Thank You Jalen Rose

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Jeff

I was wondering when it would finally happen, but Jalen Rose finally came out and voiced his opinion on the USA Women’s Gymnastics team being called the “Fab Five,” and I was thrilled.  He’s absolutely right; it can and should be attributed to lazy journalists and executives.  Only one article I have read on the gymnasts said that they can’t be called the Fab Five because that is what Michigan Basketball’s 1991 recruiting class was nicknamed.  Sure they weren’t the first group to be called the Fab Five, but that’s the moniker they have been known by and when they revolutionized the game of college basketball, it stuck.

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Why I’ve Hardly Watched ESPN All Summer

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Jeff

Haven’t written on the blog for a while and so I’m just going on a rampage today.  And thank you Austin Shapiro for noticing the poor grammar in my original title and fixing it.

ESPN for a while was running their own version of “Hard Knocks” with the New York Jets, literally covering everything they did in training camp.  Even reaching a new low and creating a graphic about what movie choices the Jets team could go and see on Tuesday night.  Just embarrassing, how could anyone think this was a good idea to talk about on Sportscenter?

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College Football Bowl Eligibility Expanded

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Jeff

After UCLA made it to a bowl game as a 6-7 team last year (due to their loss in the Pac-12 Championship Game), there were some discussions about moving the eligibility back up to a 7-5 record in January.  Less than a month ago, it was reported by multiple media outlets, including ESPN, that the bowl eligibility would likely remain at 6 wins.  Then over the weekend, everyone was thrown a curve-ball and eligibility was changed, and actually lowered.

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The Penn State Saga Continues

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Jeff

PLEASE let’s have the NCAA continue to make up rules as they go along.  Any team ever has been allowed to appeal sanctions, but Penn State isn’t allowed to?  Thank god the Penn State Board of Trustees heard this and were like, “good luck with that” and filed an appeal. They stated that the University President did not have the power to enter into such an agreement and that the punishment didn’t fit the crime.  Meaning that the Board of Trustees seems fairly logical, at least the current Board of Trustees.  Especially when they said that if the NCAA denied their appeal that they would take it to Federal Court as a lawsuit.  I wouldn’t be surprised even a little if the NCAA doesn’t repeal any sanctions, BUT that’s not the point.  The point is they have been making up the rules to the game as the game is being played.  How can you just determine that a University can’t appeal any sanctions when it is their right to?  At this point they’re just bullying Penn State and its completely illogical, because the people who were involved in most of what happened are no longer even there.  I won’t even be that upset if the appeal doesn’t change any of the sanctions, it’s the fact that Penn State deserves to have the right to appeal.  Every team that has gotten NCAA sanctions ever, has had the right to appeal.

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NBC is Doing a Terrible Job Covering the Olympics

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Jeff

It all started with the Opening Ceremony.  Yes, the Opening Ceremony was weird for those of us that are not from England, but in their defense, the Ceremony should be geared towards the host countries crowd.  The host country should be able to show the world its history…regardless of how weird of a performance they turn it into.  Having Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira narrate the Ceremony was pretty ridiculous and a big waste of time.  It really detracted from watching what was going on and became distracting.  But even after that I was still willing to give them a shot, it was after all, only strike one.

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Penn State Faced a Four-Year Death Penalty

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Jeff

When the Penn State University President, Rodney Erickson, was asked why they didn’t oppose all of the sanctions the NCAA handed down, he responded by telling reporters that he was given an ultimatum.  Either accept all of this punishment, or accept a four-year death penalty for the football program, and fines that exceeded $60 Million.

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Thursday Sports Mashup

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Jeff

To the delight of Red Wings fans everywhere, Alex Semin signed with the Carolina Hurricanes on a 1 year, $7 Million deal.  To me this is a great pickup for Carolina, and even though I’m by no means a fan of Semin and this is clearly overpaying for him, he adds some offensive ability to a team that can use all the goals it can get.  The Hurricanes have quietly gotten very dangerous on offense this season with the additions of Jordan Staal and Semin; that is until Semin has to play a playoff game.

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Monday Funday: A Big Day In Sports

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Jeff

The morning started off with a bang, obviously with the NCAA making a ridiculous ruling they had no business making.  Shortly thereafter, Michigan runningback Fitzgerald Toussaint was suspended indefinitely for getting arrested for a DUI.  Following suit, Sophomore defensive end Frank Clark was arrested for 2nd degree home invasion (a felony), and was likewise suspended.  I would have to guess that Toussaint will miss the first four games, as his case is fairly straight forward.  As for Frank Clark, I’m really not sure what will happen to be honest.  Stealing a Macbook Air computer out of the Stockwell dorms was a horrible life choice, and I hope that he isn’t convicted.  Hoke has a serious no-nonsense attitude, and I would expect Clark to miss half the year at least, if I had to guess.  Then Michigan went out and unveiled new uniforms that they will wear for the Alabama game in Dallas, which can be seen after the jump.

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Why The NCAA Should NOT Have Penalized Penn State.

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Jeff

Screen Shot 2013-10-12 at 10.44.58 PM

On Monday morning the NCAA set a historic precedent in the world of college sports.  They dropped the hammer on Penn State.  They fined them $60 Million dollars, gave them a four-year postseason ban, docked them 10 scholarships per year, forced them to vacate all wins from 1998-2011 (making it so Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest coach in college football and Bobby Bowden has now reclaimed the title), put them on a five-year probation, and is allowing any current or incoming player to transfer without having to sit out a year to play.  The Big Ten Conference later chimed in that Penn State was ineligible for the Conference Championship game for four years, and that they will be fined what their approximate bowl game revenue would have been for those four years as well (about $13 Million per year).  These are huge punishments that have been dropped on Penn State, but don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, this is not as bad as the Death Penalty; it’s close, but not quite.  It took SMU 22 years to make it back to a bowl game after the Death Penalty was handed to them, and they had to cancel a second season on their own because they could not field a competitive team.  Once the bowl ban is lifted, Penn State will be back playing in the postseason right away.  Even though players can transfer anywhere they want right now, not everyone on scholarship will; with the Death Penalty, every single player on scholarship would have left and as history has shown, would have set the program back decades.  The NCAA wants you to believe that forcing the University of Penn State to vacate wins was to attack them, but that was a specific action to take Joe Paterno out of the top of their record books, and send him down to 8th all-time (originally reported as 12th, has since been recalculated by ESPN to 8th).

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Shea Weber to Philly? We’ll Know In a Week

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Jeff

I was supposed to get home on Wednesday night, but a flight delay left me in beautiful Rochester, New York for another night.  This wouldn’t have been a terrible thing, if the plastic single mattress in the dorms hadn’t destroyed my back.  It was obviously nice to get out of the normal routine, but it’s always demoralizing to see 15-year-old kids that are better at hockey than you.

Only one major thing happened in the hockey world recently, and that was a GM finally sacked up and threw a bunch of money at a major restricted free agent.  Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren sent out a 14 year $110 Million dollar offer sheet, which Shea Weber immediately signed.  This is extra unfortunate because I always hoped to see Shea Weber in a Red Wings uniform, and this contract effectively kills any shot of that.  This contract amazingly gives Weber a lower cap hit than Ryan Suter, so kudos to Holmgren for hammering this deal out.  Nashville now has less than a week to match it, and I would be shocked if they didn’t.  Yes, it is a ton of money for a player on a smaller market team, but, they will kill their team if they lose their #1 and #2 defenseman in the same offseason.  Weber is supposed to make $67 of the $110 Million in the first 4 years, and while this is a killer, Nashville has no other choice at this point.  Those four first round picks they will get in compensation will be late first round picks and will not have the same impact that Shea Weber would.

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