All the Big 12-2 Conference news that is and isn't fit to read...
And some other stuff.
No pressure. Texas recruit future star and Heisman trophy candidate Malcolm Brown is staying under the radar this summer. [KENS5]
After being recruited by virtually every major college in the country and giving dozens of media interviews in the past year, former Steele High School running back Malcolm Brown quietly started classes at the University of Texas on June 2.
Brown better enjoy the relative calm in his life while he can, because he’s sure to get plenty of attention from the media when the Longhorns start preseason workouts in August.
Who are the best lineman in the conference? [Columbia Tribune]
2. Kheeston Randall, defensive tackle, Texas: First-year Texas defensive coordinator Manny Diaz needs time to sort out his depth along the line — except at one D-tackle position, where Randall has been a force for the Longhorns. His 13 tackles for loss last season were second-most among returning Big 12 linemen and the most by a returning D-tackle.
Catch up with Sergio Kindle. [San Antonio Express-News]
I had a skull fracture and some brain bruising. Basically, I messed up my equilibrium. I can hardly hear out of (my left) ear any more. The doctor said it was unlikely it will come back. But it's been a while, so I've gotten used to it. I'm (100 percent) now. I've been (lifting weights) since I got to Baltimore. Now I'm actually training, football training, without the contact. Now I just have to wait and see whatever the lockout does so I can give it a shot.
2012 is looking pretty good. [SBNation]
So far, the Longhorns have 17 commits, nine of which fall under the ESPNU Top 150 umbrella. The headline player to commit to Texas so far is running back Johnathan Gray, who is a Texas native himself.
The Longhorns have a number of other high profile commits as well, but Gray tops the list. Among the other notables are quarterback Connor Brewer, defensive tackle Malcom Brown and wide out Cayleb Jones.
Jamaal Charles wants college players to get paid. [Beaumont Enterprise]
Texas has a new associate head basketball coach. [ESPN]
On Monday, Rob was in Austin, Texas, beginning his new life as Rick Barnes' associate head coach at the University of Texas, and Dayo (pronounced Die-oh) was in Gainesville, Fla., packing up Rob's old life as Billy Donovan's assistant at the University of Florida.
Here is a feel good video for Texas' fans. [MBTF]
81 days.[Countdown clock]
Bob Stoops should go into politics. He says a lot while saying nothing at all.
Big congrats are in order. The Aggies have accomplished something no other school has ever done. [LA Times]
Texas A&M swept the men's and women's titles in the NCAA outdoor track and field championships Saturday at Des Moines, becoming the first school to post dual three-peat champions.
According to Commish Dan Beebe, the Big 12-2 is a lean, mean, operating machine. [Columbia Tribune]
The conference has made some changes to the bylaws. [NewsOK]
At last week's annual meetings Big 12 members agreed to rewrite the bylaws.
Conference generated revenue from tier one appearances on national TV will be distributed 76 percent equally compared to 57 percent in past years.
The remaining 24 percent provides incentive for teams that schedule attractive non-conference games to keep revenue from marquee non-league games.
Additional money will be allocated for schools that move games to accommodate television and might suffer at the gate because of it.
Money from the new Fox deal will be distributed 100 percent equally.
Does anyone find any bias in this Big 12-2 football game ranking? [NewsOK]
The Cowboys' recruiting classes have consistently improved under Gundy and are a big reason for OSU's rise on the college football landscape.
I was shocked, shocked, when I read this. I had no idea they were so bad. [Lost Lettermen]
The fans in Lubbock are nuts, and they’re in similar company on this list. Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance and athletic director Gerald Myers pleaded with fans last season to behave better at football games – to no avail.
"It depreciates your degree," Hance said. "I’m working hard for tier-one status, and we’re getting there. I want representatives and I want senators that are visitors to think well of our student body."
Is that an NCAA violation? Kansas is breaking the dealer tag law. [Lawrence Journal-World]
Michael Lee Lanning has written a book on the Mike Leach firing. [Amarillo Globe-News]
College sports needs more donors like Boone T. Pickens T. Boone Pickens. [Tulsa World]
"Mr. Pickens (OSU donor T. Boone Pickens) has always been very clear on this — that he will always help Oklahoma State unless we cheat," Cowboy coach Mike Gundy said. "You can’t build a consistent, winning program when you have setbacks (related to NCAA sanctions).
Football
What's good and bad about the 2011 Baylor Bears [ESPN Big 12 Blog]
OSU's football program has improved because of Mike Gundy's recruiting. [NewsOK]
Will OSU's Brandon Weeden be in the Heisman talk this year? [NewsOK]
Missouri's football players help out in Joplin, Missouri. [Columbia Tribune]
Established veterans like All-American tight end Michael Egnew worked alongside walk-ons like linebacker Daniel Carpenter. Soccer players Kendra Collins and Haley Krentz joined them. Friday was the football players’ day off between summer workouts, but at 7 a.m., this bleary-eyed group loaded a bus bound for hell.
"This is my home state," Kemp said. "I’m from Missouri. … How could you not come here and help?"
Even though he is leaving, former Jayhawk defensive coordinator Carl Torbush is sure Kansas' D is improving. [Lawrence Journal-World]
Turner Gill is giving out fashion advice. [Topeka Capital-Journal]
Summer conversations could grow difficult, Gill conceded, with acquaintances outfitted in purple, let alone black and gold. But he offered some advice on how to accessorize and still feel comfortable as a KU football fan.
"You’ll hear maybe some negative things,’’ said Gill, aware his first squad finished 3-9. "How can you answer back to them with some confidence? You can say to them, I believe in our football staff.’’
Everyone loves a good what if scenario. [NewsOK]
But for fantasy, how would an Oklahoma-Auburn game have turned out? Crazy as it seems, that’s easy to know. Auburn would have won and probably easily.
Basketball
Relax, everyone. Bill Self isn't going anywhere soon. [Topeka Capital-Journal]
A 7-foot kid visited the Jayhawk program because of his mom. [Lawrence Journal-World]
"It was really good, I really like it there," Tarczewski, Rivals.com’s No. 11-rated player in the Class of 2012, told ESPN.com, noting he has been on KU’s campus four times.
"This trip was really for my mom. She hadn’t been there yet and I wanted her to see it," added Tarczewski, who will visit North Carolina on Monday and Tuesday and Arizona on June 20-21.
The Big 12-2 coaches are just one big, happy family. [Mercury News]
And they especially love OU's new coach, Lon Kruger. [Tulsa World]
It is one of many impressions Kruger has made in his nearly 30 years of coaching. That's obvious across a Big 12 Conference he joins for the first time as Oklahoma head coach.
"I first met Lon when he got to Kansas State," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "I've admired him for a long time."
The school formerly known as a member of the Big 12-2
The Cornhuskers are already reminiscing about their historic move into the Big Ten. [Husker Extra]
Should titles be vacated?
Bad Boys
Cheating is to the N.C.A.A. what steroids is for Major League Baseball. [New York Times]
I want Vince Young at my birthday party next year. tOSU players showed up at a kid's birthday party? [ESPN]
As gifts go, walking into your young son's birthday party in Columbus, Ohio, with the star quarterback of the Ohio State football team and a linebacker is the stuff of dreams. Getting that quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, at the birthday party two years in a row with a teammate seems almost incomprehensible.
Yet there was Pryor in successive December parties with different teammates for Dennis J. Talbott's son -- sights that left even partygoers wondering about what they were seeing.
"We all thought it was crazy," said one 2010 partygoer who spoke to ESPN's "Outside the Lines" on the condition of anonymity. "It was a Saturday night, and I remember sitting there watching them watch the SEC championship game [on TV]."
Jim Tressel loyalists paying their respects outside his house.
Why are tOSU fans still defending Jim Tressell? [Sports Illustrated]
If the three highest profile players of a big-time coach's career all got dinged by the NCAA, you would think that coach might be dirty. So why, after Maurice Clarett, Troy Smith and Terrelle Pryor all faced NCAA sanctions, did people still think Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was squeaky clean? Why, after Tressel admitted in March that he played ineligible players and lied to the NCAA about it, did people still rush to his defense, claiming him an otherwise perfect coach who made one little mistake?
Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee thinks this is just a temporary condition. [USA Today]
Has Boise State done enough penance to avoid another visit from the powers that be? [Idaho Statesman]
Things aren't getting any better for Tennessee. [Yahoo Sports]
Kiffin spent more than four hours answering questions in front of the infractions committee Saturday, then was followed by Pearl, who spent nearly five hours in front of the committee. School officials are hoping the daylong closed-door hearing marks the beginning of the end of a 22-month investigation that rocked the Volunteers’ football and men’s basketball programs and tarnished Tennessee’s reputation.
"The hardest part is just being here," Pearl said. "This was not something I was looking forward to."
Hey Bruce, stop cheating and you won't have to meet with the NCAA again.
For Bruce Pearl and Jim Tressel, there may not be redemption. [CBS Sports]
Two veteran, accomplished coaches, both in their 50s, don't have the luxury of time. Pearl was fired by Tennessee in March. Tressel resigned under pressure on Memorial Day at Ohio State. The NCAA cannot be amused. Both coaches violated the NCAA's unethical conduct bylaw. Both admitted to lying, covering up and misleading. Both, it can be stated with some certainty, are prime candidates for show-cause orders.
The problem isn't the college athletes. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
The biggest thing destroying college athletics are the grown, secure men who seemingly shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Parents feel compelled to set an example for their children. So apparently do college administrators and coaches — they’re just setting the wrong ones.
According to Terrelle Pryor's attorney Larry James, players are on the take because they have to be. [Columbia Daily Tribune]
"It’s an archaic, draconian process by which you are basically financed for about 9½ months of your school year and then you’re to find the money for whatever else is left. You live in basically poverty throughout that period, and you’re making a million dollars for institutions," James said.
I have to confess...It is easy to break an NCAA violation. [Dr. Saturday]
Crime really does pay. Gene Chizik got a raise. [AHN Sports]
Some other stuff
PAC 10 Commish Larry Scott knows how to market. [CBS Sports]
This is about a guy who sees to and beyond the Pacific Rim to revenue streams in China. Scott has determined that, for some reason, the Chinese love UCLA, to the point that there are 100 Bruins merchandise stores in the communist stronghold. Uck-luh the natives call it, pronouncing it phonetically.
"It's an aspiration brand to the Chinese," said Scott, relaxing on a couch of his office, which provides a three-sided view of the Northern California landscape north of San Francisco. "They have this kind of fantasy notion of the California lifestyle and U.S. academia."
This is not the way you want to start your head coaching career. [Yahoo Sports]
Stewart's departure actually could help West Virginia's chances of winning the Big East. That isn't intended as an indictment of Stewart's coaching ability. It's more a commentary on the flawed succession plan West Virginia had utilized in the first place. West Virginia officials were asking for trouble when they hired Dana Holgorsen as offensive coordinator and also announced he would replace Stewart as coach after the 2011 season. Such a move couldn't help but create divided loyalties within the coaching staff and in the locker room. At least now all the players and assistants will know who's in charge from this point forward.
West Virginia AD Oliver Luck taught us all a valuable lesson. [Sports Illustrated]
Y'all probably know this, but I missed it entirely. Texas State and Texas-San Antonio will join the WAC in 2012. [Honolulu Star-Adviser]
Being a college football assistant coach is a great job with benefits. [St. Louis Today]
Texas beat Oklahoma in the 70th annual Oil Bowl. [MaxPreps]
Notre Dame will get their own network. [CBS Sports]
Now there's a third school looking to throw their hat in the ring. Notre Dame, the school that can be credited with pushing college football in this direction after signing its own exclusive deal with NBC in 1991, apparently has plans for its own network. In an interview with South Bend radio station -- via the Chicago Tribune-- WSBT AM 960, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick revealed the school's plans.
Sport Science analyzes the new CSW park. [ESPN]
Remember those great sports posters? [CNBC]
Yippee! The 2012 BCS title logo is out. [Dr. Saturday]
It was not a good year. Flashback to 1987 NFL strike. [ESPN]
And finally...
On to Omaha!
Today's post was finished before last night's game. Congrats to the Horns for a great win and look for CWS stuff tomorrow.
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