The Conference Merry-Go-Round

West Virginia joining the Big 12? What a joke!  Another move has been made that contains substantial gains for a University with no regard to practicality and reason. Where has practicality gone?  All the conference moves over the past few months can be attributed to simply the want of monetary gains.  If you are going to move conferences you should fit for more than just money.  Few moves have actually made sense from a geographical prospective (the way conferences were first formed).    The first move that has actually made sense has been the move from Nebraska from the Big 12 into the Big 10.  It makes sense geographically and athletically.  Nebraska is in the heart of the Midwest, and their move to the Big 10 fits with the profiles of the other mostly Midwestern schools around the conference.  In addition to this, their athletic profile allows them to immediately compete in football and baseball, with some growing pains indoors this winter on the court.  Recently TCU withdrew their commitment to the Big East (which was stupid in the first place), to opt for a spot in the Big 12, which, like Nebraska’s move, makes sense geographically and athletically.  TCU will compete on the gridiron and on the ball diamond right away, with basketball taking a hit the first couple of years.  West Virginia to the Big 12? Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC?  These moves are strictly for monetary gains!   Although ACC basketball will fine tune its line-up of national powers, the Big East (which was the hands down best basketball conference) gets snubbed of three of its better basketball teams in the name of football.  The Big East Basketball Tournament, one of the most exciting and animated events to watch in the middle of winter, will be stripped of its luster in the name of a Syracuse Duke football game on the ACC network. The greed of these schools has become more important than practical fittings for match ups of teams within a region.

Notre Dame I hope you are watching.  With the current progression of conference shifting Notre Dame sadly will become a Boise State.  Although their historical scheduling is still intact many of their games against the service academies have become non-competitive.  Notre Dame will win a lot of football games in the coming years, but will be snubbed out of the BCS because of the schedule strength of these new “Super Conferences.”  I know Notre Dame love its NBC contract, but since you can’t beat em you have to join them, or you will become the one of the best football programs of all time to NEVER play for a National Championship again.  In saying this, the Big Ten would be a nice play for you to reside; along with Louisville.  Notre Dame as a Legend, Louisville as a Leader.  What a great geographical and athletic fit for both teams.  Throw in the Big Ten Network, and what do you have? The best of all three worlds, region, athletics, and last and least, money.  So let us stop the madness, and go back to a time when it was fun to watch our favorite sports teams from the state next door go at it, without regards to the money being received via “the network.”  Be practical, and do away with meaningless shifting for monetary compensation.  

Did You See That? Show Some Love!

Just wanted to show some love to Broncos kicker Matt Prater who kicked an ABSOLUTE BOMB to secure Tim Tebow's miraculous comeback win on Sunday afternoon.  52 yard kick... would've been good from 80.

Baserunning Kills Seventh Inning Rally for Cards

Why Base Running Hurt the Cardinals

Base running is a part of baseball that gets dooly overlooked. It is an integral aspect that to the naked eye looks as simple playing tic-tac-toe. But, to the baseball enthusiast base running is the difference between winning and losing. In Game 5 as the Cardinals and Rangers reached the late innings two plays stood in which very well may have shaped the outcome of this series. And oddly enough they both came in the seventh inning. Alex Ogando the hard throwing right hander for the Rangers again was called upon to shut down the meat of the Cardinals line up. He quickly got ahead of Allen Craig the number two-hole hitter and began to throw a heavy dose of sliders. Coming from someone who used to struggle on good hard sliders down away, these would have gotten me easy. But, Allen Craig a professional hitter laid off and worked a one out walk. Up comes the king of the thunder thighs club in Albert Pujols. On an 0-1 pitch Craig inexplicitly, behooved to anyone watching the game tries to steal second base. Yes, getting into scoring position is always well and good. But, when ‘the machine’ is up? Now the Stephon Marbury and Sebastian Telfair duo in the FOX booth kept trying to explain how Pujols signaled to Craig to run a ‘hit and run’ on a 0-1 count. Anyone who knows baseball knows that in that situation stealing the base does absolutely nothing for the Cardinals. It actually hurts the Cardinals because it takes the bat out of Pujols’ hands. Instead, of the count being 1-1 with a runner still on first base; and a pitcher on the mound who does not trust his fastball command. The Cardinals found themselves with two outs and watching their best hitter be intentionally walked. The next base running blunder came from the afore mentioned Mr. Pujols. The cleanup hitter Matt Holliday, a great hitter in his own right, had a 3-2 count. Thus, Pujols was running on the play. Ogando for some reason beyond my understanding throws another slider and Holliday hits a hard liner towards the gap in left center. Josh Hamilton did a good job of getting to it and cutting it off, but Pujols who was again running on the play. Watched the ball the whole way; instead of putting his head down, picking up his third base coach and running until he told him to stop. Because Pujols turned back twice to watch Hamilton field and throw the ball back in as he was running the third base coach was forced to hold him up at third base. If Pujols runs until he his is stopped like everyone works on in Spring Training, he might have scored. Because as the replay showed Elvis Andrus caught a short hop from Hamilton and Pujols was about 4-5 steps down the line as Andrus caught the ball. If Pujols just runs and does not look back he gains an extra 2-3 steps allowing the third base coach to be aggressive and force the defense to make a great play at the plate. The next time a third base coach holds up a runner or a guy is thrown out by a step, don’t solely put the blame on the third base coach many times the great players we adore at fault just as much.