CHIEFS CUT A FEW, TROJANS REMAIN DEFIANT & I MIGHT OWE DAN BEEBE A SERIOUS APOLOGY
The Chiefs cut 6 players today after mini-camp weekend. Four warm bodies plus quarterback Matt Gutierrez, a Patriot cast-off & running back Kolby Smith. It would seem Charlie Weis & Todd Haley were happier with the recent performance of Tyler Palko to Gutierrez. Palko, a University of Pitt product has been a 3rd stringer with 3 different teams in his 3-year NFL career. Recent draft pick, tight end Tony Moeaki, returned to practice after sitting out all the OTA's with an undisclosed injury. He looked good both receiving & blocking. He has the skill sets & talent to excel in the NFL, if he can stay healthy, something he wasn't able to do at Iowa. I hope he can, he would be a valuable addition to the Chiefs offense.
Once again 4 NFL head coaches will head to the Middle East to visit our troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. The NFL-USO sponsored trip is always sandwiched between mini-camps & summer training camp. The four coaches making the trek overseas will be Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis, Minnesota's Brad Childress, Philadelphia's Andy Reid & Carolina's John Fox. Two of these coaches have military connections, Childress has a son in the Marines & Fox's dad was a Navy Seal. No special accommodations for these guys either, they sleep in the barracks on bunk beds, just like the troops. As a veteran who spent 26-months deployed overseas, I can tell you trip like this are welcome by the men & women serving in these countries.
Some of the USC Trojans just refuse to admit they broke the rules & on top of no accountability, they remain defiant to the end. We'll see after the season ends & everyone's making their bowl plans just how defiant they really are. Running back C.J. Gable, the Trojan starter, said Saturday "Losing a bowl game? Doesn't matter, it's one extra game. They'll take one game away? O.K. we're still going to kill everybody else." Gable also mentioned he would transfer to another school if he was guaranteed a starting job. Not too arrogant 'eh? Gable gave those comments from a smoking crater in Los Angeles that used to be USC's football program. John McGrath, a writer for the Tacoma News Tribune, had a good take on Pete Carroll's escape from the impending NCAA's scorched earth policy. He said Carroll's claims of NCAA overkill are ludicrous. He had no idea when Reggie Bush's folks showed up at every single road game, he never noticed? When he did his recruiting visit to Bush's home, they lived in a 900-sq foot, 60-year old home & after Bush signed with USC, they lived in a $750,000 3,400-sq foot home? Reggie drove to school the first day of school in a brand new Impala SS that had $5k worth of rims & tires & a $3,000 stereo, that didn't set off an alarm bell? His folks were "rented the house for the same amount as the mortgage payment on their smaller home, $1,400 a month. They also got the house completely furnished & had a new washer & dryer thrown in as well. As smart as Pete Carroll is, he didn't see any of those signs? Now with Seattle, even his own Seahawk players have their doubts. Wide receiver T.J. Houshmanzadeh said today "Yeah, he probably knew, you saw how he got out while the house is burning."
The confusion regarding the impending demise of the Big-12 conference continues. I didn't report anything over the weekend because so many of the sources contradicted each other. Some of what I wrote last week might have been a little over the top in regards to Big-12 Commissioner Dan Beebe. I thought he was inept, clueless, a UT patsy & generally a real tool. Could it be I was wrong? I still think he is a total Texas patsy with the Longhorns calling all the shots. I take nothing back I wrote regarding Nebraska, they hate Texas, they got their chance to get away from the Longhorns & they took it. Of course they blamed everyone except Texas, which was pretty transparent. They got exactly what they wanted. The Huskers will be but a memory come 2012, so I'm going to quit talking about their departure. Dan Beebe spent the entire weekend putting together a package that could save the Big-12 & apparently it has some credibility with the remaining conference members. When PAC-10 Commisioner Larry Scott canceled 2 legs of his trip to extend invitations to join his league, I knew there was some balls to Beebe's plan. Here's how things could breakdown::
1. The conference will remain intact with 10 teams, including Texas. The conference will go to a 10-team schedule, everyone will play everyone, every year. In other words, 9 conference games. No North/South divisions. In basketball, you play everyone home & away, which is an increase of 2 conference games per season. The hoops model is a vast improvement & the tournament would stay as is. Playing everyone home & away would boost the conference's RPI number, an important part of NCAA Tourney seedings. Losing Nebraska & Colorado also helps the conference's overall rating in hoops as both have been lowly rated programs for a long, long time. It's going to be tougher to earn a #1 seeding in the tournament, because it will be more difficult to "breeze thru" the conference schedule, but this new version of the Big-12 will be one of the premiere basketball conferences in the nation.
2. Beebe has a handshake deal with FOX or TBS to be the Saturday afternoon game on the network. FOX has carried college football for years on their regional sports networks, but never had a presence on the main network. CBS has an SEC game every single Saturday. CBS doesn't televise anyone but the SEC, now FOX or TBS may have locked up that kind of deal with Beebe's new conference. The FOX regional networks will continue to carry other Big-12 games. FOX had four BCS bowl games the last 4 seasons & the telecasts were simply awful. Doing it week after week is how you improve. There is talk the regional FOX networks might even go to a Thursday night game with a Big-12(10) or PAC-10(11) game. FOX has an almost endless supply of cash, TBS doesn't, but they could still be involved, & FOX has wanted to break thru into the college game for sometime, this appears to be their breakout moment. Beebe has told conference schools their TV revenue will increase dramatically.
3. Money, money, money is what has driven about 90% of this realignment confusion. Losing Colorado is a plus, there is no downside to it. They have extremely low TV ratings, even in their own state. Losing Nebraska was inevitable, their hatred toward Texas was only going to fester in time. With fewer members & the added revenue from FOX/TBS, all of the remaining teams could very well double their TV football revenues. Texas could be in the $22-25 million range per season, OU & A&M in the $20 million range & the rest would go for $14-17 million. Is it worth buying Texas off to keep the conference together? In short, yes. What is the alternative for MU/KU/K-State? The Mountain West or the Big East? Pleeaase! You would get vastly reduced revenues in either conference. You're looking at terrible travel for both the teams & their fans. Plenty of 2,000+ mile roundtrips as a member of the Big East or Mountain West. Another prospective source of short time revenue is that Beebe is going to go after Colorado & Nebraska financially for leaving the league as their bylaws allow. This figure could be as high as $20 million, split evenly amongst the remaining conference schools.
4. The conference would be able to keep their natural rivalries alive. For fans & alumni, this is a big deal. Another consideration for Mizzou is where would they have recruited if the Texas schools left the conference? Mizzou gleans a third of their roster from the state of Texas, does Chase Daniel, Ziggy Hood & Danario Alexander ring a bell? All Texans, so was Sean Weatherspoon, the Texas high schools crank out thousands of quality football prospects every year & Mizzou has done very well there since the arrival of Gary Pinkel.
5. When you think about how much money would be flushed down the drain if the conference was dissolved, it's scary, especially when the weakness of our economy is factored into the equation. How many dollars would Kansas City alone lose if this conference dissolved? Three football games at Arrowhead, the Big-12 Basketball Tournament to say nothing of all the many other locales around the conference.
I just heard the Big-12 schools have all signed a letter of confidentiality. No more leaks, no more rumors. When they have something to announce as a group, everybody will hear about it at the same time. If all of this happens, the commish, Dan Beebe, will get a personal apology from yours truly. Apparently, he really was "working tirelessly in an effort to preserve to Big-12 Conference." Right now on Monday afternoon, I think it has a real chance of happening. KU/MU/K-State may dodge a very large bullet & their fans can breath a collective sigh of relief.
Mark your calender right now for two real old-fashioned grudge match games. October 16th you can see the Texas Longhorns visiting Lincoln Nebraska for their last Big-12 matchup. Considering last year's Big-12 Championship game & the hard feelings the Big Red Nation had in it's immediate aftermath, plus Nebraska's pending departure from the conference, this could be a beauty. Then 2 weeks later on October 30th, Mizzou comes a calling to play their last game with the Huskers. The two have been playing in the same conference since 1907. Nebraska put most of the blame on their decision to leave for the Big-10 squarely on the Tigers. The fact they hate UT with a white hot passion isn't even brought up, much easier to exit blaming Mizzou. I think Nebraska will be wired for these two games, they could get really ugly if the Huskers get ahead & decide to run up the score on either team. Don't have to play either next year on their home field right? I think Mizzou & Texas will be "up" for the game as well, whether they can beat Nebraska on their home field remains to be seen.
Once again 4 NFL head coaches will head to the Middle East to visit our troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. The NFL-USO sponsored trip is always sandwiched between mini-camps & summer training camp. The four coaches making the trek overseas will be Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis, Minnesota's Brad Childress, Philadelphia's Andy Reid & Carolina's John Fox. Two of these coaches have military connections, Childress has a son in the Marines & Fox's dad was a Navy Seal. No special accommodations for these guys either, they sleep in the barracks on bunk beds, just like the troops. As a veteran who spent 26-months deployed overseas, I can tell you trip like this are welcome by the men & women serving in these countries.
Some of the USC Trojans just refuse to admit they broke the rules & on top of no accountability, they remain defiant to the end. We'll see after the season ends & everyone's making their bowl plans just how defiant they really are. Running back C.J. Gable, the Trojan starter, said Saturday "Losing a bowl game? Doesn't matter, it's one extra game. They'll take one game away? O.K. we're still going to kill everybody else." Gable also mentioned he would transfer to another school if he was guaranteed a starting job. Not too arrogant 'eh? Gable gave those comments from a smoking crater in Los Angeles that used to be USC's football program. John McGrath, a writer for the Tacoma News Tribune, had a good take on Pete Carroll's escape from the impending NCAA's scorched earth policy. He said Carroll's claims of NCAA overkill are ludicrous. He had no idea when Reggie Bush's folks showed up at every single road game, he never noticed? When he did his recruiting visit to Bush's home, they lived in a 900-sq foot, 60-year old home & after Bush signed with USC, they lived in a $750,000 3,400-sq foot home? Reggie drove to school the first day of school in a brand new Impala SS that had $5k worth of rims & tires & a $3,000 stereo, that didn't set off an alarm bell? His folks were "rented the house for the same amount as the mortgage payment on their smaller home, $1,400 a month. They also got the house completely furnished & had a new washer & dryer thrown in as well. As smart as Pete Carroll is, he didn't see any of those signs? Now with Seattle, even his own Seahawk players have their doubts. Wide receiver T.J. Houshmanzadeh said today "Yeah, he probably knew, you saw how he got out while the house is burning."
The confusion regarding the impending demise of the Big-12 conference continues. I didn't report anything over the weekend because so many of the sources contradicted each other. Some of what I wrote last week might have been a little over the top in regards to Big-12 Commissioner Dan Beebe. I thought he was inept, clueless, a UT patsy & generally a real tool. Could it be I was wrong? I still think he is a total Texas patsy with the Longhorns calling all the shots. I take nothing back I wrote regarding Nebraska, they hate Texas, they got their chance to get away from the Longhorns & they took it. Of course they blamed everyone except Texas, which was pretty transparent. They got exactly what they wanted. The Huskers will be but a memory come 2012, so I'm going to quit talking about their departure. Dan Beebe spent the entire weekend putting together a package that could save the Big-12 & apparently it has some credibility with the remaining conference members. When PAC-10 Commisioner Larry Scott canceled 2 legs of his trip to extend invitations to join his league, I knew there was some balls to Beebe's plan. Here's how things could breakdown::
1. The conference will remain intact with 10 teams, including Texas. The conference will go to a 10-team schedule, everyone will play everyone, every year. In other words, 9 conference games. No North/South divisions. In basketball, you play everyone home & away, which is an increase of 2 conference games per season. The hoops model is a vast improvement & the tournament would stay as is. Playing everyone home & away would boost the conference's RPI number, an important part of NCAA Tourney seedings. Losing Nebraska & Colorado also helps the conference's overall rating in hoops as both have been lowly rated programs for a long, long time. It's going to be tougher to earn a #1 seeding in the tournament, because it will be more difficult to "breeze thru" the conference schedule, but this new version of the Big-12 will be one of the premiere basketball conferences in the nation.
2. Beebe has a handshake deal with FOX or TBS to be the Saturday afternoon game on the network. FOX has carried college football for years on their regional sports networks, but never had a presence on the main network. CBS has an SEC game every single Saturday. CBS doesn't televise anyone but the SEC, now FOX or TBS may have locked up that kind of deal with Beebe's new conference. The FOX regional networks will continue to carry other Big-12 games. FOX had four BCS bowl games the last 4 seasons & the telecasts were simply awful. Doing it week after week is how you improve. There is talk the regional FOX networks might even go to a Thursday night game with a Big-12(10) or PAC-10(11) game. FOX has an almost endless supply of cash, TBS doesn't, but they could still be involved, & FOX has wanted to break thru into the college game for sometime, this appears to be their breakout moment. Beebe has told conference schools their TV revenue will increase dramatically.
3. Money, money, money is what has driven about 90% of this realignment confusion. Losing Colorado is a plus, there is no downside to it. They have extremely low TV ratings, even in their own state. Losing Nebraska was inevitable, their hatred toward Texas was only going to fester in time. With fewer members & the added revenue from FOX/TBS, all of the remaining teams could very well double their TV football revenues. Texas could be in the $22-25 million range per season, OU & A&M in the $20 million range & the rest would go for $14-17 million. Is it worth buying Texas off to keep the conference together? In short, yes. What is the alternative for MU/KU/K-State? The Mountain West or the Big East? Pleeaase! You would get vastly reduced revenues in either conference. You're looking at terrible travel for both the teams & their fans. Plenty of 2,000+ mile roundtrips as a member of the Big East or Mountain West. Another prospective source of short time revenue is that Beebe is going to go after Colorado & Nebraska financially for leaving the league as their bylaws allow. This figure could be as high as $20 million, split evenly amongst the remaining conference schools.
4. The conference would be able to keep their natural rivalries alive. For fans & alumni, this is a big deal. Another consideration for Mizzou is where would they have recruited if the Texas schools left the conference? Mizzou gleans a third of their roster from the state of Texas, does Chase Daniel, Ziggy Hood & Danario Alexander ring a bell? All Texans, so was Sean Weatherspoon, the Texas high schools crank out thousands of quality football prospects every year & Mizzou has done very well there since the arrival of Gary Pinkel.
5. When you think about how much money would be flushed down the drain if the conference was dissolved, it's scary, especially when the weakness of our economy is factored into the equation. How many dollars would Kansas City alone lose if this conference dissolved? Three football games at Arrowhead, the Big-12 Basketball Tournament to say nothing of all the many other locales around the conference.
I just heard the Big-12 schools have all signed a letter of confidentiality. No more leaks, no more rumors. When they have something to announce as a group, everybody will hear about it at the same time. If all of this happens, the commish, Dan Beebe, will get a personal apology from yours truly. Apparently, he really was "working tirelessly in an effort to preserve to Big-12 Conference." Right now on Monday afternoon, I think it has a real chance of happening. KU/MU/K-State may dodge a very large bullet & their fans can breath a collective sigh of relief.
Mark your calender right now for two real old-fashioned grudge match games. October 16th you can see the Texas Longhorns visiting Lincoln Nebraska for their last Big-12 matchup. Considering last year's Big-12 Championship game & the hard feelings the Big Red Nation had in it's immediate aftermath, plus Nebraska's pending departure from the conference, this could be a beauty. Then 2 weeks later on October 30th, Mizzou comes a calling to play their last game with the Huskers. The two have been playing in the same conference since 1907. Nebraska put most of the blame on their decision to leave for the Big-10 squarely on the Tigers. The fact they hate UT with a white hot passion isn't even brought up, much easier to exit blaming Mizzou. I think Nebraska will be wired for these two games, they could get really ugly if the Huskers get ahead & decide to run up the score on either team. Don't have to play either next year on their home field right? I think Mizzou & Texas will be "up" for the game as well, whether they can beat Nebraska on their home field remains to be seen.
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