The folks who run the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series are talking with FOX about an extension of the arrangement that awards televisions broadcast rights to the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and the BCS title game.Per John Ourand and Michael Smith of SportsBusiness Journal, the BCS wants as much as 60 percent more than the amount FOX currently is paying.Still, that’s only $132 million per year.The more amazing aspect of this is that FOX currently is paying only $85.4 million for the right to broadcast four of the biggest college bowl games.Considering that ESPN forks over $64.7 million per week for regular-season NFL football, FOX currently is enjoying quite the bargain.Even at $132 million per year, it sounds like the kind of price that other networks would be more than willing to pay.Under the current deal between FOX and the BCS, FOX has to decide whether to accept the final offer extended by the BCS.
So with South Florida falling to Pitt and Louisville mired in mediocrity and Rutgers back to their old ways and West Virginia looking anything like the revved-up Rich Rod hot rod of past seasons, could the new power in the Big East be Connecticut?
A bronze statue has been unveiled at Syracuse in order of running back Ernie Davis.In 1961, Davis was the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, and he led the Orangemen to a national title in 1959.The statue looks good.
We posted earlier in the day an item from the Buffalo News linking Raiders coach Lane Kiffin to the expected vacancy at fallen football power Syracuse.But, as an NFL source pointed out to us later in the day, there’s a potential obstacle.Raiders owner Al Davis went to Syracuse.
As the Syracuse football program continues to disintegrate before our eyes, there’s a rumor of a fresh-faced NFL coach who might land in upstate New York before too long.Per the Buffalo News, Raiders coach Lane Kiffin has been linked to the likely opening in the land of orange.
From the Big Lead via Deadspin comes an intriguing epilogue to that drunken, baudy, and generally unfunny roast of ESPN’s Man-Girl & Meatball.To refresh your memory, Dana Jacobson got all liquored up and said some things that would make Baby Jesus cry.
As the West Virginia University Mountaineers prepare to play at East Carolina on Saturday, the guy on the other sideline (to the extent that they can see the other sideline) is a guy who could have been on their own sideline.According to Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, WVU formally launched a flirtation with Pirates coach Skip Holtz on the same day that the Mountaineers would later trounce Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.”
In response to a claim by Oregon offensive lineman Fenuki Topou that an employee of the Lock Metz Malinovic firm bought him a $10 meal and gave him five $20 bills earlier this year, the firm has issued a statement that, while strongly worded, does not confirm or deny that the employee in question did what he allegedly did.The statement has been forwarded to CFT.
After dropping the season opener to Bowling Green even after being spotted 14 points, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt could be in hot water.Especially because his boss has said that he isn’t.Yes, Wannstedt has received the dreaded vote of confidence/show of support.”
Oregon tackle Fenuki Topou (gesundheit . . . that never gets old . . . wait, maybe it isn’t that funny, after all) missed the team’s season-opening win because he admitted to receiving money from a sports agent.Topou told the school that he met with a representative of LMM Sports Management in July.
The teams of the Big East have spent much of the past three years proving that the conference still deserves an automatic berth in the Bowl Championship Series.And they might have pissed away all of their efforts in three days.On Saturday, Pitt lost at home to Bowling Green.
A legion of scarlet and gray faithful have surely been suffering from bouts of IBS ever since OSU tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells left Saturday’s season opener with a foot injury.For now, though, things look promising.
The Georgia Bulldogs suffered another setback when defensive tackle Jeff Owens suffered a torn ACL during a 45-21 season-opening win over Georgia Southern.But coach Mark Richt is confident that Owens will put his injured knee (and the rest of his body) at risk again in 2009 for no pay.”
As the rumor/theory goes in NFL circles, Nick Saban didn’t like running a team at the pro level because the talent was relatively comparable from team to team, making it much harder to win games.Saban became a coaching star at the college level not by game-planning or by making brilliant in-game adjustments, but by recruiting superior athletes.With his first full year to persuade players to come to Alabama in the books, Saban is showing why he’s so much better in the NCAA game than he ever could have been as a pro coach.The Crimson Tide is, as of this posting, leaving a Crimson Streak on the Georgia Dome floor with the Clemson, leading the top-ten Tigers by 21 points with plenty of time still to play.
In order to justify taking the costs of my ticket as a write-off (along with mileage, binoculars, visor, foam finger, and hot dog), I’ll be writing up my impressions of every college game I attend this season.Coincidentally, my itinerary currently includes only seven games scheduled to be played in Morgantown, West Virginia.The season-opener against Villanova, from the Football Championship Subdivision Clusterfudge, was a classic tune-up -- a preseason game in a sport that has no preseason.
Before last season, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier suggested that the time had come for his Gamecocks to make a run at the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference.Through seven games, Spurrier looked like a genius.
In a recent appearance on FOX Sports Radio’s GameTime Live with Andrew Siciliano and Krystal Fernandez, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach mused about the possibility of recruiting for athletes in Jamaica, given the performance of sprinter Usain Bolt in the Olympics.”
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said after Saturday’s closed scrimmage that his team looks sluggish.And that’s understandable, given that they have practiced 15 straight days and went through a total of 120 plays on Saturday.Auburn is ranked No. 10 in the first AP poll of the season.
The effort of Oklahoma State cornerback William Cole to convert to receiver was going well.Until his knee imploded.Cole was potentially going to be a starting wideout before his knee gave out in a non-contact drill on Wednesday.The switch actually came a year ago, when he was a freshman.
Quarterback Dax Crum, who has one of the all-time great names in football, has taken the starting job at Wyoming in his first year with the team.Crum transferred from Mesa Community College after leaving Arizona State.Karsten Sween, the starter a year ago, is the odd man out.”
