Could the SEC be the next conference in for a realignment?

The Breaking News in the sports world right now is the prospective move of Texas A & M making a move to the SEC.  Voting by the SEC Presidents could come as early as today, an announcement by the Aggies is expected on Monday.  And ESPN is also reporting that invitations could go out to Florida St, Missouri, and/or Clemson.  But the big question I have is what does all this mean for the future of SEC football (yes, I am aware this affects other sports, but right now all I can concentrate on is football because it is right around the corner).  As an avid Florida Gators fan, I am not happy about this possible realignment.  The SEC is the best football conference in the NCAA (I know this is up for debate but it is hard to argue against the winner of the past 5 BCS championships), and this change would not be good for it.  I understand why the SEC presidents may want to extend invitations to other schools- money- but that does not mean it the best thing for the conference.  The SEC has always been known as having some of the toughest schedules in the nation, but I am afraid that adding more teams will end, or at least hinder, this bragging right.  Let me break down how the SEC makes its schedules each season:

Each team (West- LSU, Auburn, AL, Ole Miss, Miss St, and AR; East- Fl, GA, TN, Vandy, KY, and SC) plays the other five teams in their division.  Then they play two teams on a rotating basis from the other conference.  Their last conference game is one team from the other division that they play each year (Auburn-GA, FL-LSU, AL-TN, Ole Miss-Vandy, AR-SC, Miss St-KY)

You can easily see how difficult one team’s schedule can get (it is noteworthy that 8 of the 12 teams in the SEC are ranked in the top 25 of the coaches preseason poll; 5 from the west and 3 from the east).  With the addition of a new school, there will be an odd number of teams and would screw up inter-divisional play.  That would then hurt revenues as the rivalries are often played on national TV.  I don’t want this change; I like things the way they are.  I am not saying Texas A & M is bad -they blow Vandy out of the water- but I like the balance right now.  With all the other conferences realigning, I am afraid this move would be detrimental to the SEC.  Other conferences are getting tougher schedules and if the SEC gets easier schedules, that means the BCS will rethink their bowl invitations.  If the SEC doesn’t get as many bowl games, the recruits will look elsewhere.  Bottom line: bad stuff happens!

While I believe this is bad for the SEC, I also think it will be bad for the ACC if Clemson and/or Florida St join.  Clemson and Florida St are clearly the most dominant teams in the conference, and I am scared to think about what would be left of the conference if they leave.  Normally I would not care about the effects on the ACC, but my brother goes to GA Tech so I kind of have to care if it affects them.

Orton v Tebow- getting a little snippy

Even though I am huge Tim Tebow fan, I am not going to say he should be starter.  I want what is best for Tebow to succeed, and if that means being backup for another year, then so be it.  But I really do not like people bashing him after only 3 starts as a rookie on a 4-12 team.  Anyone remember what Peyton Manning was like his rookie year?  He was 3-13 with 28 interceptions.  Now Tebow and Manning have completely different styles of play, but they have one thing in common- they are winners.  I have high confidence that Tebow will succeed as an NFL QB; he just needs more time.

On Wednesday, ESPN analyst Merril Hoge blasted Tebow.  Here is what he tweeted: “Orton or Tebow? It’s embarrassing to think the broncos could win with tebow!!Orton or tebow? QB play is not just about who works hard gives rare rare college speeches or who is a good guy!! Because orton works hard And is a good guy as well. It’s about who can play!! I just watched Tebow throw 5 out routes to a wide open WR! He was 1 for 5! 2 went in Dirt 2 in the stands! That throwing motion he changed? U can’t change who u r! Just watched 2 throws and he throws like he did in college!! College credentials do not transfer to NFL raw raw speeches do not work! You must poses a skill set to play! Tebow struggle with accuracy!”  This seems a little harsh to me.  He should analyze and he can criticize if he wants, but how about acknowledging that Tebow still has plenty of time to improve and could change if he works hard enough.  From the way Hoge talks, it seems like he believes Tebow will never be good enough. 

Here is some of the stuff that has come out since these comments:

• Another ESPN analyst, Rich Gannon, supported Tebow and questioned Hoge: “It bothers me when old running backs or old offensive linemen who’ve now become analysts start analyzing the quarterback position. They’re not experts at it. They’ve never played the position. I’m always curious, when they put on the tape, what are they watching? Are they watching footwork? Are they watching mechanics? Are they watching anticipation? Do they understand what the quarterback is told in terms of the progressions, where the read is? You know, so those are the things that really bother me and I just thought he came out and his comments were very strong and I thought a little out of line when you talk about Tim Tebow. [Tebow] did some good things last year. I think he has a bright future in the league. He’s no different than a lot of young quarterbacks. There’s things he’s got to work on, things he has to get cleaned up. The only way he’s going to do that is to go play. And so you got to be patient with him. He played a handful of games last year. … And this guy is a good kid and he wants to be great, he wants to do the work. Teammates out there love him, he’s competitive, he works at it, he does all the things you like in a quarterback. Yeah, does he have to get better in terms of his accuracy, in terms of his mechanics and things he’s got to get cleaned up? Certainly, but we have to give the guy a chance … You look at Tim Tebow, he’s got some of the things I admire in a young quarterback. I think he’s tough, he’s got some grittiness, he’s a competitor and I think he works at it. He’s got great feet, he’s got mobility, he can run with the football, he’s tough and yet he’s got some things he’s got to get better at in terms of the passing game … As you look at him there’s a lot of things that I like about him and I just think he’s going to prove a lot of people wrong if people will just give him a chance.”
• Lebron James even had something to say about it: “Tim Tebow will succeed in the NFL. He’s a hard worker, a student of the game, a natural born leader and most of all a WINNER! It takes time and he’ll be nice Listened to Merril Hoge today on SC and he was just blasting Tebow. The man hasn’t even play a full season and its only his 2nd year in. Guys get on that TV and act like they was all WORLD when they played. How bout encouraging him and wishing him the best instead of hating!!”
• Tim Tebow of course turned Hoge’s words into encouragement: “Hey Merril…… ‘ppreciate that” and then later tweeted: “Just like @coachsmartvcu said, “…one important thing in sports, it doesn’t matter what anybody else says.” #Fuel“
• Then on Thursday Hoge defended his comments on Mike and Mike.  Then he tweeted some more: “@TimTebow I’m not going to say its nothing personal, or hide behind its my job, or my producer made me do it, because anytime someone like me in this case makes a FOOTBALL evaluation of you I understand its taken personal and i understand what comes from that. My views are football only!! I have only met you once but feel your a good soul. Nothing would make feel better than to eat crow!! I’m a straight shooter and I have no agenda, so know i mean this, good luck this season and prove me wrong!”  Seems like he is already setting himself up for Tebow proving Hoge wrong…or he just forgot the fury of the Gator nation, Bronco nation, and Tebow lovers.

Mavs win it all

Finally!  I can sleep peacefully knowing that the Heat did not win a championship- and I am very happy that a team like the Mavs won.  I have to be honest and say I did not watch the Mavs very often in the regular season, but after watching them in the playoffs, I love what I see.  JJ Barea and Tyson Chandler are awesome and are now on my list of must-watch players.  Plus, Mark Cuban is the best owner in the NBA.  He is on the sidelines yelling and clapping and getting excited along with the team.  I already knew of his reputation, but it is different to watch it game after game and compare that to the stiff Pat Riley in his suit and tie.  While the fist half was sloppy on defense, the Mavs picked it way up in the second half.  A team like this shows that you do not need superstars to win.  The Mavs have a “big one” in Nowitzki, but even on a game like tonight where his shots are off and he is pretty pathetic on defense, his team can pick up the slack.  I mean have you ever seen a 6th man play like Jason Terry did tonight? Or all the finals for that matter.  This was a very exciting and amazing finals to watch.

The only bad note is the sorry excuse for announcers in the finals.  Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mike Breen- all horrible.  They would rarely ever say who a foul was on- if they even bothered to say there was a call made.  And it was like they were not even paying attention to the game.  They kept talking about stuff not even happening, like the stuff players said before the game.  I get talking about that stuff during a free throw, but not during the actual game.  And at some point the topic of Wade making of Nowitzki gets old.  Stop talking and analyzing that and watch the game.  I could count on two hands how many times they actually explained what was happening during the game.  Play by play is a little unneccessary for TV, but how about every once in a while they say something like “and Barea drives to the basket and passes it out to Terry for the jumper.”  How hard is that to fit in with all the yammering they were doing?  The real irritation started after the skirmish in the second quarter.  After ABC came back from the time out, they showed the replay and Jackson, Van Gundy, and Green were relatively quiet (which was good because the viewer needed to take in the whole picture).  But when the refs finished making their decision and were informing Erik Spoelstra, the announcers were talking over the refs.  The whole point of the microphone is so the viewer can actually hear what the ref is saying.  The announcers are suppose the analyze and discuss after we hear the reason for the ejections.  And then after Haslem received a technical, they seemed confused.  Either Jackson or Breen asked, “What did Halsem do?”  and then Van Gundy was idiotic enough to reply, “Yea.  What are you suppose to do when a person gets in your face?  Walk away?”  Well duh.  Why would you ever get back in the guy’s face?   Every rational person would say, “yes, walk away and go to the bench.”  Then they said the most stupid thing yet when Van Gundy went off on one of his weird rants (remember the drink rant in game 3?).  They were discussing the potential suspensions by the NBA and Van Gundy actually said the NBA shouldn’t suspend players for game 7.  First, why is he automatically assuming there is going to be a game 7?  And second, what?  This is word for word what he said: “No one wants suspensions.  If you’re going to suspend them, do it next year. Do not mar game 7 by suspensions. I don’t care if you determine this a skirmish or whatever you have to do.  The last thing the NBA needs is an 8 on 8 finals game, missing some of the best players.”   I do not care what the potential game 7 would look like, you follow the rules and suspend players if need be.  The whole point of a suspension is to make the players learn from their mistakes.  There was illegal pushing and shoving, and those players need to face the consequences.  First Van Gundy says Haslem shouldn’t walk away from Stevenson; then he says there should not be suspensions because it would make a bad final.  Who is this guy and how did he get a job?  To top off his suckyness (yea, I just made up a word to characterize Van Gundy’s “announcing”) he later complained about Anthony rushing over.  All Anthony was trying to do was pull Chalmers out and then stand as a blockade.  He was doing the right thing, assuming he was already off the bench (although with the angle ABC showed, it is impossible to determine).  I wasn’t a big fan of the three this playoff, but I could stand them.  This game was just bad and I had to say something.

 

Here is a video of the skirmish.  At the end you can hear Van Gundy being an idiot.

Top 10 injured or sick moments in sports

As everyone knows, Dirk Nowitzki just played game four with a 102 degree fever.  This inevitably led to talks of other great sick or injured plays in sports history.  For most basketball fans, the first that come to mind is “the flu game” from Michael Jordan in 1997 against the Utah Jazz.  Today, SportsCenter came out with their top 10 sick ro injured moments in sports.  This is what I am a little peeved about.  I can’t remember the exact order of the list and can’t seem to find it online, but I do remember what was number one- a baseball play.  Are you kidding me?  How is some pitcher with an “injured ankle” as ESPN called it the best sick or injured moment in sports history?  There is no way a baseball play should even have been in the top 5 (and if I am remembering correctly, there was another baseball at number 5).  They sit down half the game and there is so much standing involved.  Yes, I do realize that football is similar, but the football plays in the top 10 were actual injuries (e.g. Jack Youngblood playing with a broken leg and doing real sports stuff like tackling).  I don’t care if this was the pitcher’s planting foot, it doesn’t make a difference.  Hurt ankles happen all the time in every sport and people play through them like they are nothing.  Being in the World Series doesn’t matter cause it is no big deal.  Plus, why was there no soccer or X-games on the top 10 (not exactly X-games, but the type of events that are involved in the X-games).  I remember watching a skateboarder a couple of years ago fall and sprain his ankle, then get up and keep going in the competition.  The doctor tried to talk him out of it, and when that became impossible, he attempted to give him pain killers.  The guy refused them because he said he could not make his tricks if he couldn’t feel his ankle.   Now that is pretty awesome.  Standing on a hurt ankle is not.  And soccer players are some of the toughest athletes in the world.  There was one game I saw where a guy was elbowed on top of his head when he was going for a header.  The hit caused his head to spilt open and he sat on the sidelines while someone stapled his head together.  And the whole time he was yelling at the ref for whatever was going on the game at the time.  Sometimes- actually all the time- I wish America would wake up and see what a pansy game baseball is and switch to real sports.

side rant:  Game 5 should be tipping off right about now (thank God for Tivo) and I just thought I would add how baffled I am that ESPN Alerts sent me a text today saying “Lebron James tweet: ‘Now or Never!!’”  If I wanted to know what that egotistical jerk was thinking, wouldn’t I be following him on twitter?  ESPN doesn’t need to clutter my inbox with meaningless tweets.

The Heat must be paying off the refs

I just finished watching the disgusting Miami Heat win over the Boston Celtics.  Wtf is wrong with the refs?  Because of TiVo issues, I missed about the last six minutes of the fourth quarter.  fortunately or should I say unfortunately I was able to see the last 40.4 seconds.  It was horrible.  Lebron stole the ball.  Good for him, but then he took about ten steps in the middle of the floor and then proceeded with a lay-up.  How in the world do you miss that?  I know that this is the NBA and travels are not called very much, but come on!!! That was right in the middle of the floor without any obstructions by 7′ tall men!!! Then, next play West gets the ball at the three-point line to take a shot, realizes he can’t make it, and tries to pass to another Celtic on the three-point line.  What do the idiotic refs decide to do?  Call an offensive foul!  What kind of logic could possibly be going on the refs payed off head? West didn’t lean, attempt to get the foul called of Wade, or any other possible thing.  Instead, the refs fell for the most pathetic dive I have ever seen by someone who I know can do much much better (i.e. Wade).   A ridiculous end to a ridiculous series.  I am not saying the refs cost Boston the series, but I’m saying they could have handled this potential 40.4 second comeback a lot better. Whoever wins between the Bulls and Atlanta better beat the Heat so bad they are crying for their mammas.  I hate the Heat more than any team in any sport.  Let’s get it done before James can have an hour TV show bragging about his new championship.

Mavs v Lakers (cause I couldn’t come up with a more creative title)

So the Mavericks just finished sweeping the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs- yes the Mavs swept the Lakers. I am a little upset about it because I love watching the Lakers play, but I can get over it as long as the Heat don’t advance.  What makes me frustrated and enraged is the pitiful handling of the fourth quarter by the refs- really just about the 45 seconds when 2 people (Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum) were ejected and one pitiful call in between the ejections.  Let me start off by saying that Bynum’s hit was disgraceful, unnecessary, and deserving of an ejection.  This was not the way you treat Phil Jackson during his last game.  However, the other two calls were ridiculous. 

First, Odom’s call:  It should have been a no call- Nowitzki ran into Odom.  When someone cuts across the lane, a defender is taught to intercept him and not let him pass through.  This is classic defense that shouldn’t and doesn’t result in a foul, much less an ejection.  Just because this happened at the three-point line doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply.  I can understand calling a foul, but mostly because the ref might have thought he leaned into Nowitzki.  But once again, this wouldn’t be called in the lane, so why is it called out further?  Nowitzki was trying to cut to the basket and Odom did what any defender should have- kudos to him.

Next play: Now that Odom is out of the game, Artest is guarding Nowitzki.  On a simple and normal play, Artest gets called for a foul that should have been called on Nowitzki.  He held Artest back.  Holds are simple calls- if the offense turns his palms toward the defender, it is holding.  That is exactly what Nowitzki, but the refs seemed to call it on the wrong guy because right after his palms turned toward Artest, the refs called a foul on Artest.  I understand the refs need to keep the Lakers from making any stupid plays like Bynum ended up doing just a few seconds later, but you can’t make a bad call just to keep the teams in check (which didn’t end up working anyway).

I am in no way defending the Lakers for their horrible playing in the four games, but I just think the refs let the emotion of the stadium interfere with their calls.

I couldn’t find a video of Artest’s ”foul,” but here is a link to Odom’s “foul”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXsac-xLkdU

Kobe fined $100k

So commissioner Stern just came out and said he fined Kobe Bryant $100,000 for “offensive and inexcusable” comments he made in last night’s game.  After receiving a technical, Kobe sat on the bench and said, “F***ing Fag.”  I am not too happy with how this story is unfolding.  First- the fine.  I think Kobe does deserve a fine, but definitely not one this high.  Yes, $100k is pocket change for Bryant, but that does not change the fact that this is way too much for one comment during a game.  People are fined a lot less than that for comments made toward refs after a game.  To me, this is worse because they actually have time to think about what they are going to say.  Kobe was in the heat of the game and he said something I am sure he regrets.  Next, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Human Rights Campaign have come out and condemned Kobe’s comment.  Why are they getting involved?  He made a mistake and he acknowledged that.  He even said he wasn’t saying it in a derogatory way.  These groups (I am sure there are others than just these two) are taking too much offense.  In one of the articles I was reading, someone commented something that I thought was very thoughtful.  They said, “Wow 100k? Did anyone ever realize that maybe gay people are hated not for being gay but for pushing their views upon the public while demanding ridiculous consequences when others speak their opinion against them? Gay people, tolerance is a two way street.”  A little harsh, but you get the point.  unneccessary banter here.  What should have happened was a small fine and an apology from Kobe to his fans and to the refs.  Nothing more, nothing less.