, that the BCS system is biased, secretive, and harmful to schools and competitors.
"No one wants to see Congress get involved here, including me. But if this response is any indication, there may not be any other option."
If Boise moves to the Mountain West, they won't get the ESPN love.
Mountain West games air on one of three cable networks - Versus, CBS College Sports or The Mtn. Games rarely are shown on free, local TV and Mountain West teams only appear on ESPN when they play nonconference road games against schools with ESPN contracts or in bowl games.
None of the Mountain West TV partners are as widely available as ESPN.
This year, Boise State will play six ESPN games. Four or five games are expected to air on local TV.
Boise State has played 33 regular-season games on ESPN channels in the past seven years.
ESPN has given the green light to a documentary about the SMU football scandal.
Here are the future head coaches in college football.
Conference realignment, Mega-conferences and whatever else
Don't U.S. senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Max Baucus of Montana have something else to worry about?
U.S. senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Max Baucus of Montana continue their assault on the BCS, so much so that this week the BCS fired back with a statement from director Bill Hancock, who defended college football’s two-team playoff system.
I have two questions. For Baucus, I want to know why a senator from Montana is concerned with the BCS. For Hatch, I want to know why he’s worried about the BCS when the whole structure of collegiate athletics could change and really leave his state’s schools in the lurch.
There are three options for a 12-team Big Ten Conference.
One of Dennis Dodd's readers has big plans for expansion and that Big Ten Network.
I think the Big Ten Network is also gonna turn lacrosse and hockey into revenue sports for the Big Ten.
Lou Holtz has an opinion about expansion.
n his job as a college football analyst on ESPN, Holtz is keenly aware of the impact the Big Ten's expansion plans will have on the rest of the country. Does Notre Dame risk being left behind?
"I would continue to be an independent, but (I make that decision) without all the facts," Holtz said. "You have maybe 30 sports at Notre Dame. What happens if the Big East is raided? Where are your other 29 sports going to go in order to get a championship?
"The Big Ten's probably as good a conference as there is in the country. You look at academics; you look at research; you look at all the other things. The fact is, Notre Dame has always been a national institution. We have fans all over the country. We played the best there was in the country, that was (then president) Father (Theodore) Hesburgh's goal.
Sporting News has all the Big Ten's options.
Notre Dames independent roots may be too deep for a move to the Big Ten.
So for the moment, anyway, it evidently doesn't have much to gain financially by affiliating itself with the Big Ten.
The Post-Dispatch reported last week that the 2009-10 revenue split from the Big Ten for Illinois was $19.9 million, of which $14.9 was from TV revenue and the rest from bowl and NCAA Tournament appearances among its members.Notre Dame declines to specify the worth of its contract with NBC, which runs through 2015. The SportsBusiness Journal called it more than $10 million a year, and other media outlets have characterized it as around $15 million.
Big Ten fans get to have their say.
Iowa fans are ready for Nebraska to join the Big Ten.
"If Nebraska is going to come into the Big Ten, that should be the last game of the season — the day after Thanksgiving,’’ said Pagel, whose brother Derek played safety for Iowa’s 2002 Orange Bowl team. "The Minnesota game is fun, but the Nebraska game would be a lot more electric — and a better way to end the year. I think it would be our new big rival in the Big Ten. Of course, some people on the east side of the state may not agree.’’
Dr. Saturday looks at those Big Ten family values.
And finally...
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dexter Pittman, DeMarco Cobbs and their families.