A New Chapter Begins July 1st for the Big 12

In a matter of 15 months, the Big 12 Conference experienced two near-death experiences beginning in June 2010.  It began with a report by Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com and the instability continued into the next year.  The University of Texas had been the main target for the Pac-10/12 for nearly two decades and the instability of the Big 12 caught the eyes of both groups.  The University of Texas experienced a change of heart at the last minute and remained with the Big 12, keeping the conference alive for another day.  The Longhorns had great offers on the table, from being an independent power like Notre Dame to becoming members of the Pac-10/12, Big Ten, and ACC, but their best deal came from the conference they had called home for a decade and a half.  They recognized their largest profit would come as a member of the Big 12 and they were rewarded a shared entity with ESPN called the Longhorn Network.

Although the conference lost four members over the past two years (Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M, and Missouri), the conference is now revived.  It's now a hot destination for many schools around the country.  They stole two schools from the Big East (TCU and West Virginia) and reports have linked the conference with the some of the country's best schools, including Notre Dame, Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Boise State, and BYU, as the conference looks to further expand in the future.  The conference remains at ten schools for the second consecutive year as the TCU Horned Frogs and West Virginia Mountaineers replace the SEC-bound Texas A&M Aggies and Missouri Tigers on Sunday.  Both TCU and West Virginia bring nationally-recognized programs to the Big 12 that will compete for conference championships along with the current conference elites.

What's the future of the Big 12?  The Big 12 Conference might be in its best position since four Texas schools from the Southwest Conference merged with the Big Eight in 1996.  The conference members are loyal and pleased with their current standing in the conference.  The conference is involved with money-making television deals on ABC-ESPN and Fox Sports Net and three schools (Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas State) have produced their own sports networks.  Although conference officials are not engaging in any further expansion at the present time, expect expansion from the ten-school conference before the new four-team playoff is engaged in 2014.

Anthony Davis: The Gold of the 2012 NBA Draft

Anthony Davis with
Commissioner David Stern
at tonight's NBA Draft

This year's NBA Draft featured less talent than any draft before it, so one man-Anthony Davis-was the star of the show.  He was a freshman at the University of Kentucky when he won numerous individual awards, including the National Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, and the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.  Along with his individual achievements, he led his Wildcat teammates to the 8th National Championship in school history.  No player had the credentials that Davis had and it was no surprise that he was chosen first overall by the New Orleans Hornets tonight.

Since Davis was chosen at #1, the remaining twenty-nine teams had to settle with second class talent.  Even the NBA-worst Charlotte Bobcats, who were the most deserving after a disastrous 7-59 season, were out of luck.  They selected another Kentucky Wildcat with the second overall pick, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.  Kentucky set two NBA Draft records tonight: most players drafted from one institution in a single year (6) and most players drafted in a three year span (14).  Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist would be joined by Terrence Jones (18th-Houston), Marquis Teague (29th-Chicago), Doron Lamb (42nd-Milwaukee), and Darius Miller (46th-New Orleans) before the night's end.

In other draft news, the NBA Champion Miami Heat drafted Mississippi State's Arnett Moultrie before trading away his rights to the Philadelphia 76ers for tonight's 45th pick (Louisiana-Lafayette's Justin Hamilton) and a future 1st round pick.  It was one of ten trades that involved this year's draft...The University of Texas did not produce a NBA draftee for only the second time in the past seven years...The San Antonio Spurs held only one draft pick in this year's NBA Draft and selected Missouri guard Marcus Denmon with the 59th overall pick, a surprise to some after their lack of physicality against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.  Many expected the franchise to draft a forward or center to play alongside Tim Duncan in the paint.

BCS Oversight Committee Agrees Upon Playoff

College football is one of the most recognizable entities in the American Sports, but it progressed more from today's announcement at the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee Meeting than any other event in its long history.  College football features the greatest fan bases, game day experiences, and regular seasons, but has struggled to properly setup a postseason to determine the National Champion.  Although playoffs determine the champion in every other NCAA Division 1 sport, college football has always relied on multiple polls and bowl series to determine its champion.

It was evident for the past few months that FBS postseason football was headed for a transformation, but today's confirmation excited fans and prepared them for a new chapter in the storied history of the sport.  Here are the top components of today's announcement:

1. Fifteen members of a selection committee (consisting of current commissioners, athletic directors, and possibly media members or former coaches) will examine win-loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head results and conference champions in determining the four members of the playoff.

2. Six predetermined bowl games will rotate in and out each year (depending on conference affiliation) to host the semifinal match-ups on New Year's Day and the highest bidding American city will host the National Championship Game the following week.

3. College football will use this four-team playoff system from 2014-2026 with possible expansion in the future.

5 Missed Calls That Changed the Course of Game 6 of the 2012 Western Conference Finals

1. No Foul For Westbrook? (5:00 remaining in 3Q): Russell Westbrook was guarding Tony Parker very tightly and knocked him over out of bounds. Where was the referee? This was clearly a foul.

2. Stephen Jackson's Technical (4:20 remaining in 3Q): He looked over at the Oklahoma City bench and received a technical from Joey Crawford for "tanting".  If Crawford was paying attention, he would not have seen tanting, but instead Thunder Assistant Coach Mo Cheeks calling out to Jackson from the sideline.  Like Reggie Miller said during the broadcast, "It's not a good call.  Let the players play."

If that was a technical on Jackson, why wasn't this a technical after a Fisher three-pointer with 4:35 remaining in the game? Fisher is clearly tanting the Spurs with this sarcastic wink.

3. Jackson's Offensive Foul (3:00 remaining in 3Q): I acknowledge that James Harden's head snapped back, but he ran into Jackson as if he was a wall.  Jackson barely touched him.  Following the play, Steve Kerr said, "Tough call here.  I think a flop from James Harden. It sure looked like it."

4. Ginobili's "Charge" (8:18 remaining in 4Q): What looked like a three-point play opportunity after a layup, Ginobili was instead called for a charge.

5. Ginobili's "Illegal Screen (5:52 remaining in 4Q): As Kawhi Leonard drained a three from the far corner, Ginobili was called for an illegal screen.  Harden clearly ran into Ginobili.  Because of the missed call, Manu received his fifth foul of the game and did not play a key role down the stretch.  With the Spurs losing momentum by possession, the Spurs could not rely on the benched Ginobili.

In his postgame interview, Tim Duncan said, "Down the stretch, it seem[ed] like they got every whistle possible and that really changed the tide."

Super Regionals Begin With A Bang

The NCAA Baseball Tournament is the final National Championship of the school year and the Super Regionals, a Sweet Sixteen Best-of-Three Series, began with two instant classics to begin an exciting weekend.  The first consisted of the LSU Tigers and Stony Brook Seawolves in Game 1 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional.  Although the #7 Tigers were the heavy favorites heading into the weekend series, the Seawolves used Sal Intagliata's two-run home run in the second inning to take the early lead.  The Seawolves continued to steamroll into the seventh inning with a dominant Brandon McNitt on the mound.  He allowed only two hits through the first six innings, but found some trouble in the seventh.  The highly favored Tigers finally found a spark in SEC Player of the Year Raph Rhymes.  Rymes used his NCAA-best batting average to reach base and score the team's first run off a Ty Ross groundout in the bottom of the seventh.  After being down two runs for most of the ballgame, the Tigers were now within reach of tying the Seawolves.

After a 1-2-3 inning from LSU's Chris Cotton in the top of the eighth, the LSU batters looked to build on the team's momentum heading to the bottom half of the inning.  The team had runners on first and second with no outs, but Stony Brook did not allow a run in the inning.  Within two at-bats, Tyler Moore struck out, Jared Foster was caught stealing third, and Austin Nola fouled out.  Although LSU's first comeback attempt did not succeed, their second opportunity was highly successful in the ninth.  The first batter of the inning, JaCoby Jones, homered to left to tie up the game at two.  After a low-scoring affair through the game's first nine innings, Jones' home run would change the course of the game.  In a matter of three innings, the Tigers and Seawolves combined for five runs (four home runs) before an extended rain delay postponed the game (The teams are tied at four heading to the top of the twelfth inning).  The back-and-forth battle is set to resume tomorrow morning at 10:05 Central Time at Alex Box Stadium.

The second game of the weekend featured the Arizona Wildcats and St. John's Red Storm in the Tempe Super Regional.  The #14 Wildcats came in as the favorites for their Super Regional Series, but experienced a slow start to Game 1 like the Tigers did.  Both Arizona and St. John's fought to get anything going, but ultimately St. John's powered through with a five-run, seven-hit fourth inning to take the early lead.  St. John's was a one-shot wonder in the game.  Between the next three innings, Arizona had erased their 5-run deficit and had tied up the ballgame in the bottom of the sixth.  After a tough start, Wildcat pitcher Kurt Heyer regrouped and finished with nine-and-a-third innings of work on the day.

Both teams struggled to score in the following innings, so the game became the day's second extra-inning affair.  The weather was perfect in Tempe, so the Wildcats and Red Storm were expected to finish their game, unlike the Tigers and Seawolves.  The Red Storm came to bat in the top of the tenth and an RBI single from Sean O'Hare gave the team their first run since the fourth inning.  St. John's held their second lead of the ballgame, but it would not last.  The Wildcats were behind the entire game, but broke through with two runs on three hits in the home half of the tenth to take Game 1 of their Super Regional.  The two Super Regionals that began the weekend could not have been better, even if one had no conclusion.

Big Ten/Pac-12 Disagree With Big 12/SEC's Idea of Playoff

Since the BCS was established prior to the 1998 college football season, it's credibility has been highly debated.  The requirements to play for either a BCS bowl game or the National Championship has been unclear from the beginning and mid-majors are usually overlooked for members of major conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12).  In late April, the NCAA finally explored the idea of a college football playoff and proposed a 4-team playoff for the national championship to begin after the 2013 season.

One important issue regarding the future of college football's postseason is the future of bowl games.  College football at the highest level has always used bowl games, so the traditional affiliations between conferences and bowl games could disappear with the addition of a playoff.  The news has people asking: "What's the future of bowl games?".  Bowl games will always remain a part of Division 1 College Football because they have a long and distinctive history as college football's postseason.  The proposed playoff should use bowl games as the sites of the three playoff games, so the tradition of these games can continue.

In the proposed 4-team playoff, it is uncertain what proponents will determine the match-ups and teams. College football has used different polls throughout time to determine national champions and match-ups in the national championship game.  The Big 12 and SEC want to continue using polls to determine the country's top four teams, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 support a selection committee (like the one used for the 68-team NCAA Basketball Tournament).   The Big Ten and Pac-12 also want to emphasize conference championships and continue their annual tradition at the Rose Bowl, using the game as one of the national semifinal match-ups on New Year's Day (the other being between the Big 12 and SEC).

The Rose Bowl is one of the most anticipated American sporting events each year and features the historic Big Ten-Pac 12 match-up.  The Big 12 and SEC may not have the history of the Big Ten and Pac-12, but they have been the most successful conferences since the beginning of the BCS era.  They have combined for sixteen appearances in the BCS National Championship and ten national championships over that span.  On May 18th, the Big 12 and SEC announced a New Year's Day bowl game featuring the top teams from each conference.  The bowl game is very similar to that of the Rose Bowl, in that it features the two of the nation's top conferences and multiple programs in the national championship hunt each year.  As of now, no one knows the future of college football, but we'll have an answer by the end of the month, after the BCS meeting (June 13th), the NCAA Division 1 Conference Commissioners Association (June 19th and 20th), and the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee (June 26th).