ZooRahBlog

A few Big XII Links

Texas has lost its 4th tight end for the season, and it's only the preseason.
OU may lose a player to age eligibility.
Texas Tech's leading rusher from last year, Barron Batch, has hurt his arm.
AT ISU, you don't reload.  You rebuild, and he's doing it by borrowing from, you guessed it, Rice.
Stuff about KU coach Big Mark Mangino.

The SEC is trying to assert more control over how its football games are displayed by controlling media credentials more tightly, and not everyone is happy.

Play Nice

The American Football Coaches Association is asking teams to shake hands during their first football games this season.  Isn't that special?

Reading The New QB at Mizzou

Sometimes you can get a sense of what will be in the upcoming season by reading what the beat writers who normally cover teams say about them.  If my reading is right, Mizzou's going to be fine with Blaine Gabbert at the helm of Mizzou's offense.  It also sounds like the Mizzou TB's will be a load to contain for opposing defenses.  Here's Bryan Burwell on Gabbert and here's Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune on Gabbert.

Big Ten Network Plays its Game in Sioux City Iowa

From the Sioux City Journal comes a familiar story regarding the Big 10 Network:

Basketball, football and all other Big Ten Conference sports on the Big Ten Network, or BTN as the network prefers to refer to itself, can't be seen by Cable One cable television subscribers in Sioux City, South Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff because the two can't reach an agreement. With the start of college football season just weeks away, emotions are reaching a new high.

Chief among frustrated fans are the parents of two newly minted University of Iowa athletes -- Bishop Heelan High School grads Brandon Wegher (football) and Brennan Cougill (basketball) and East grad Ashley Vanderloo (softball). Heelan senior-to-be Zach McCabe is committed to join Cougill on the Hawkeye basketball roster next year.

...Ness said Cable One wants to carry the Big Ten Network on the digital tier of sports package offerings, with channels like Fox Sports North. That way, he said, people who like sports would pay for the network, while sparing the rest of Cable One subscribers a price increase.

But the network has demanded that cable companies place BTN in the full basic lineup. Ness said the network sought roughly a dollar for each of the subscribers, which totals about 24,000 in the metro area, and higher in subsequent years.

"The Big Ten's position has been that they will only agree to launch if it is on our full basic lineup," he said.

I find it interesting how the "behavior" of management in not-for-profit enterprises such as college athletic departments is so similar to the often demonized for-profit sector of our economy.

New Mexico State Will Play Football for Food

I have two children, a 7 and a 9 year old, both boys.  Both play organized baseball in the town in which we live.  After each game, one child's parents provide snacks, a drink from a team cooler (which looks like a big Pepsi can) and something to eat, for the rest of the team.  After the snacks are passed out, the cooler is handed to the next parents and the cycle continues until the end of the year.

I thought of this when I read that New Mexico State University is asking people to donate food to their football team to feed hungry players.

In a twist on Little League moms lining up after-game treats, New Mexico State’s budget-conscious football staff distributed an e-mail this week asking fans to donate after-practice or late-night snacks for hungry players.

It’s a consequence of the national economy, of course.

“It’s a decision we had to make with regard to our meals,” first-year coach DeWayne Walker said Thursday. “There are a lot of other areas where we have to make tough choices with how we’re going to spend our money.”

And this:

He expressed concern that people outside New Mexico might see the team’s request for snacks as juvenile.

The reality, Walker said, is that the Aggies are in the same position as many schools, forced to make tough choices this season.

“Everyone’s taking cuts,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to read into it that we’re the poorest program in the country. We’re not. And we’re not the only midlevel school that has to go through these kinds of issues.”

We can poke fun at it like I did in the opening paragraph and like Tim Kortke, the AP reporter who wrote the story, did.  But it's a sad state of affairs when an athletic team has to resort to "will play for food" - type requests to feed its players.

Ron Prince Seeks Punitive Damages Against Kansas State

Former Wildcat football head coach Ron Prince has filed a counterclaim against KSU for breach of contract. 

Coaches and athletes (those players that get paid (i.e. the pros), that is) are mostly paid amounts that depend on what they are expected to produce, not what they actually do produce.  The exceptions of course are with coaches/players with contracts that have bonus and performance clauses.  Still, the following paragraph in the Star article makes me wonder why KSU thought that Prince might actually be worth this much when they signed him to his contracts:

If Prince receives everything the claim says he is owed, he will have cost Kansas State more than $7 million in buyouts and damages for a three-year career that ended last season with a 17-20 record.

Of course KSU didn't know he was going to go 3 games under 0.500 in his short career when they signed him.  They also didn't know that he would only stay 3 seasons.  But wouldn't caution be the word of the day when signing a coach who hadn't been a head coach at a division 1 school?  And wouldn't caution be the word when extending his contract prior to the 2008 season (Wikipedia entry that describes the extension is here)?

Desmond Briscoe Joins the Multitude in the Ranks of "Changed Athletes"

Call me jaded, but Mangino gave him a slap on the wrist, and a pretty wimpy one at that.  His punishment, according to the Star, was to be made to be a typical college student.  Now that's gonna leave a mark.  But wimpy punishments are par for the course for important athletes in the world of college sports, especially the ones that fund the athletic departments.

Mizzou Paid Norm Stewart Nearly $800,000 as a Volunteer Since 2004

KS Star story here.  Um, aren't volunteers supposed to work, well, voluntarily?  I'm not talking about the "voluntary exchange" in economics where people trade.  I'm talking about the one-way street:  you give me your time and I give you thanks.  Maybe this is just semantics here, but Norm wasn't a volunteer.  He was a paid employee.

Oklahoma Rebuilds, er, Reloads Its OL

Denver Post article by John Henderson here.  An excerpt:

No, he doesn't. We all remember 2006, when he also had to replace four starters. The line played well, with OU averaging 177 yards rushing per game and allowing only 16 sacks.

However, the Sooners lost at Oregon early, lost two games later to Texas 28-10, and then were unceremoniously bounced by upstart Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 11-3.

To avoid a similar fate against a typically tough Oklahoma nonconference schedule, the Sooners' line must jell. And fast. This line combines for only 32 starts — 28 by left tackle Trent Williams, the lone returning starter. The center is a freshman. One guard has overcome a clubfoot deformity.

The boldface font is mine.  To call a 11-3 season "fate" tells you that expectations were not realized in those games.  The Sooners reload.  They do not rebuild.