BCS System Likely to Stay Around a While

For all of the whining about the BCS system that we hear this time every year, don't get your hopes up for a playoff. I posted earlier about how vested the bowls, cities and ESPN was in the current system, but a far more important point against a playoff needs to be made. Quite simply, the men and women who control college athletics, that is, the college presidents, don't want it. They may not be happy with the BCS system, but for the most part they do not want to see a playoff adopted. An interesting article in tomorrow's New York Times points out the difference in opinion between the conference commissioners, who all want a playoff, or at least the so-called "Plus One" system, and the presidents who aren't even excited by that possibility.

Another significant obstacle to any form of playoff system is the almost unanimous and adamant opposition of the Big Ten, Pac 10 and the Rose Bowl. The presidents of the Big 10 and Pac 10 would rather go back to the old bowl system, before the BCS, than adopt any real playoff system. In their minds, the BCS itself, not only jeopardizes their prized relationship with the Rose Bowl, but places far more emphasis on the so-called national championship than the regular season and league titles, which is where they feel it belongs. Remember also that ABC holds the Rose Bowl contract, while Fox holds the contract to the rest of the BCS games. It's no accident that the Rose Bowl has always maintained its own contract. It and its two conference partners are ready to break away at any point that they don't like the direction the rest of the conferences choose to take. If that were to happen, the dream of a national championship playoff would quickly die for what kind of playoff would there be without teams from the Big Ten and Pac 10?

Is Justice Dawning in Durham?

The North Carolina Bar Association took the virtually unprecedented step yesterday of filing an ethics complaint against Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong accusing him of violating North Carolina ethics rules during numerous media interviews he gave shortly after a woman accused members of the Duke lacrosse team of raping her at a team party last spring.Nifong , who has been repeatedly criticized for his handling of the case, is accused of making inflammatory remarks about the team to the news media and misleading the public about evidence.

The Bar complaint took issue with the numerous public statements Nifong in the days after the party, when he granted dozens of interviews to seemingly anyone with a microphone or a camera. If Nifong saw a reporter in those days, he never failed to take the opportunity to excoriate the lacrosse team and demonize the players. According to the complaint,many of those comments were unethical because they crossed over into improper commentary about the defendants and the evidence.

More serious, however, is the allegation that Nifong engaged in "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" by suggesting to reporters that a condom was used in the alleged attack when he had in his possession a sexual assault examination report that indicated otherwise.

While the Supreme Court has a variety of penalties at its disposal, including disbarment and suspension for up to five years, the immediate effect is to increase the pressure to remove Nifong from the case due to his conflict of interest. Clearly, he now has additional personal interest in the case that calls for his removal as the impersonal judgement required of a prosecutor committed to the impartial administration of justice is clearly absent.

UPDATE: The pressure on Nifong to step down builds as the North Carolina District Attorney Association has now called on him to step down, saying:

"it is in the interest of justice and the effective administration of criminal justice that Mr. Nifong immediately withdraw and recuse himself from the prosecution."

A Lost Revenue Opportunity

I can't really believe I'm writing this but my son and I are watching bowl games and we (well, to be fair, he) wonders why there is nothing on the scoreboard in the corner of the screen noting the name of the bowl that we are watching. Now, this is one of those "duh" moments. It's so obvious that you wonder why nobody that of it before. Not only is it a public service, especially on days like today when there are five bowls and you lose track of what you're watching, but it's a lost revenue opportunity. After all, with every bowl now having a corporate sponsor, that identity under the scoreboard is an ad that has real worth and should be factored into the next rights package. If you want to know how much it's worth, check with FIFA and see what World Cup went for - they were almost all of the banner under scoreboard variety.

Carnival of the NBA #39 - Holiday Edition

The Carnival of the NBA edition #39, the Holiday Edition is now up at Bullets Forever. It is a can't miss edition and you should get over there now .

New College Basketball Blog

I want to call your attention to an excellent new blog on college basketball, long one of the blogosphere more underrepresented areas. It can be found here and while under the auspices of SNY tv is by no means restricted to teams in the NYC metropolitan area. The author ranges far and wide across the national basketball landscape and covers the entire scene from the Big East to the Pac 10. If you like hoops, it's well worth checking out.

Nike Stakes Its Soccer Future on Ronaldinho

Nike is introducing ts latest signature line in January and its the first to feature a soccer player, two time world player of the year, Ronaldinho. He joins Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods among those with signature lines in the Nike stable. The future of Nike's soccer division may in great part rest on the magic feet of the Brazilian.

Nike had hoped to make great strides at the most recent World Cup, placing a very large bet on Brazil. That bet, however, as those of many of the world's gamblers, crapped out with the desultory showing of Team Samba. Arch rival Adidas by contrast had a great World Cup, as the official ball of the tournament and the outfitter of Germany, among others, Adidas was everywhere. It too had placed several large bets on the tournament but in contrast to Nike, it cashed most of its bets and rode the World Cup to the largest sale of soccer shoes and gear in its history.

While Ronaldinho did not have a particular good World Cup and didn't repeat as FIFA World Player of the Year this year, he is far and away the most popular young player in the world. He is a delight to watch and has an infectious smile that makes him a marketer's dream. The fact that his club team, FC Barcelona is the reigning European champion and one of the favorites to repeat certainly adds to his marketability. If you're Nike and you're going to make a bet on one player, he's probably the one to make the bet on. He is as close to a sure thing as there is in the game today.

Just Call Bobcats' Owner Scrooge

In the spirit of the season, let's just call Charlotte Bobcats Principal Owner Bob Johnson Scrooge. According to a report in Sunday's Charlotte Observer, Johnson blocked the donation of a minority interest in the team to a local foundation that supports the Carolinas Health Care System. Minority owner Felix Sabates wanted to donate the interest, which he values at $1.34 million, to the foundation, on whose board he sits, but Johnson, who would have to approve the transaction according to the club's partnership agreement, vetoed the deal.

While there appears to be some initial confusion over whether Johnson was invoking the NBA as an excuse, in the end it is clear that Johnson made the decision on his own to veto the deal. The only explanation offered is that he did not want a non-profit organization as an owner of the Bobcats.

It would appear to an outsider like me that Johnson has kicked away an opportunity to create some very positive public relations for the club while gaining access to a great Board of Directors. Hospitals generally have as Board members leaders of the business community that Johnson may not have reached, given the Bobcats attendance and sponsorship problems. Adding negative publicity from turning down an existing sponsorship as a potential owner just doesn't seem too smart.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I would just like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a belated Happy Hanukkah (now that it's over) and a very Happy and Healthy New Year to you and all of your loved ones. I will be here through next week so I will be posting although no promises on the frequency. It should be fairly regularly I hope. Anyway, enjoy your holidays and if you're traveling, safe journeys.

You'd Go With Her, Wouldn't You?

In what is likely a first in US professional sports, team owner Angela Batinovich of the Portland LumberJax and player Adam Bysouth are engaged. Now, Batinovich isn't just any owner, as you can see from the picture, but besides that she is the reigning executive of the year in the National Lacrosse League - that's the indoor league if you, like me, have trouble keeping the league's apart.

Bysouth however is another story. A midfielder, or transition player in indoor parlance, he played in 13 of the 16 regular season games scoring 6 assists and collecting 32 looseballs (yes, that is a statistic maintained by the league). He is also the team's director of community relations. The two began dating when she was scouting a game he played in Anaheim as she was investigating the league for investment. The relationship continued when the team in Anaheim folded and Portland became picked him up.
HT to The Big Lead

D Wade Takes It To a New Level

We all know that Dwyane Wade was MVP of the Playoffs and SI Sportsman of the Year, but the real sign that he has entered into a new universe of fame, fortune and celebrity comes tomorrow. On Christmas Day, the Heat play the Lakers, in what ABC/ESPN have been dubbing for weeks (or is it months) in endless promotions, a Christmas tradition, which of course only began a couple of years ago when Shaq moved to Miami. Nevertheless, Wade's soaring into a new level of hype and fame comes tomorrow with the introduction of the Converse Candy Cane Wade 1.3. A new shoe design that Wade will wear one time that will go on sale tomorrow in a limited edition. There are any number of players who now have signature shoes, but there are very few who have limited editions like this one - a run of only 10,000 according to Converse. Fame in basketball is always governed by the shoes.

The NHL- You Remember the NHL, Don't You

Just 18 months into its post-lockout revival , the NHL is facing a host of questions it dreamed it would be dealing with at this stage. After retooling the game both on and off the ice to reclaim fan interest following the lockout, the NHL kick started its revival with new rules designed to show off a high speed, crowd pleasing, high scoring offensive minded game. It got what it wanted last season is spades. Led by rookies Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, the game never was more appealing and the fans returned in droves.

The league office however, promptly threw that momentum down the toilet with perhaps the dumbest decision ever made by a league office a somewhat major professional sport when it agreed to a cable television deal with what is now called Versus. With its games being shown on a network no one in America can find, the NHL ratings immediately dropped below those of reruns of Lost in Space. Commissioner Gary Bettman professes no worries and believes his American expansion policy is still sound.

The NHL is next faced with the issue of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team playing with the best young talent in the league and locked into the oldest arena in the league until the end of this season. Mario Lemieux wants out and has a buyer willing to buy the unheard of price of $175 million until Bettman attaches a long list of conditions to the sale, including a commitment not to move out of Pittsburgh for seven years regardless of financing for a new arena. Jim Basille, a founder of the company that produces the Blackberry, withdraws his bid for the team. A week later, the state does not award a casino in Pittsburgh to the group who would build a new arena if awarded the casino and now Bettman grants the Penguins the right to consider relocating. That's the mark of a good commissioner, consistency in his views over the course of two weeks.

So, to fulfill Bettman's vision, the Penguins won't be moving to any town in Canada, which is probably the only place that hockey is succeeding right now. No, the Pens will be looking at Kansas City,Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Houston, Portland and several other American hotbeds of hockey where it can fail as miserably as it is failing in Atlanta, Tampa, Miami and other Sun Belt outposts of Bettman's American footprint model. The Pens should be looking at Hamilton, Winnepig, Quebec City and Kitchener-Waterloo where the likelihood of success is much greater because the fan support is higher and where hockey is in the community already. Expanding in America, where hockey isn't even on TV doesn't make sense, but then little that Bettman has done in the last year has.

NFL Bandwagon - You Can Still Find a Playoff Team

Are you one of those few people left who are still fans of the Raiders or the Lions? Are you wondering what you are going to be doing those weeekends in January when the playoffs have come and the bowl season is over and you are left with no team to cheer on? Worry no more my friends because the NFL has been looking out for you and wants to make sure your weekends won't be lost to the snow and the ice. No sir, we wouldn't want you to have to watch the NBA now would we? Just for you, the NFL has developed a simple five question test designed to give you a new team to root for to carry you through the playoffs. Just click here and watch the video, answer the questions and voila!, you have a new team to cheer, follow, watch on TV and buy their stuff. Ain't marketing and the internet wonderful.

Penguins May Be Moving

The only casino license to be awarded in Pittsburgh did not go to the Isle of Capri, which, if awarded, would lead to the construction of a new arena for the Penguins. Now, owner Mario Lemuiex and the NHL will have to regroup and consider their options, none of which look particularly good for staying long-term in Pittsburgh. Expect a raft of offers for the team from prospective buyers, all of whom want to move the team to Kansas City, Hartford, or any of several cities in Canada, including Hamilton, Toronto and Quebec City.

Dukies Bid for the Griz is Over

Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley is set to file a notice to terminate the contract to purchase with former Duke stars Brian Davis and Christian Laetner now that they have been unable to secure the necessary to acquire Heisley's 70% ownership share of the team. The notice provides Davis a thirty day period to "cure" the contract default by coming up with the funding but it is not considered likely that he will be in a position to do so. Davis has never appeared to have the individual wealth necessary to come up with the $30+ million necessary to take the 15% ownership interest required to be the lead partner by NBA bylaws and has had problems from day one securing the balance of the funds. He has variously claimed they were soliciting east coast and west coast investors and the terms of the private placement memorandum the pair was using didn't paint the picture of a wildly successful team.

Davis' efforts to secure financing have not progressed enough for the NBA to approve an ownership transfer of the team. Despite an announcement by Davis that he had filed a complete ownership transfer application with the league, the NBA announced on December 5 that the league had been unable to secure important information about the Davis group and its funding, "despite numerous requests", unusually strong wording for the notoriously upbeat NBA.

Heisley has not commented publicly about his plans for the team now that this sale appears to have collapsed.

ESPN Buys into Arena Football

ESPN has had so much success with Monday Night Football it has decided to buy into the Arena League just to get more games to go year-round, or close to it. The WWLS and the AFL announced today that the Mouse Network had signed a five year multimedia contract which called for Monday night games running from March through June, primarily on ESPN2. It will also carry some games on the mother ship and on ABC. The network acquired an undisclosed minority interest in the league which it will have the right to sell back to the league at the end of the contract.

The AFL has seen enormous growth in the last few years, growing out of its smaller cities roots into large markets and affiliating in most cities with NFL owners. The AFL now has 19 teams with the return of the New Orleans VooDoo, after a year off from Hurricane Katrina. Expansion is still on the horizon. It will achieve the ultimate mark of acceptance this year as EA Sports brings out a video game Arena Football, Road to Glory, with the Chicago Rush on the cover

Melo, Isiah and David Stern

So Stern has issued the suspensions and fines in the wake of the brawl in MSG and the player suspensions seem to make sense:

• Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony has been suspended for 15 games.
• Knicks guard Nate Robinson has been suspended for 10 games.
• Nuggets guard J.R. Smith has been suspended for 10 games.
• Knicks guard Mardy Collins has been suspended for six games.
• Knicks forward Jared Jeffries has been suspended for four games.
• Knicks center Jerome James has been suspended for one game for leaving the bench during an on-court altercation.
• Nuggets forward Nene has been suspended one game for leaving the bench during an on-court altercation.

In addition to the above, both teams have been fined $500,000, an apparent recognition of some wrongdoing on the part of the Knicks organization but I'm not sure what the Nuggets fine is all about. Still, why Isiah has not been fined individually is a mystery. If the team fine is to recognize culpability of the coach, all well and good but individuals need to be identified and forced to take responsibility for their actions. It is not sufficient to merely the team, the individuals who committed the wrongdoing must also be held accountable.

If Stern is fining the teams merely because of the actions of the players, then that is even more troubling . That would mean he is not even recognizing any hint of wrongdoing on the part of Thomas and clearly, any reasonable viewing of the tape indicates that is not the case. C'mon David, suspend Isiah for 15 games - he deserves to get at least as much as Melo if not more. After all, he is supposed to be a leader of men and should be held to a higher standard.

Why Are There So Many Bowls?

Every year about this time, along with the innumerable boring old calls for a Division I playoff that just isn't going to happen so quit harping on it already, we hear from columnists and talking heads spouting off and spending precious column inches going on about the ever increasing number of bowl games. We all know they are growing like mushrooms and for the most part, we all know why - money. The games generate money and the colleges just love to get it.

That however isn't the whole story, it now can be told. No, the real reason that the number of bowls is growing faster than Pamela Anderson's marriages can be traced to the same culprit as so many other dark secrets in sports - our favorite evil empire, none other than the WWLS. Just when you thought that there was no room for more bowl games, the suits in Bristol decided America and Canada not only needed more bowls but Disney could make money owning them. So, from early 2001 until today, the number of bowls owned and operated by ESPN jumped from zero to five and by all accounts, they may not be done. It's cheap programming that draws rating points and advertisers. Of the 28 bowls that ESPN televised on its family of networks last year, only one drew a TV rating less than ESPN's average rating for Major League Baseball, at considerably less expense.

The bowls have been so profitable for ESPN that Disney let the four BCS bowls go to Fox because they cost too much at $100 million. Basically, it had been subsidizing the BCS bowls cost with the rest of the bowls it telecast during December (and now January). As it turned out, Fox is paying $80 million for the BCS bowls and will probably lose money, but considers it a loss leader.

The other driving force behind bowls are happy sponsors and bowl cities. Title sponsors pay about $10 million for a BCS bowl and that scales down to about $400,000 or less for one of the smaller and newer bowls. The four BCS bowl sponsors then paid $40 million last year, yet received $106 million worth of impact during the ABC telecast. That's a pretty fair return for a single day, not to mention the month long return in promos leading up to the game, T-shirts and other memorabilia and significant exposure in the markets of the participating schools for the month leading up to the games which were not included in those numbers. The host cities love the bowls for the crowds of visitors they bring, the original reasons bowl games were started. They also love the exposure for the city although I'm not sure how much Toronto, Memphis and Boise are going to like all those scenes of cold weather going out to the nation.

The moral of this story - look for more bowl games before you ever see a Division IA playoff.

Oregon Does it Again - Maybe

Oregon has unveiled its latest uniform look, and well, you decide what you think but if you're planning to attend the Las Vegas Bowl, I'd advise sunglasses. As you can see from the picture, the helmets that the Ducks and Nike have waited all seasons to unveil have finally arrived, uh well, about half of them that is. Whether the Ducks actually wear them in the bowl game depends on how soon the other arrive - they will need to practice in them a few days before the game as the helmets change color depending on your viewing angle and the angle of the sun. If the Ducks wear their yellow jerseys and pants with these things, I don't even want to contemplate what that might look like.

Penuins Sale Off

Mark Cuban, I hope you're paying attention because the Pittsburgh Penguins are back on the market. James Basille, one of the founders of Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, has dropped his bid to buy the team after reaching an impasse with the NHL. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the NHL wanted assurances that he would keep the team in Pittsburgh even if the proposed arena deal with Isle of Capri casino falls through and the league also wanted rights to step in and take over ownership and management of the team. Basille apparently wasn't too agreeable to these conditions, not that I blame him, so he withdrew his offer.

Lamar Hunt, Sport Visionary

Lamar Hunt, who passed away tonight at 74 after a long battle with prostate cancer will be remembered as a sports visionary who founded the old AFL, helped engineer the merger with the NFL, coined the name "Super Bowl" and helped found Major League Soccer. Those are just a few of his many accomplishments in the world of sports alone.

Hunt was the son of the world famous oil man H L Hunt and while that meant Lamar didn't have to work, he wasn't one to rest on his, or his family's laurels. In fact, in the 1980s, he and his brothers once famously tried to corner the world's market in silver and almost succeeded.

While he was best known in sports as the founding owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that started life as the Dallas Texans, Dallas being Hunt's hometown, Hunt's sporting interests weren't limited to football. He was a long-time owner of a minor league baseball franchise in Dallas and sought and failed to bring a major league team to Dallas for years before the Senators moved there in 1972. He was one of the original owners of the Chicago Bulls and the last remaining founder still owning a piece of the team. He owned the Dallas Tornado of the old North American Soccer League More recently, he was a founding owner in Major League Soccer and with his sons owned the Kansas City, Dallas and Columbus franchises, although Kansas City is in the process of being sold.

While he was not as successful in his oil and other businesses as he was in his sports business, Hunt should be remembered fondly by those interested in sports. He was a sports visionary and deserves credit for much of what the NFL has become. He and Philip Anschutz are responsible for creating and keeping MLS alive bankrolling most of the teams in the league until Red Bull and adidas came along to put real money into the league. It was Hunt's vision and AEG's money that came the thing afloat. For that alone he deserves our thanks and our prayers. May his memory be a blessing.

NFL Network Offers Free View of Rutgers Bowl Game

In the ongoing chess match between the NFL and the cable networks in the NYC area, the NFL Network has decided to offer a free "preview" the week of the Texas Bowl, thereby making Rutgers second bowl appearance in a row available to metropolitan New York. The NFL, which owns the rights to the Texas Bowl and faced a major public relations problem in the NYC market by not making the Rutgers game available to local television. It is engaged in a lengthy battle with New York's two major cable systems, Time Warner and Cablevision, over the NFL Network and that network's new slate of Thursday and Saturday live NFL games. Those games are not being carried in New York as the two cable systems refuse to pay the additional subscriber fees being charged by NFL Network to receive the games.

The NFL initially saw the Rutgers bowl game as an additional leverage point in its battle to get Time Warner and Cablevision to subscribe to the NFL package, however that leverage quickly dissipated in the face of public outcry over the lack of access to the game. Thus the offer of the free preview. How the NFL will react to the cable systems limited response to the preview offer remains to be seen, but this is quickly degenerating into a public relations quagmire for all concerned. At this rate, neither the NFL Network nor the cable systems will be able to claim victory as they seem hell bent on pissing off Rutgers fans just to make sure they don't settle their own little quarrel.

Players 1, David Stern 0 - Ball Returns

The NBA announced today the imminent retirement of the "Orange Roundie", as yaysports dubbed it before it was shamelessly ripped off by Scoop Jackson, the microfiber, composite, hand-ripping ball that the NBA introduced this year. After much outcry from the players, and not coincidentally, an unfair labor practice filing by the NBA Players Association, the NBA has announced that, beginning on January 1, 2007, the old ball will return. Of course, many of the players who had complained about the new ball the most have now gotten adjusted to it and don't really want to switch back. So, all in all, this is reminiscent of the introduction of New Coke.

In choosing the new ball, Stern consulted no players except three who recently retired and who work out with the new ball for an hour. It is the single most important tool of the game, the players' livelihood, and Stern doesn't think it's necessary to consult with them. No better example of his imperial, micromanaging, players be damned style of ruling the NBA is possible than this whole new ball fiasco. In many ways, Stern has been the model for sports commissioners and that is why it is so stunning to see him fail this so miserably. It is just basic common sense to ask the players what they think before switching balls. In fact, it's so basic that I don't think anyone really believed he didn't until the players started to complain.

Just to make matters a little bit worse, the switch is being handled in such a way as to prevent some teams from even having a shootaround with the new/old ball before playing with it. The Celtics, for example, play on New Years Eve and again on New Years Day - one day with the Orange Roundie, the next with the new/old ball. As Celtics coach Doc Rivers said:

"It's just like the park. That's what it's going to feel like. Whoever brings the ball on Jan. 1, that's the one we're going to play with."

Tiger Woods and Nike announced today that a new contract today, extending a relationship that began when Tiger first turned professional and turned Nike into a force in world golf. Financial terms were not announced but you can be sure that Tiger received a significant raise from the $20 million per year for five years that he was making under the previous contract.

According to this article in Golf Digest, Tiger is well on his way to becoming the first athlete to become a billionaire from his or her earnings as an athlete. Tiger, through the end of 2005, has reached the half-billion dollar mark according to Golf Digest and he has only just begun. For comparison purposes, his on course earnings through 2005 total a mere $66 million, dwarfed by his endorsement income of over $480 million. Since his largest earning years probably lie ahead, Tiger's billionaire status is just around the corner.

Academics and Athletics (cont.)

Well, it seems that Auburn wasn't the only school that had an uncomfortable weekend. The San Diego Union-Tribune published the results of a survey it took of western university admission policies and the findings were not comforting. So-called special admits, those who do not meet the school's regular admission standards, are an unusually high percentage of athletes at certain western schools. For instance, at UCLA and Cal, those elite beacons of public education on the west coast, 70% and 52% of scholarship athletes were special admits compared to 3% of the student body as a whole. That is the type of discrepancy that attracts the attention of the NCAA and should attract the attention of the Board of Regents. It's, quite frankly, a disgrace and to claim that it's necessary to compete is a disservice to athletes and insulting. The athletic departments should be ashamed. T

here are plenty of student athletes out there who are capable of performing both on the field and in the classroom and it's the responsibility of the coaches to go out and find them. You just shouldn't set kids up for failure by putting them in situations where you know they can't succeed. If they don't have the background because their high school was lacking and you don't get them the remedial work they need, they are not going to be able to do the work necessary to graduate. It's not fair to them or the institution.

USTA Invest Millions in Tennis Channel

The Tennis Channel, one of the oldest if not of one of the more popular niche sports cable channel is about to get an infusion of cash and a new partner. The identity of the partner, the US Tennis Association is far more important to the future of the channel than is the amount of the cash, which has not been disclosed, but is believed to be less than $10 million. Bringing on the USTA as a partner assures the Tennis Channel of a partner with a high profile and obvious reach throughout tennis, fulfilling goals the channel had set for itself.

Whether the USTA brings its US Open with it remains to be seen. I think that is unlikely as the USTA would prefer that the US Open be viewed by the widest audience possible and the USA network, the US Open's current cable home, is carried in more home's than the Tennis Channel and is a basic cable option rather than a digital cable offering. What the Tennis Channel may get is coverage of action at the US Open that is not now carried by USA, such as doubles play.

Eve if the US Open never appears on the Tennis Channel, this investment has to be viewed as an extremely positive step for the Tennis Channel and a good move by the USTA. It gives the USTA a voice in the development and direction of the Channel and gives the Channel greater access to the USTA and its tournaments and Rolodex. Synergies abound. It's a good step all around and probably something the Golf Channel should emulate.

New Academic Fraud Questions at Auburn

Auburn's internal audit, begun following a series of New York Times articles raising questions about the conduct of sociology classes and independent study for athletes, has brought to light new questions about academics and scholarship athletes. In at least one class, a grade for a scholarship athlete was changed without the knowledge of the professor, enabling the athlete to graduate with a 2.01 grade point average, just above the minimum necessary for graduation. The grade was changed to an A from an incomplete and was one of four As, the athlete received in the spring semester of 2003, just before graduating. The class was a sociology directed study, however the professor not only did not know of the grade change, he did not even know the student was enrolled in the class and didn't remember ever meeting the student.

"It was a phantom student in a phantom class," the professor is quoted as saying in the Times story this morning. Professor Starr first found out about the grade change eight days ago when he was contacted by the internal auditor as a part of the internal audit. While it's not known how widespread the grade changing is, professors in at least four departments are known to have received emails from the internal auditors similar to the one received by Professor Starr.

Auburn has submitted its investigation and response to the NCAA and asked that it accept its internal findings. With this information coming to light, I think the response from Indianapolis is likely to be Good Luck. This type of activity constitutes nothing short of academic fraud and the NCAA must take strong enforcement action against Auburn. It appears that the activity was widespread throughout the athletic department and cut across academic departments. If ever there was a case that cried out for lack of institutional control, this would appear to be it. It would seem that strong and deep penalties must be assessed against Auburn that would range from multiple years probation to loss of scholarships across several sports and perhaps bans on post-season play. This type of activity cannot be condoned and there is no penalty too strong - if Auburn is serving a probation in any sport currently and that sport is implicated in this growing scandal, then the death penalty should be in play. Academic fraud is too serious not to use all the arrows in the quiver.

MasterCard Scores Wins over Visa

Plane ticket to Germany: $500; World Cup tickets: $200; Beating Visa in court: Priceless. MasterCard scored a major victory in its battle with rival Visa last week when US District Court Loretta Preska upheld MasterCard's claim that FIFA broke its contract in attempting to give Visa sponsorship rights to the World Cup. Judge Preska ruled that MasterCard was entitled to sponsor the next two World Cups under its contract with FIFA, which gave it the right to renew at its option. At stake was sponsorship rights for World Cup 2010 and 2014, for which MasterCard is likely to pay as much as $100 million in sponsorship fees.

FIFA has indicated that it is likely to appeal and Visa is "considering its options." Earlier in the week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the District Court's earlier ruling ejecting Visa from the case. Visa may sue FIFA for misrepresenting the status of its relationship with MasterCard, which, judging by the results of this decision, is probably a pretty good bet. Besides, this is FIFA we're talking about, so the likelihood that Visa was misled is high since the credibility, morals and ethics of FIFA officials is after all, a model for sports officials the world over.

Amway Arena?

A sure sign that a team and an arena are in trouble? When you can't sell naming rights so you resort to selling them to yourself. That's what the Magic did when the team sold the naming rights to the arena formerly known as the TD Waterhouse Center to Amway Corp, owned by team owner Rich DeVos. Amway is paying the whopping total of $375,000 a year for four years to put its name on the building - that kind of money doesn't even buy in arena advertising in most NBA arenas these days. Are the Magic in play? What city will they be moving to? Stay tuned as musical chairs comes to the NBA, next at 11:00.

Coaching Carousel

Congratulations to Randy Shannon, the new head football coach at the U. He is a very deserving guy and I'm glad to see him get this chance. I'm a little surprised frankly that Paul Dee, that bozo of an athletic director managed to find his way clear to hire Shannon, but I understand that he was a favored choice of President Donna Shalala, so maybe Dee couldn't have blown if he tried.

Bama, on the other hand is now 0-2, having been blown off first by Dolphins head coach Nick Saban and just moments ago by West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez. Saban reportedly turned down $5 million a year, with a $7 million signing bonus to stay with the Dolphins and Coach Rod decided he had a better shot at winning a national title with the Mountaineers than he would ever have at Bama. In that decision, he joins fellow Big East coaches Greg Schiano and Bobby Petrino who turned down overtures, or in Schiano's case job offers, from Miami to stay in their current jobs at Rutgers and Louisville respectively. I guess the Big East isn't such a bad football league after all.

BlogPoll Ballot

This is my final BlogPoll ballot of the season and I didn't put Florida in second to avoid a rematch; in fact I left Michigan in second because nothing had really changed. Although for some strange reason, the delta is all screwed up.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	25
2	Michigan	24
3	Louisville	23
4	Florida	22
5	LSU	21
6	Wisconsin	20
7	Boise State	19
8	Oklahoma	18
9	Wake Forest	17
10	Southern Cal	16
11	Auburn	15
12	Arkansas	14
13	West Virginia	13
14	Rutgers	12
15	Notre Dame	11
16	Brigham Young	10
17	Virginia Tech	9
18	Texas	8
19	Nebraska	7
20	Texas A&M	6
21	Tennessee	5
22	California	4
23	Georgia Tech	3
24	Oregon State	2
25	TCU	1

Dropped Out:

Gator Bowl and the ACC: Trouble in Paradise

You know that match-up between between the ACC runner-up Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and West Virginia Mountaineers that's scheduled for New Years Day? Well, it seems that the folks in Jacksonville weren't all that jacked up about it. In fact, they really didn't want either one of these teams if truth be told. You see, their dream pairing was Texas and Clemson and it was right there for taking until ACC Bully-in-Chief John Swofford got involved. No, 'ol John wasn't going to let a little something like the good will of a long-time bowl partner get in the way of his wants, no siree. He hauled his ole ACC handbook and said lookee here, no team can go to a bowl over a team with one loss difference between 'em and Tech is 7-1, Clemson is 5-3, so Tech has to go. Too bad, they were just there. Too bad, you just lost $1 million cause nobody came to see 'em play and you're gonna lose another million cause nobody but the hillbillies from West Virginny are coming. I got a contract says you gotta take Tech and that's what you're going to do.

So, that's what the Gator Bowl did, but don't look for the Gator Bowl to bid on the ACC Championship game again anytime soon. Oh and when the Gator Bowl contract with the ACC comes up for renewal in another four years, I think they'll remember this year.

Will Liverpoll Takeover Bring a Salary Cap

If the Maktoums actually buy Liverpool for a reported 450 million pounds, will that be enough to spur a serious attempt at instituting a however. He is not going to just throw an unlimited purse at continent wide salary cap? There is some evidence that it just might. Sheik Mohammed is a very competitive sportsman, as evidenced by the billions that he and his brothers have invested in the thoroughbred industry. He leaves little to chance and will invest the money necessary to make his investments succeed. He is not Abramovich. He is willing to spend, but wisely and with a plan for success.

What a Maktoum takeover may mean for Liverpool is not entirely clear but the outlines are obvious. First is a new stadium to replace Anfield, with 60,000 seats, which will provide the money to go out and obtain the talent to take on Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal. There is little doubt that a new stadium is the key to being able to financially take on those three, just as Emirates Stadium has now equipped Arsenal to compete with Chelsea and the Red Devils. With Sheik Mohammed's billions and a new stadium on line, Liverpool will be armed to battle those three as well.

It is the Maktoums' unlimited petrol billions that has the Europe worried. Will the Reds join Abramovich in the transfer market bidding up fees and taking all of the talent off the continent? Unlikely, but they will be bidding against Chelsea and Arsenal and who knows where the next big name will want to play. There is that draw of the big city lights of London at night....

Are the NFL Network's Problems a Warning for the Big Ten?

The Big Ten has to be watching the NFL Network's battle with cable systems with a worried look as it readies its network for debut. If the country's dominant sport and most popular television sports destination can't get cable operators to agree to carry its games, what chance does the Big Ten have?

MLS Calendar

From the beginning of MLS, there have been complaints that playing from February to November didn't conform to the soccer calendar in effect in the rest of the world. While this is true, it was not really practical in a league that was sharing stadia with NFL teams to run a typical fall/winter calendar. Not to mention that there were doubts about the ability of teams to draw fans when the weather got cold. Nevertheless, complaints continue and the constant refrain is heard to harmonize the MLS season with Europe's. The calendar does create problems every four years when the World Cup rolls around right in the middle of the season and every team loses several players to World Cup teams and to a lesser extent, in Gold Cup years.

Now, it appears, that may not be necessary, as a new solution to the calendar issues may be at hand. Who would have ever guessed that the solution would come from FIFA headquarters of all places? Sepp Blatter himself has decided that MLS had it right all along. He recently told a German sports magazine that world soccer ought to harmonize its calendar on the February to November model. Who would have ever thought that America's contribution to the beautiful game would be a calendar?

CNBC Relaunch

CNBC has relaunched their website this week and, as you might have expected, this time they have included blogs from some of their contributors. One of those blogs is being written by my good friend Darren Rovell and covers the business of sports. I recommend you check it out here.

Dolphins Have Sexiest Cheerleader

It's time for end of season awards and you don't expect the Miami Dolphins to win too many awards this season. However, with South Beach being what it is, the honor of sexiest cheerleader is not out of the question and this year the award goes to Bibiana Julian of the Dolphins, who can be seen in a more complete mulitpage layout here . Bibiana, although just a rookie, was the clear fan vote of the 10 cheerleaders in the competition. I'm sure she'll help sell a few FHM mags.

Will the Maktoums Buy Liverpool?

Liverpool has granted Dubai International Capital an exclusive window to review the books and conduct other due diligence in a prelude to a takeover of the club. The Reds appear to be close to concluding a three year search for the capital needed to build a new stadium and it now looks like that capital will come from the Maktoums, the ruling family of Dubai, who control DIC. If the deal goes through, it will mark the latest foreign takeover of an English Premier League club in a season of frenzied deals, that has seen numerous clubs change hands. In a league marked by spiraling player salaries, complaints about unequal playing conditions and an inability to compete on the pitch with Chelsea and Manchester United, it makes you wonder what is driving the purchase of so many clubs, especially by foreign buyers. Do they all know something that English rich men don't? Or is this just the application of the greater fool theory at work ?

What's the Price of a Missed Two Point Conversion?

Well, if you're Rutgers, it's $1.2 million. That's the difference between winning the Big East and the expected Orange Bowl bid that goes with it and finishing in a tie for second and heading to the new Texas Bowl in Reliant Stadium in Houston. You see, unlike most of the other BCS conferences, the Big East does not add up all of the bowl revenue, divide it into equal shares and pass it out to everyone in the league like the Big Ten, ACC and SEC do. No, the Big East gives each of its eight members a piece of the bowl money equally, about $1million a piece, but then awards the first, second and third place finishers, $2.4 million, !.6 million and $1.2 million respectively. So, about that $1.2million missed conversion, read on.

Yesterday, Louisville crushed UConn in the afternoon, solidifying its hold on at least a share of first place in the conference, finishing 11-1 on the season and 6-1 in the conference , then sat back and waited while Rutgers took on West Virginia, needing to beat the 'eers to win tie Louisville for first place and a bid to the BCS, by virtue of having beaten the Cards. In a three overtime thriller, WVU beat the Knights when Rutgers' attempt at a two point conversion failed as WVU knocked down a pass in the end zone.

While Rutgers and West Virginia tied for second, WVU beat Rutgers to break the tie, so the Knights will receive $1.2 million, instead of the $2.4 million they could have received had they won the game. No South Beach , no Orange Bowl, less money and the game telecast on NFL Network instead of Fox. Not quite what the Hollywood ending the Knights were hoping for Cinderella season, but a great season nonetheless.

For the Cards, the extra $1.2 million is mighty tasty icing on the cake for a season that was just one poorly played half against Rutgers from playing in the national title game. This, despite losing Heisman Trophy candidate RB Michael Bush for the year to an injury in the third quarter of the first game and several other key players, including QB Brian Brohm, to injury during the year. The Orange Bowl, or perhaps the Sugar Bowl, is a great reward for a team that showed tremendous resiliency.

This year, Big East football has shown that predictions of its demise were a bit premature and it has returned to a place of prominence in the national conversation. This year was only a prelude. All three of the Big East powers are relatively young teams. Both Rutgers and West Virginia have most of their stars returning, including the West Virginia dynamic duo of Steve Slaton and Pat White. Rutgers Heisman candidate Ray Rice should be back and Louisville's Brian Brohm has said he is also likely to return. Michael Bush is undecided about returning - he will see how well he has healed by the NFL combine, but most of the Cardinals' replacement running back committee are freshmen and sophomores. South Florida should be improved as dangerous QB Matt Grothe will only be a sophomore with a full year's of experience under his a belt and an excellent returning cast and recruiting class coming in. Big East coaches have popped up as candidates for job openings at Miami and Alabama, as well as other places. If, as expected, Rutgers' Schiano, WVU's Rodriguez, USF's Leavitt and Louisville's Petrino (who emphatically took himself out of the running for any job this time ) stay put, next fall's Big East will be the most entertaining and toughest to win in the league's history. Stay tuned.