Our long national nightmare is over. Again. At least for this week
For a group of people that seems to completely despise each other, the Big 12ish sure does a heck of a job sticking together. Except for that whole losing Colorado and Nebraska thing, of course. But Dan Beebe has once again located the duct tape and managed to keep the thing from falling apart.
In a unanimous vote of the athletic directors who met in Dallas on Monday, the league put a one-year hold on the games and recommended that the NCAA establish a national moratorium on such games to allow college sports to study the changing technology. ...
The Big 12 also announced the possibility of a conference game to be televised on a school network. The game must be approved by both schools and the conference office.
The prospect of this deal collapsing over the long term and causing the Big 12ish to spin apart have been too focused on the one-year aspect of the moratorium. The bigger risk is that the Big 12ish never allows high school games to be televised and other schools repeatedly nix conference games landing on the Longhorn Network. In that case, ESPN might start to wonder how it's going to make enough money on LHN to justify a fairly extravagant rights fee.
At which point Texas faces a decision. Do they stay in the Big 12ish and watch the value of LHN potentially dwindle? Or do they finally pursue independence and enhance the value of the LHN? Part of that depends on the NCAA's decision on televising high school games later this year. But it's hard to see Texas and ESPN standing pat with one nonconference game every year and no high school games if the NCAA gives the go-ahead.
Only at South Carolina
It's not every day we get to write about the quarterback and the quarterbacks coach being reinstated on the same day after essentially the same problem. (Do you think G.A. Mangus also gives Stephen Garcia pointers on his public urination techniques?) But here you have it.
Spurrier, along with athletic director Eric Hyman and school president Harris Pastides, made the decision to suspend Garcia. Monday's reinstatement was also made with input from all parties.
Here is where we point out that Garcia is a 23-year-old college kid, and college kids sometimes do stupid things. I have no idea what Mangus' excuse is.
The Vols almost have a full roster
Several of those players are injured, and Tennessee's still not up to the full number of scholarships, so let's not go crazy with this. But, it's progress.
Who kicked Janoris Jenkins off the team at Florida?
Not that it really matters at this point, but it's an interesting question raised by the Palm Beach Post.
Infante nails it. What's new?
At this point, I really should just tell you that John Infante has a piece at the Bylaw Blog about fans and the paying players debate. In case that's not enough, here's a snippet.
If deregulating amateurism or academics in some way means fans will stop coming, that's a useful nugget. ...
Conversely, if getting rid of some NCAA regulation would make college athletics more popular, that should frame the discussion as well.
Go read it. We'll still be here when you come back.