Friday, April 27, 2012

changes coming to the BCS?

[6/21/12] CHICAGO » The BCS commissioners are backing a playoff plan with the sites for the national semifinals rotating among the major bowl games and a selection committee picking the teams.

The plan will be presented to university presidents next week for approval.

Once the presidents sign off — and that seems likely — major college football's champion will be decided by a playoff for the first time starting in 2014.

"We are excited to be on the threshold of creating a new postseason structure for college football that builds on the great popularity of our sport," Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said Wednesday.

All 11 commissioners stood shoulder-to-shoulder behind Swarbrick, who read the BCS statement from a podium set up in a hotel conference room.

The commissioners have been working on reshaping college football's postseason since January. The meeting Wednesday was the sixth formal get-together of the year. They met for four hours and emerged with a commitment to stand behind a plan.

"I think we're very unified," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.

The commissioners refrained from providing specifics of the plan in their announcement.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott did say the two semifinals would be worked into the existing major bowls and the site of the national championship game will be bid out to any city that wants it the way the NFL does it with the Super Bowl.

People with firsthand knowledge of the decision tell The Associated Press the semifinals of the proposed plan would rotate among the major bowls and not be tied to traditional conference relationships.

They also said that under the plan a selection committee would choose the schools that play for the national title.


[4/27/12]  SEC Commissioner Mike Slive came here four years ago with a plan to remake the Bowl Championship Series by creating two national semifinals to determine which teams played for the national championship.

Not only was Slive's proposal shot down by his fellow commissioners, he wasn't even allowed to call it a playoff.

Now, for the first time, all the power brokers who run major college football are ready to have its championship decided the way it's done from peewees to the pros. And the way fans have been hoping they would for years.

"I've always tried not to use the dreaded P word," Slive said Thursday. "But now we're all using it. So what the heck."

Yes, major college football is on the verge of implementing a playoff, its own version of the final four. Two semifinals and a title game.

"I'm very stunned," said former Alabama running back and Cleveland Browns draft pick Trent Richardson, who won two BCS championship games with the Crimson Tide.

There's still plenty left to figure out, though. First of all, where and when to play the games and how the bowls fit in. After that, Slive and his cohorts have to come up with a way to select the four teams. The new postseason format would go into effect for the 2014 season.

***  [1/9/12]

The Bowl Championship Series as college football fans have come to know it is going away.

Over the next six months, the people who oversee the much-maligned postseason system will talk about how to deconstruct the system for crowning a national champion. In the tumultuous 14-year history of the BCS, never has there been more of an appetite for change among college football's leaders.

"It's my impression that ... there will be meaningful discussion about possible changes to the BCS," Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive said Thursday as SEC rivals LSU and Alabama prepared to play in the title game Monday night at the Superdome.

What the changes will be is hard to say because nearly everything seems to be up for discussion, from eliminating automatic bids to top-tier bowl games to creating a four-team playoff — an idea that's known as the plus-one model.

What's not on the table is exactly what many football fans are clamoring for, a full-scale playoff that would require numerous teams to play additional games.

2012 NFL Draft

Once the NFL draft got past quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, it was like a day on Wall Street. Everybody wanted to make a trade.

The wheeling and dealing started even before the Colts opened the proceedings as expected Thursday night by taking Luck and the Redskins followed by selecting RG3.

Behind closed doors, general managers around the league were gabbing away, jockeying to position their teams to land the most coveted player on their draft board.

When it was over, there were eight trades involving 12 of the league's 32 teams and draftniks breathlessly trying to keep up with the organized mayhem. It all started when Minnesota swapped its No. 3 choice for Cleveland's No. 4 pick. The Browns, who also gave up a fourth, fifth and seventh-rounder, desperately wanted Alabama running back Trent Richardson. The Vikings still got the guy they sought in Southern California tackle Matt Kalil.

Bobcats are the worst ever

Michael Jordan's No. 23 has long been synonymous with greatness. Now that number has a completely different meaning for him.

As Jordan watched from his luxury box, his Charlotte Bobcats lost their 23rd consecutive game Thursday night 104-84 to New York Knicks and finished the shrunken season with the worst winning percentage in NBA history (.106). That means the man recognized globally as the greatest basketball player ever is the not-so-proud owner of the worst NBA team ever.

A spectacular resume that includes six NBA championships and five league MVP awards would also include one very forgettable season for the record book.

It had been 39 years since an NBA team finished with a worse winning percentage than the Bobcats. In a full season, the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers finished 9-73 (.110).

In this lockout-shortened regular season, the Bobcats finished a woeful 7-59 — and they are every bit as bad as the numbers indicate.

They're last in league scoring and shooting percentage. They lost 22 games by 20 points or more. It's hard to decide what's worse, their offense or their defense.

This year's Bobcats were everything Jordan wasn't as a player — unproductive, uncompetitive and unwatchable.
Jordan told the Charlotte Observer on Wednesday that he knew this was going to be a trying year, but didn't expect it would be this bad.

"But did we want to chase the most pingpong balls (in the May 30 draft lottery)? No way," Jordan told the newspaper. "Ever since I've owned the team I think we've made some very positive moves on the business side. We had to make a difficult decision to turn over the talent. This year the talent we had didn't respond, but that doesn't cause me to turn my back on the plan."

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

2012 NBA Draft

[4/18/12] Kentucky's starting lineup of three freshmen and two sophomores did most everything together. Now, they will go their separate ways in the NBA.

Freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague, and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb declared for the draft in a nationally televised news conference Tuesday night.

"We made it work," Jones said. "We all wanted to be there and do it together like we've done everything else together."

The group, all clad in similar blue UK golf shirts, came into the season largely untested before ascending to No. 1, winning the Southeastern Conference in dominating fashion and capping an NCAA tournament run with a 67-59 victory over Kansas in the title game for the school's eighth championship.

"It's been a great opportunity playing here, I'll miss this team, the way we played together. We all love each other," said Davis, who picked up every major player of the year award and is likely the No. 1 pick in June's draft. "I'm just going to miss this place. We won an NCAA championship here and did a lot. We all did a lot for this school and I'm going to miss it."

The five join seniors Darius Miller, who is also projected to be drafted, and Eloy Vargas in leaving the program.

[6/14/12] Scott Howard Cooper's mock draft

[6/21/12] David Aldridge's Big Board

[6/26/12] Scott Howard Cooper's mock draft 3.0

*** [6/28/12]

 Best in the country and Nos. 1 and 2 in the NBA draft. The celebration goes on for Kentucky's kids.

The Wildcats became the first school to have the top two picks and tied a record with six players taken Thursday night.

After the New Orleans Hornets made the long-expected selection of forward Anthony Davis with the first pick, Charlotte followed by taking fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

"It's crazy," Davis said. "Michael is a great player. We have two down and four more to go. Hopefully, all of them will go in the first round."

They didn't, the only disappointment for the Wildcats. They settled for four in the first round and a tie with North Carolina, which won the race to four picks -- all in the top 17 selections.

Harrison Barnes (No. 7, Golden State), Kendall Marshall (No. 13, Phoenix), John Henson (No. 14, Milwaukee) and Tyler Zeller (No. 17, Dallas) all went between Kidd-Gilchrist and the next Kentucky player, Terrence Jones at No. 18 to Houston.

Jamie Moyer winner at 49

Rockies left-hander Jamie Moyer pitched himself into the history books Tuesday night, becoming the oldest pitcher to win a Major League game.

Moyer, 49, did it in impressive fashion, allowing two unearned runs on six hits in seven strong innings against the Padres in Colorado's 5-3 victory.

Previously, the oldest pitcher to win a game in the Majors was Jack Quinn of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who won in relief on Sept. 13, 1932, when he was 49 years and 70 days old. Moyer was 49 years and 151 days old on Tuesday.

Moyer made his Major League debut on June 16, 1986, as a 23-year-old rookie with the Cubs, going seven innings to defeat the Phillies. Moyer has changed plenty since his 1986 debut. So, too, has the world.

The Cosby Show, in its second season, was television's most-watched show in 1986. "A Perfect Spy," by John le Carré, was atop the New York Times' best-sellers list. An average gallon of gas cost, well, a lot less -- 93 cents.

On Tuesday, a gallon of gas cost an average of $3.89.