NCAA Awards Duke Laxers Eligibility Appeal

In a decision that is shocking for its speed and, frankly, its result, the NCAA has granted Duke's request to give its lacrosse players an extra year of eligibility as a result of the canceled season due to the administration's ill advised move in the midst of the Durham prosecutor's investigation last season. While the correct decision in my mind as the lacrosse players were victimized by an administration eager to placate a politically correct faculty and a minority Durham community that had rushed to judgement in a case fanned to a white hot flame by a prosecutor who was desperately seeking an election victory, it was admittedly probably a bad precedent. After all, Duke did voluntarily terminate the season and now comes to ask for it back. While the appeal was unanimously supported by the ACC Presidents, they are probably doing little more than watching Dick Brodhead's back. While I'm happy for the players still at Duke, it all smacks of too little, too late and Duke has yet to apologize to anyone - not to three players who were indicted, not to coach Mike Pressler who was shamefully and needlessly fired and not to the other players nor any of the families whose lives were made a living hell, due in no small part to the actions and inactions of the university administration who failed to stand behind its students.

PS: Congratulations to Matt Danowski, winner of the Tewaaraton Trophy - the lacrosse award as player of the award and to Kristin Kjellmann of Northwestern for becoming the first person, man or woman, to win the Tewaaraton in back to back years.

Are Cuban and Others Plotting a New Football League?

The NFL has enjoyed monopoly status since it beat back the short-lived challenge of USFL back in 1985. That's more than 20 year long years of no competition and exploding revenue. Is it time for another challenger to arise and try and take a piece of the NFL's extremely large pie?

Mark Cuban, Bill Hambrecht, the founder of the investment bank maverick W R Hambrecht + Co and Google executive Tim Armstrong seem to think so. Hambrecht and Armstrong are partners in the founding of the United Football League and they have recruited Cuban to be the new league's first franchise owner.

They believe, and I think correctly, that the NFL has focused on television revenues sufficiently that a market exists in enough passed over large cities to support a well financed, coherently run football league with a business plan that doesn't attempt to compete head to head with the NFL for the marquis stars and their league busting contracts. The part of this group's business plan that I find most attractive is the idea that each franchise will be owned 1/3 by the franchise owner, 1/3 by the league and 1/3 by the fans through an IPO. Now, it still needs to be fleshed out if we are talking about separate IPOs in each league city and who owns the league, but the central business concept of fan buy-in is sound, as I discussed in the crowdsourcing post from a week or so ago. I think their numbers appear sound as well. However, Friday night is no longer a football free night, as ESPN has stepped in and given taken it over for college now. Whether a new professional league could win the night back from college is debatable, but certainly less challenging than trying to beat the NFL heads up.

All in all, if you can get access to stadiums in every market in which the league wants to operate. and based on opening in LA, Las Vegas, Monterrey , throw in Orlando, San Antonio and maybe Memphis for starters. Those should all have available stadiums that could be accessed without NFL restrictions. That said, I wouldn't put it past these three guys to get something started. As if Roger Goodell didn't have enough to worry about - now he has to start thinking about Cuban.

World's Tours to Join Up to Rival PGA

It must be frustrating to run the European PGA Tour. After all, you are in charge of a tour that holds tournaments that despite its name run around the world from China in November, to South Africa in December, to Dubai in February and Moscow in August. Your Ryder Cup team has taken five of the last contests against the bigger, badder and richer Americans. Seven of the top golfers in the current world rankings are members of your tour.

And yet, your golfers keep skipping across the pond to play in events in the American PGA and except for the majors and the odd WGC event, the reverse rarely happens. You must be asking yourself daily what must you do to make your tour more attractive to keep your golfers home?

It seems that the leaders of the European Tour have decided to join with the South African, Asian, Japan and Australasian Tours to form a world tour that would attempt to be a true alternative to the PGA. Now, the idea of the five tours joining together is a good one as quite frankly with the exception of the European Tour, the five aren't really in that great a shape right now. Each produces its share of excellent world class golfers but is not strong enough to produce consistently strong fields, good crowds or attractive purses. Together, perhaps, they can overcome some of their deficiencies and gain strength in numbers.

It's not likely that they will even together be a true rival to the PGA, not with the FedEx Cup and the average purse money now running at $6 million. But, if the new world tour takes a lesson from the PGA and looks into a FedEx Cup style system that helps ensure players consistently playing tournaments, the new tour will be immediately strengthened. Job number one must be to find a sponsor to inaugurate a Cup style points chase for the new world tour once the tour has been agreed upon. With that in hand, the new tour might have a fighting chance.

Lax: Cats Threepeat; Duke Falls Short

It was 2005 all over again at the NCAA Division I lacrosse championships this weekend. Both the women's and men's finals featured rematches of the 2005 contests, and damned, if the outcomes were eerily similar.

Yesterday, the dynasty that is the Northwestern Wildcat women captured their third straight crown defeating Virginia 15-13, after sprinting out to a 11-5 first half lead and watching the Cavaliers come all the way back to within one goal with 10 minutes left in the game. Northwestern answered and the hung on from there. The Cats won their first title in 2005, beating Virginia 13-10 in that title game.

Today, in the men's game, Duke came close to a storybook ending to their season of redemption. With last year's fired coach Mike Pressler in the stands watching, the Blue Devils gave 2005 champion John Hopkins all they could handle before falling 12-11. Give Hopkins credit, though, they answered every Duke run with a key goal of their own. In 2005, Duke also fell to John Hopkins by a score of 9-8.

The symmetry is a bit too eerie for me. I'm not real sure what to make of it or what sign to take from it. I'm just glad the Cats won and wish the Devils would have been able to pull it off.

Baseball Channel

Good recap in the New York Times about how MLB managed to successfully include the new Baseball Channel as the linchpin of its recent negotiations over a television contract with Direct TV and the cable consortium of In Demand. While MLB allowed the public to believe the battle was over Extra Innings, the reality was the fight was always over the debut of, and the terms of carriage of, the Baseball Channel. As it turns out, MLB came out of the negotiations with an excellent deal for the new network and in fact are in a better position for the Baseball Channel than the NFL is in for the NFL Network. Baseball has better penetration, no litigation and an asset worth $1.2 billion.

Congratulations Mr. Judd

Congratulations to Mr. Ashley Judd on his first Indy 500 win. Although it was rain shortened, that doesn't really tarnish the victory and his face will still grace the Borg-Warner Trophy, the strangest looking trophy in sports. I'm sure the prizes Ashley has waiting for him tonight will make the victory even sweeter. Congrats Dario.

You Can Help Select the Next Best Seller

This post isn't strictly about sports but it is about business and indirectly about sports and I think most of you will find it interesting so bear with me. A trading market has been established that allows you to bet "play money" on the possible success of movies, bands and books. It is books that has drawn my attention, because it's with books that this market will real impact.

Media Predict operates like other trading markets allowing you to buy shares in the success of let's say the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, which is now trading at 92.9% probability that the movie will gross over $39 million this weekend, which is opening weekend. Simon & Schuster has joined with Media Predict to create Project Publish, a virtual market in predicting which manuscripts will be published by Touchstone Books, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster. What is most interesting about this project is that Touchstone has committed to use the market as a means of identifying which manuscript to publish. For the first time, instead of a small group of publishing company of editors selecting the manuscript, a group of the public, participating in the market through trading, determine what will be popular enough to sell will select what to publish and the company will go forward with that selection. We will then get to see how well the public's selection turns out.

The book business is a giant crap shoot with each book being selected on the basis of gut instinct. The industry rarely uses focus groups, surveys or any of the other marketing techniques that most other industries use to learn what their customers like, want and are willing to buy. I'm not suggesting that this market is the answer to their prayers, but it is one insight into the public's collective mind and a tool for the publishing industry to use. The publishing industry needs all the tools that it can get. I intend to sign up and participate in Project Publish to see how it works and I'll report back at a later date.

Theo Epstein Eat Your Heart Out

When Theo Epstein was appointed general manager of the Boston Red Sox at age 28, baseball observers thought owner John Henry has taken leave of his senses. Who had ever heard of turning over the reigns of a major league baseball organization to a kid, much less the legendary Boston Red Sox, the embodiment of the hopes and dreams of millions of New Englanders and other members of Red Sox nation and arch enemies of all things Yankee. Well, you know the rest of the story. Two years later, the curse is broken and the Red Sox are champions of the world and John Henry looks like a genius, as does wunderkind Epstein.

Well, if you thought running a major league organization at 28 was something, meet Jake Floyd. Jake is the general manager of the Ash Fork Miners, who play in something called the Desert Cactus Independent League. He is brilliant, ambitious, revolutionizing baseball and has already turned down job offers from the Yankees - oh and he's only 13

Of course, it would be even better if it were true. However, it's only as true as Sydd Finch - the great pitcher for the Detroit Tigers that once graced the pages of Sports Illustrated and existed only in the minds of the writers and editors of SI. Jake exists only in the mind of the author of the story, Jason Gay, who is the articles editor of GQ but is not, as listed in the article, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is, however, an excellent satirist and has a wonderful imagination and wrote a very believable article, which I think is great fun and worth your read.

Big Game Stays in Bay Area

To update an old story, comes news via the WWLS new NFL blog, Hashmarks the NFL has wisely decided to abandon its trademark application for Big Game in the face of opposition from Stanford and Cal. It may refile it later in a more specific application that narrowly targets the Super Bowl and would not infringe on Stanford's and Cal's joint trademark of Big Game for their annual football rivalry. The NFL has gotten it right this time and let's hope that if the league does decide to refile the suits will talk to the folks in the Bay Area and cooperate to make the filing palatable to both sides before it gets filed.

Consolidation in Baseball Cards

Topps, the iconic baseball card company may soon be no more. It had agreed to be purchased by a group led by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner for $385 million, but today announced it had received a takeover bid from rival card maker Upper Deck in the amount of $424 million. It had received permission from the Eisner group to discuss the bid with Upper Deck and it now looks lke that will be the deal that gets done, assuming it passes muster with the antitrust regulators.

Chariot Racing Making a Comeback

Making a comeback after a millenium is the sport of chariot racing. Featured in an article in today's Wall Street Journal, there is apparently a group of committed charioteers around the world trying to bring the world's attention back to one of the oldest sports. For a better take on this story, watch this video report from WSJ reporter Matt Moffatt, reporting from Brazil:

HT: The Sports Economist

Balsille Bags the Preds

The third team is the charm for Canadian Jim Balsillie. After trying and failing twice to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, he now has a deal to buy the Nashville Predators from current owner Craig Leopold, according to press reports. What is not yet clear is whether the Preds, one of the NHL's more successful teams on the ice in the regular season this year, will be relocating.

The Predators are a member of the NHL's ill fated Sun Belt expansion and have a troubled existence in Nashville. The team has an exit clause in its lease at the Gaylord Center, allowing it to terminate its lease if it fails to average 14,000 fans in two seasons. It averaged only 13,815 this season and if the team notifies the city it intends to terminate the lease, the city must buy sufficient tickets to meet the 14,000 number or the team is free to leave after next season, after paying an exit fee of $18 million. The option must be exercised next month.

When Balsillie was attempting to buy the Penguins, rumors were circulating that he intended to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario, which is close to his home in Waterloo, where the company he co-founded, Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry, is headquartered. If he intends to move the Preds there, he will need the consent of the league, and is likely to run into opposition from Toronto and Buffalo. Kansas City would be another obvious possible destination as it has a ready arena and no tenant. Several Canadian cities that lost teams to Sun Belt destinations in the past could also re-enter the picture if they were willing to commit to build new arenas. In any event, the days of the Predators in Nashville appear likely to be numbered.

Liverpool Extends Shirt Deal

Reaching the Champions League Final paid immediate dividends for Liverpool as it extended its record breaking shirt sponsorship deal with Carlsberg, the Danish brewery, for an additional three years. The sponsorship, now in its 19th year, is the longest in Europe and many thought it would not be renewed as the rumor was the brewer had wanted out. However, the brewer actually wanted a longer deal but Liverpool wants to go into its new stadium free of a shirt deal so it can negotiate a naming rights deal for the stadium and throw in the shirt sponsorship as well. That would boost the rights value considerably and worked well for Arsenal in its new Emirates Stadium.

Duke Lacrosse to the Final Four

Congratulations to the Blue Devils lacrosse teams as both the men and women have reached the Final Four. Just one year after the men's team was suspended in a rush to judgment amid a campus display of political correctness run amok and prosecutorial misconduct in the pursuit of re-election, the Blue Devils have re-established themselves and are now the team to beat for the NCAA men's crown. It is a rather stunning comeback for the players and new coach John Danowski, whose son Matt is a senior on the team.

The top seeded and second ranked Devils play fourth seeded and top ranked Cornell in the semi-finals on Saturday. The other semi-final pits third seeded John Hopkins against Cinderella Delaware. The second seeded Duke women take on third seeded Virginia in the semi-finals on Friday. In the other semi-final, top seeded Northwestern, shooting for a three-peat, plays fourth seeded and host Penn

I'm reading an advance copy of a soon to be published book titled It's Not About the Truth, written by Don Yeager with former Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler. I am only a little way into so far but I can already tell that it is going to be an excellent book and one of the best early reads on the whole situation. Believe me that it is far from what it has been portrayed in the media to date. Whenever you think about the Duke lacrosse case, remember three words: rush to judgment.

Many people formed opinions about the case based on three facts: black woman accuser, white alleged attacker, white athlete. Those three things were sufficient in the minds of many people in the Duke and Durham communities, not to mention the nation at large to convict the three Duke players regardless of the truth. The truth, as we learned a year later, was much different. The North Carolina Supreme Court will deal with Mike Nifong, the wayward prosecutor. The Duke Board of Trustees does not seem to want to deal with the actions of Duke President Richard Brodhead. Of course, no one can give the year or their life back to the Duke Three. The Duke community has a lot of healing yet to do and this year's lacrosse team is doing its part to help.


UPDATE: Duke has filed a request with the NCAA to grant an additional year of eligibility whose 2006 season was cut short by the decision to suspend the team. The Baltimore Sun reports that the request has been filed "at the NCAA level", following an initial presentation, as required by NCAA regulations to the ACC. The NCAA should recognize the unique nature of these circumstances and grant this request so that those players that wish to stay in school for an extra year and play for Duke are able to do so. This is certainly not a situation that would be setting a precedent.

You can get your Duke Fathead here

Champions League Win Worth Over $130 Million

A return to the Champions League final for the second time in three years is providing Liverpool's new owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, with a surprising early return on their investment. The winner of this year's rematch of the 2005 final with AC Milan will enjoy a financial windfall estimated to be worth over $130 million according to a study commissioned by MasterCard. The value will come in the form of increased sponsorships, TV revenue, gate receipts and player value. While that may be true for A C Milan, I suspect the figure is a bit less for Liverpool, as its TV revenue is determined by the Premiership's broadcasting contracts and not by the club's, as Milan's are. In any event, the figure won't be that far off.

Of course, the question still remains as to whether Milan should even have been allowed in the competition at all given the match fixing for which it was penalized by the Italian federation but not by UEFA, part of a history of suspicious behavior on it part. Although it received an eight point penalty, it currently lies fourth in the Serie A. Juventus was punished the most, having been relegated and then receiving a nine point penalty. However, it won the championship of Serie B and with it promotion for next year back to Serie A. Fortunately, UEFA has changed its regulations allowing it to impose its own penalties in the future, so this situation won't reoccur.

NBC to NHL: You Aren't Worth Horses**t!!

I wonder if Gary Bettman still believes his TV contracts are in hockey's best interests after Saturday afternoon's debacle. NBC had reserved a three hour time slot for the Ottawa - Buffalo game but unfortunately for Sens and Sabres fans, the game went into overtime. NBC then decided to cut away from the most exciting hockey of this or any other season - overtime in the playoffs - to go to two hours of Preakness warmup. That's right, the brass at NBC decided that talk about horse racing was more interesting and exciting than overtime playoff hockey. That Mr. Bettman says more than any columnist or blogger ever could about the state of interest in hockey in the US.

You know what's even worse, the NHL apparently doesn't even mind. The league knew it would happen and didn't care.

"We were fully aware of NBC's programming commitments following Game5 between the Sabres and Senators, and the challenges overtime could present for viewers and our network partners," league spokesperson Jamey Horan said. "However, our decision to schedule the game with NBC was done to provide the broadcast to the greatest number of viewers."

I'm afraid that hockey is fast becoming, if it's not already, a niche sport that has long since lost its status as a major league sport in the US. Bettman should give up on Sunbelt franchises that are losing money and fans and return those to the Canadian cities from whence they came. It is clearer now than ever that hockey's future is in Canada and the northern US and the sooner Bettman realizes this the better the sport will be.

Here's what you missed if you don't have Versus:

Crowd Buying of Soccer Club

A group in England is taking the wisdom of crowds idea to its logical extension into sports. Building on the concept of group purchasing to negotiate a lower rate or better terms, a group of soccer fans have started a website to develop a group purchase of a soccer club. My Football Club, aims to collect 50,000 registrations of people who commit to pay 35 pounds (about $70) in membership fees, which would give the group a purchase fund of about 1,375,000 pounds ($2,500,000) and 375,000 pounds in support funds. The group has identified a list of 15 clubs it would attempt to buy, which is headed by Leeds United, recently relegate from the Championship to League 1.

The group members would vote on hiring the manager, player transfers, player selections and all major decisions affecting the club. A board would be elected and administrators appointed to handle day to day decisions, but the members would be involved in almost all decisions of any significance.

The concept seems to have a struck a chord as the site has already registered over 25,000 members in only a little over two weeks. It is a very interesting concept and one I intend to follow and see if it would work in the US. I think it might and am actively considering the idea for use here. Let me know what you think and if you have any interest.

AT&T 1, NASCAR 0

AT&T scored a major victory in its court fight with NASCAR over its ability to change the logo on the number 31 car driven by Jeff Burton. US District Court Judge Marvin Shoob ruled that AT&T may change the logo from Cingular to AT&T by reason of the "grandfather" clause in it contract with NASCAR, as I had previously discussed. Judge Shoob issued an injunction barring NASCAR from interfering with AT&T's rights a primary car sponsor. In his ruling, Shoop wrote, "the court concludes that the continued appearance of the Cingular brand on the No. 31 car, unaccompanied by any indication that Cingular now does business as AT&T, is likely to confuse NASCAR fans."

However, he then granted NASCAR's request for an emergency hearing to be held this morning on a motion to stay the injunction pending an appeal. If the motion is denied, NASCAR plans to appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday morning. Assuming that NASCAR loses the motion this morning, as it should, Burton's car, should be rebadged in AT&T's blue globe logo, in time for tonight's, irony alert, Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Whether the car will be painted blue instead of orange to correspond with AT&T's blue globe logo, remains to be seen. It wouldn't surprise me, since the car would look better than just sticking the blue globe on an orange car, but the orange paint job does help make the car stand out and I don't know how good a sky blue car will look half covered in sponsor stickers.

The ruling makes sense from both practical business and legal standpoints. Cingular negotiated for a continuing grandfather clause in the original contract and, as the Court correctly pointed out, the continued use of the Cingular name on Burton's car after it disappears from use in the marketplace will only promote confusion. From a legal standpoint, the grandfather clause was granted to Cingular and Sprint was aware of it when it negotiated its title sponsorship agreement and AT&T acquired Cingular stock. I'm unaware of any clause in the sponsorship agreements that would have triggered any escalation of such agreements upon transfer of the stock so as to render such agreements cancelled.

As a result, AT&T should receive the benefit of Cingular's agreements, including the grandfather clause, with Childress and Burton. As the Court noted with respect to Sprint, "Sprint Nextel knew that its exclusivity was going to be impaired because it agreed with NASCAR in the Nextel Sponsorship Agreement to grandfather in certain competitors." It's also abundantly clear that AT&T would suffer immediate and irreparable harm in the event that it would not be allowed to make the logo switch, grounds necessary to obtain the injunction. All in all, a correct decision and a well reasoned one that should hold up on appeal. Now, let's get back to racing.

Mid-Continent Conference Becomes Summit League

The Mid-Continent Conference has decided to change its name to the Summit League, in order to avoid confusion with a league that no longer has the initials MCC. According to league officials, one of the reasons for the switch was to avoid confusion with the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, which is now known as the Horizon League. Now, the league will have to worry about being thought of a just another Pat Summitt fan club. I sure hope they don't choose Orange and White as the conference's new colors.

Surprise! Almost All Division I Schools Subsidize Sports

The NCAA recently released a report on the finances of Division I athletics and to the surprise of no one who is familiar with the situation, discovered that the overwhelming majority of schools have to subsidize their athletic departments. In fact, the task force found that only 22 of the 313 members of Division I were self-supporting. While these 22 institutions were not identified in the report, it is a safe bet that they are the familiar football powers from the Big Six BCS Conference schools plus Notre Dame, with its NBC contract in tow.

On average, Division I-A members, that is those that play Division I-A football (or whatever it is called now) fork over the lowest subsidies, as these are the schools with the largest television contracts and the the large football revenues. The average subsidy in Division I-A is 21.6%, a number that is undoubtedly increased by schools in the non-BCS member conferences. The Division I-AA schools subsidized 71.1% of their athletic budgets, while the non-football schools forked over 73.6% of theirs.

It is obvious that football drives revenue in collegiate athletics. While football is the revenue driver, what the task force report makes clear is that the cost of scholarships is the main expense. Despite the skyrocketing cost of big-time coaching salaries and the travel costs necessitated by conference expansion, it is still scholarships and the escalating cost of tuition that hit the expense line the hardest. However, the arms race in facilities is what concerns the presidents the most. And well it should, as facilities upgrades and new construction is likely to be the main revenue drag in the future. Fixed capital expense sunk into construction stays with a school for 20 to 30 years, long after the initial boost in revenue gained from the new facility has been spent.

While the answer to controlling the arms race remains illusory at this point, it is, perhaps, the second most critical issue facing the NCAA at this juncture, second only to academic fraud. If the membership is unable to determine a method of cost containment, the skyrocketing cost of facilities could threaten not only the financial well being of collegiate athletics, but, if the administrators are not careful, the institutions themselves. Many schools are stretching themselves very thin and going out on a limb in an effort to keep up with the competition, and those with more limited resources are committing institutional resources to athletics that should be better spent on academic resources.

It is a fine line that many institutions are now walking and many are finding themselves treading on the wrong side of that path and more will be finding themselves there in the years ahead if answers can't be found soon. As with most things in this area, it is especially true with schools, like those in the Sun Belt Conference, for instance, that compete in Division I-A football but are not BCS members, have no major TV contracts, limited attendance, small fan bases and ever expanding costs. It is frankly a recipe for financial disaster and I'm still waiting for a rational explanation why the SBC is in Division I-A.

ESPN Tries to Reclaim Journalism

ESPN announced yesterday at the annual upfronts that it would debut a newsmagazine show this fall entitled "ESPN Reports", to be broadcast weekly on Tuesday nights fat 7:00 leading out of Sportscenter. The WWLS described the show as a fast-paced blend of behind the scenes and investigative reporting and storytelling.

The good news is that the show will be staffed by Jeremy Schaap and some of ESPN's other decent reporters, including Rachel Nichols, Lisa Salters, Tom Farrey and Michael Smith. It will, however, also include Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman from espn.com. Now, I know that Bill Simmons is some sort of blogging deity, but frankly, I have never seen the appeal and I really don't think he will translate to an investigative journalism television show. In fact, despite his big buck contract, I don't think he will translate to the screen well at all.

Anyway, it's good that the WWLS is at least trying something that actually smacks of reporting. We'll see how it actually turns out. I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Bradley Named "Permanent" Soccer Head Coach

To my surprise, US Soccer Federation head honcho, Sunil Gulati, is doing the right thing and will remove the interim tag from Bob Bradley's job description. At a news conference scheduled for today, he will announce that Bradley is being named the permanent head coach of the US men's national team. It's the right decision and one that I didn't think Gulati had it in him to make.

Bradley has proven himself since getting the interim job and not just because the team has gone 3-0-1 in the four games they have played under him. It's the way he has approached the job that has demonstrated that he is the right man for the job. Bradley has from the start approached the job as if it was his for the long haul, He has brought in new, young players giving them looks and opportunities as he has begun the long process of reshaping the team for World Cup 2010.

Bradley has succeeded when has been given the opportunity to build from scratch his way, with his players. He took the expansion Chicago Fire to the MLS Cup win in its first year. He rebuilt Chivas to respectability in one year. He has three years to rebuild the US team, while still going through a tougher than most people realize qualifying next year. That is when the respect of the veterans will be crucial and he has already begun to win them over. Of his appointment, captain Landon Donovan said:

"Obviously you can't deny the results. He's done really well -- he hasn't lost yet, knock on wood, I think for a lot of us older guys, at first it was a little bit hard, just because it was different from Bruce. I think as time has gone on, he's kind of earned our respect and, hopefully, vice versa."

While it might have been nice from a marketing standpoint to have had a "bigger", more instantly recognizable European name coach, I don't think Gulati could have found a coach better suited to the task at hand. Bradley knows the American system and the players in it. He works best when he can create a team from the ground up and that is exactly what he has to do at this point, with so many veteran players having retired. Congratulations to Bob and to Gulati for making the right decision.

Amanda Beard: Next Stroke - Playboy

You gotta love this - America's best female breaststroker, Olympic gold medal winner and world champion Amanda Beard will be posing in the July issue of Playboy. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't generally read Playboy. However, I might have to make an exception for next month's issue. After all, Beard is about the sexiest female athlete on the planet and a layout in Playboy is probably worth a few bucks if it's not available on the website. Here's a little preview of what we might be seeing, taken from a previous spread she did for FHM.

This is probably another step on the road of the Beard march to business domination of swimming. She has a $1 million endorsement deal with Speedo and is getting 15,000 per speaking engagement, a fee that is likely to go up after next month. She has endorsement deals with Red Bull, Oroweat Bread and Penta Water, a signature line of fragrances. She recently debuted the Amanda Beard Signature Collection to encompass a whole line of products beyond fragrances and swimwear and so, you can see she is well on her way to becoming a business mogul, as well as a dominating swimmer. If she decides to stay in training until next year and wins again in Beijing, well, then the sky is the limit as far as her earning power.

Pregnancy and Title IX: The Next NCAA Scandal

Tomorrow morning on the ESPN program Outside the Lines, Julie Fowdy will present a report of several student athletes at different schools around the country who have lost scholarships as a result of becoming pregnant while in school. In at least one case, at the University of Memphis, female track athletes were required to sign a "contract" each preseason acknowledging that certain behaviors would result in immediate loss of scholarships, including pregnancy. There is only one problem with that - it is a blatant violation of federal Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to the US Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The fact that this blatant abuse of position and authority by coaches and administrators in college athletic programs continues in the 21st century is a terribly sad commentary on the university community. How anyone could not know that pregnancy is something to cherish and not something to be punished would be too sad to comment on if it were not so in need of correction. The fact that pregnancy is protected by Title IX is not in dispute. It is well settled law. Regulations promulgated by the Department of Education make it clear that a college may not discriminate against a woman because she is pregnant, must treat pregnancy as a temporary disability and must allow a woman to take a temporary leave as a result of a pregnancy.

The scandal that will unfold as a result of Fowdy's report should resound throughout the country. The NCAA should act swiftly to punish the schools that fail to treat pregnant student athletes appropriately. The NCAA has guidelines in place for schools to follow and should immediately sanction schools that it finds, like Memphis, that fail to follow them and, in fact, are actively attempting to subvert them. This is every bit as insidious as academic fraud and Myles Brand should be as vocal and active in stopping this behavior as he has been in attempting to shut down diploma mills.

Firday NIght Lights Renewed

I know that many of you watched and enjoyed the NBC drama Friday Night Lights and will be as happy as I am to learn that it has been picked up for a full season renewal for next year. NBC is set to announce its lineup on Monday, but according to this report in Mediaweek, Lights has received a full season pickup. Good news indeed as there are few enough shows worth watching on TV these days for the networks to kill off one of the ones that is.

What's Next for Dale?

While I'm not a NASCAR fan, the departure of Dale Earnhardt Jr. from DEI is news that any student of social relations and family dynamics should find fascinating. While reams of newsprint have been spent on the bad blood between Dale and his stepmother, I don't know that anyone actually believed that he would leave DEI until the last few days. Most people around NASCAR believed the she would not want to lose NASCAR's most bankable driver and he would not want to leave his father's legacy behind. Not to mention that he was worth more than half the value of DEI alone. However, his demand for control of DEI in the end was apparently too much for Theresa to swallow and so the driver who was 19th on the Forbes list of highest paid athletes last year with in excess of $20 million becomes a free agent at year's end.

Here is video of his departure statement:

What lies ahead for Dale is the multi-million dollar question. He wants to stay with Chevy and Budweiser (and its estimated $15 million car sponsorship), while being on a team that can compete for a championship. That makes Hendricks Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing as the leaders in the clubhouse. Joe Gibbs Racing would also be included but for their insistence on no deals with sponsors that sell alcohol. With Dale looking to keep Bud painted on his car, that would seem to rule the Coach out. With Hendricks already at the maximum of four cars, that would appear to leave Childress in the driver's seat. Of course, contracts can be amended and terminated, so you just never know.

Has Clemens Shown Free Agents A New Way?

As most any sports fan knows by now, the Rocket has returned to Gotham in a purported attempt to win another championship. Clearly, he hasn't taken a close look at his cohorts on the pitching roster, but that's food for another post on another day. What I would like to examine is whether Roger has found a new way to play the free agent game and is this the start of a trend?

For two years, Clemens has stayed out of the free agent frenzy of the winter meetings and spring training and decided where he would play after the first month of season. It has been believed that only the superstars would have the clout to do what Clemens has done, but is that really the case? While it’s true that a young player is not likely to be able to afford to wait until the season is a third over, either financially or because he hasn’t established himself, the same is not necessarily the case with an established player who is not a superstar. In fact, that is the player for whom this strategy would likely yield the best results, as he would miss the free agent glut and be on the market at the time when teams have determined what their most immediate needs for this season really are, based on the first month or six weeks of the season. Of course, he would be sacrificing his pro-rated salary, but he would likely make that up in his extra salary due to market conditions. It’s certainly something I would like to see someone try next season just so we could see what results.

Haveil Havalim #115

Haveil Havalim #115, the Carnival of Jewish Bloggers, is now up at Barbara's Tchatzkah's. This week's edition featured my post on the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame indcutees and a post on an Orthodox Jewish Major Junior hockey player in Quebec among the many other interesting and informative items.

A Bowl for DC?

Just what college football needs, another bowl game. Apparently sports officials in your nation's capital are not convinced that we have quite enough mediocre teams playing meaningless bowl games televised early on the myriad networks of the WWLS because they are investigating the possibility of starting a new one in RFK Stadium. They are discussing a possible tie-in with Navy, which seems somewhat illogical to me as Navy is probably the most sought after free agent there is in college football save for Notre Dame. Why Navy would want to tie itself down to what would essentially be a home game rather than take itself around the country to the highest bidder as it does now, I'm not quite sure, but that what's being reported. Who the opponent is supposed to be is not being disclosed.

The Best $9,000 Colt in the Game

Earlier I posted about the vagaries of horse racing and the disappointments associated with sale topping colts. Well, this year's edition of the Derby also showcases the capriciousness with which you can make money in racing and why people keep playing. While I think it's unlikely that Teuflesberg will actually win the Derby (although stranger things have happened) the mere fact that he has made it this far is beyond the imagination of his original owners trainer Jamie Sanders and her fiance Donnie Kelly. You see, they bought him for a mere $9,000 as a yearling.

Since the purchase and helping to launch Sanders' training stable, Teuflesberg has gone on to earn $385,431 while winning two stakes races. The pair have turned several million dollar plus offers to sell the colt until recently selling a quarter interest in him for an undisclosed but undoubtedly high price. The return on investment has been, well, very high. Historically, this purchase may not match the buy of the legendary Seattle Slew for a mere $17,500 but win or lose tomorrow, Teuflesberg is the buy of a lifetime, and is just the kind of story that keeps people in the race business going.

Save Internet Radio

This has nothing to do with the business of sports, so if you aren't one of the 72 million who listen to Internet radio, then move along. But if you are one of the 72 million, the clock is ticking on your cheap entertainment. In less than two weeks, the plug is going to be pulled on many stations that stream music, including the great Pandora. The site Save Net Radio has been tracking developments.

This all deals with a March ruling by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board, which called for a significant increase in royalties paid for the online streaming of digital music. Satellite and terrestrial radio do not face such steep royalties.

There is an 11th-hour hope. Legislation — the Internet Radio Equality Act, HR 2060 — has been introduced by representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL). You need to contact your representatives and let them know you support this bill.

OK, say you don't know who your assclown is in Washington? A lot of us don't. To find out, go to this link and in the upper left-hand corner, you can enter your zip code and get the corresponding congress person. Click on their name to access the main phone number of their D.C. office.

We now resume normal programming. ...

(HT The Wizard of Odds from which this was copied without permission)

Ousted Premier Tries to Buy Premier League Club

What do you do when you're a Premier and the Army overthrows your government and you find yourself suddenly out of a job, looking to fill those long days that were taken up with running the country? Well, if you're Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted Premier of Thailand, you try to console yourself with the purchase of a club in the English Premier League. Thaksin, who once tried and failed to buy Liverpool, is now contemplating a purchase of Manchester City. Makes sense, if you can no longer run Thailand, why not buy a soccer team - he has nothing else to do and seemingly no good way to pay for it.

Highest Priced Horses Don't Win Derbies

It's Derby Week in Louisville and that means that nobody in town is working. They are too busy attending the parades, boat races, bed races, human races, rodent races, waitress races, concerts, parties, bowling matches, volleyball games, celebrity sightings and the myriad of other events that make Derby Week (which is now actually about 2 1/2 weeks) one of America's best parties. Nevertheless, the focus of the week remains on the Derby and nowhere else does an entire city talk about thoroughbreds for as long or as much as Louisville does during Derby Week.

It's a part of that discussion that caught my eye this week. There was an article about what happened to the highest priced colt ever bought at public auction - a colt with the unfortunate name of The Green Monkey. He was bought last year for $16 million as a two year old, by the Irish based partners of Coolmore, which include Michael Tabor, John Magnier and Derrick Smith. Tabor owns two Derby entrants Circular Quay and Scat Daddy, both of which are trained by Todd Pletcher and which should have fairly short odds on Saturday.

Pletcher has been given The Green Monkey to train as well. Demonstrating the vagaries of the racing business, the horse has yet to reach the track, despite having been bought at a two year old in training sale and being conditioned by what is probably America's leading trainer. Injuries and bad luck have plagued him. It is a curse that has followed the highest price colts throughout recent times, it seems.

The record was previously held by a colt named Seattle Dancer, bought in 1983 for $13,1 million. He won 2 races in 5 starts but the races were of little account and he earned only about $150,000. He did go on to sire about 30 stakes winners, including Pike Place Dancer, winner of the Kentucky Oaks, so he may have recouped at least a good portion of his purchase price at stud.

The next couple on the list are either too young to have made it to the track or are complete busts like Snaafi Dancer, the first yearling to ever sell for more than $10 million back in 1983. He was unraced and a complete bust at stud. The list of winners is small but headed by Fusaichi Pegasus, the winner of the 2000 Derby and a $4 million yearling purchase at the 1998 Keeneland July sale. Not only did he win the Derby, he finished second in the Preakness and then was sold to Coolmore for $70 million to stand at stud. With recent success at stud, his stud fee in 2006 was $125,000 a pop, so Coolmore is doing just fine on its investment.

The moral of the story is that these highly priced thoroughbreds at the very top of the sale are a ridiculously priced gamble. Racing is a risky enough proposition and the likelihood of success with any animal is difficult enough that a dice roll at that price point seems foolhardy at best. The history of success at the sales top is not encouraging but Coolmore and Sheik Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, who are the only two buyers at that level, seem to be continually willing to try. Unlimited funds tends to breed unlimited risk. It doesn't necessarily breed unlimited success.

The Golden Goal Rush

We've talked before the American assault on English Premier League and this time I'm not talking about the rapidly increasing number of players making the rosters of EPL teams and finding time on the pitch. No, this time I'm talking about the purchase of teams by American tycoons, starting with Manchester United by the Glazer family a couple of years ago, followed by fellow NFL owner Randy Lerner's purchase of Aston Villa last year and the more recent takeover of Liverpool by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, owners of the Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens, respectively. Most recently, billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Rapids of MLS has acquired 12% of Arsenal and is said to be interested in purchasing the club. Those are only the North American buyers. Other foreign buyers have picked up Portsmouth and West Ham United and no one expects the buying to stop there.

What has sparked this wave of foreign takeovers? Well, two things really. One is the confluence of EPL television contracts just beginning in the next year or two that will begin to cascade waves of cash on the league, together with a recognition in the marketplace of the emerging power of the brand of the English football around the world, particularly in Asia. The second, and equally important factor is the accelerating value of the clubs has enabled the men who took control of the clubs in the wake of the restructuring crisis of the mid-90s and had to invest considerable sums into the clubs and their infrastructure, in many cases without significant returns in the meantime, to cash out at very significant,at times astronomical returns.

Time magazine recently ran a story which presented a decent picture of the situation from a lay perspective. I recommend it to you for a nice overview of the situation. It doesn't delve into the latter point I raise in the previous paragraph too much, other than discussing the restructuring necessary in the mid-90s, but I do be live that is a major factor at work in the current wave of buyouts. It was a factor in the 90s as well as money was necessary for the stadium improvements necessitated at that time, just as it is needed today. When significant capital investment is needed, sales are often the answer and the EPL is an attractive commodity today.

Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Inductees

Yes, there is a Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and there are more than a dozen people enshrined there. In fact, this year's class of inductees is an even dozen, inducted at a ceremony held just this past April 29. Among the members of the class are swimming legend Mark Spitz, high jumper Dwight Stones, UNC basketball legend Lennie Rosenbluth, broadcasting legend Howard Cossell and current broadcaster Bonnie Bernstein. I don't know about you but I'm a little surprised it took this long for Spitz and Cossell, especially Spitz. I mean what does a Jewish athlete have to do that he didn't do? If you have forgotten what he did, take a look at this video and see for yourself:

Season Change

I've been working on this post for the last two days and finally have gotten around to getting it down in semi-coherent thoughts. You see, the end of April brought not just the beginning of professional football for a whole new crop of former college stars and not quite stars, it marked not just the end of marvelous April for A-Rod and a dismal one for the Yankees, the beginning of the long march of the seemingly interminable NBA playoffs and the hard to find but impossible to turn away from if you do NHL playoffs. No, it marked the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of a new one.

I have hung up my briefcase for good. For those of you who may not know, in my other life I was a corporate lawyer but I am one no more. After 30 years of the daily grind of the law firm life, I have retired. This is no Roger Clemens or Michael Jordan retirement either. I mean it and this one is for real. I don't know what I will be doing with my time but I am eager to begin this new phase of my life and find out what it is like to have the time to call my own, to read what I want when I want, to explore new areas of study, to poke around the internet, to watch afternoon baseball and soccer games (like yesterday's Champions League Liverpool-Chelsea match) to spend more time with wife (probably drive her to seek a job). It will be a fascinating experiment I'm sure and one I'm eager to begin. For now, I'm just going to take it easy and follow the advice I received from one of my relatives: for the first six months of retirement, do nothing, then think about what you want to do. It will be fun.