November 28th update

NBA Lockout Ends

• You can't put the NBA under a tree but if all you wanted for Christmas was professional basketball than:
A. You're an extremely dedicated fan and
B. You'll get your wish... the 2011-2012 NBA season will not be completely canceled as so many were predicting and will most likely begin on Christmas Day.
• The schedule will be 66 games long instead of 82 and will have teams averaging about 2 extra games per month as they try to squeeze the season in despite nearly a 2 month late start. Every team will not visit every city, as has been the case in the past.
• As for the lockout, the main point of contention was how BRI or Basketball Related Income would be split between the players and owners. They finally settled on 51.2% going to the players, which is way down from the 57% that had been previously awarded to the players. There is also a much stricter luxury tax which will most likely keep the big market teams from outspending the smaller teams to such a large degree. For all the other details of the CBA, click here.
• Additionally, the stars we mentioned last week who were planning their 4 city "Homecoming Tour" have canceled the event and tour organizers have said that tickets will be refunded fully. It would have been interesting to see but I'm sure everyone is satisfied that the tour will not have to take the place of actual NBA games and a real season.


Tebow Headlines NFL Weekend

• The San Diego Chargers are the latest team to get Tebow’d. The Denver Broncos defeated San Diego in overtime, using a punishing running attack to defeat the underachieving Chargers. Tim Tebow had another below average game as a quarterback, completing 9 of his 18 pass attempts with one touchdown. However, he played well enough as running back, as he also added 67 yards rushing on 22 attempts which were the most rushing attempts by a QB in the modern era. Willis McGahee added 117 yards rushing to assist the Denver to their fifth win in Tebow’s six starts.
• The New England Patriots crushed the Philadelphia Eagles 38-20, dropping the disappointing Eagles to 4-7. The Patriots proved their offensive prowess, while the Eagles proved they need some more time (probably next season at the soonest) to gel. The Patriots went down 10-0 7 minutes into the game, before running off a 38-3 stretch to put the game out of reach. The Eagles, led by backup quarterback Vince Young, started strong but faded quickly and could not keep up with the high octane Patriots
• Houston Texans down to a third quarterback, defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Texans star quarterback Matt Schaub was injured for the year last weekend. Backup Matt Leinart, who was the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner as the best college football player, was in line to finish the season but he got injured with less than two minutes left in the first half. His injured collarbone (which knocked him out a few years ago as well when he was in Arizona) is expected to end his season. The Texans then turned to rookie TJ Yates. Yates was victorious on Sunday, but the Texans will have their work cut out for them to continue.


College Basketball Preseason Tournaments completed

• Duke University wins Maui Invitational. The preseason tournament in Hawaii featured 8 of the biggest names in college basketball. Duke, the highest ranked team of the 8, won the championship on Wednesday. They defeated the Kansas Jayhawks in a highly entertaining basketball game that was tightly contested until the final minute.
• Syracuse wins season tip-off NIT title despite child abuse allegations hanging over the team. This preseason tournament, hosted at Madison Square Garden, is a favorite for the Orange, and they won the tournament defeating Virginia Tech and Stanford en route to the championship. Two days later the University officially fired long time associate head coach Bernie Fine after a third person came forward alleging Fine molested them and a tape was recovered that showed Fine's wife admitting that she believed the allegations were true.
• University of Connecticut and North Carolina, both preseason top 5 teams, fell in tournaments in exotic locations. UConn fell to the University of Central Florida in the Bahamas while UNC was defeated by UNLV in Las Vegas. Both teams are still expected to have good seasons, but will have to go on this season without a preseason championship title.

November 18th update

All's not Fine in Syracuse

• With the airwaves still churning out news about Joe Paterno and Penn State, it looks like the NCAA has another possible child abuse scandal to deal with. Longtime assistant coach of the Syracuse basketball team Bernie Fine has been placed on administrative leave after it was alleged that he sexually assaulted a former ballboy for more than a decade starting in 1983. The ballboy, now 39 years old, said that he never told head coach Jim Boeheim about the incidents.
• Apparently Post-Standard investigated the report back in 2003 but could not find enough evidence to continue with the story. As this story is just breaking, it's hard to say what happened or who knew what, however we will strive to maintain coverage as it becomes available.
• Regardless of what happens, the exposure from stories like these is good for the public consciousness, as it may shock administrators and other people in positions of power in schools and other institutions across the country, forcing them to take a more proactive stance against child abuse. Here's hoping we don't have to hear about any more stories like this any time soon.


NASCAR Championship Down to Two

• The NASCAR “Chase for the Sprint Cup” comes down to this weekend’s final race of the season where The Ford 400 in Miami will basically be a two man show. While 40+ drivers will actually be in the race, all eyes will be on Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.
• Edwards leads Stewart by 3 points in the standings with third place being 51 points behind Edwards. Stewart was the last driver not named Jimmie Johnson to win the NASCAR championship (in 2005). Using NASCAR’s complicated scoring system, it is a toss-up to know who will win the championship, or even who has won it if you were to watch the race without hearing any commentary.
• This championship format, which was introduced in 2008, was created in an effort to make the NASCAR championship as heart stopping and exciting as the Super Bowl and other major sports' playoff systems. NASCAR Chairman Bill France is very excited that his brainchild is working so well. As NASCAR tries to break into the top-4 American sports, a winner-take-all championship race will definitely help.

Weekend Football Story Lines

• NFL Game of the Week: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants – The Giants host the Eagles on Sunday Night. The struggling “Dream Team” Eagles coming off of an embarrassing loss to the Arizona Cardinals are in desperate need of a victory as they have started the season 3-6. Considering the talent they had before the season and then the amount they spent this offseason to add even more talent, this record is not acceptable. Ever the thoughtful/rational fans, Philadelphians are up in arms to fire Eagles coach Andy Reid, who is the longest tenured coach in the NFL.
• Battle in the Big 12: #13 Kansas State Wildcats at #22 Texas Longhorn – Texas, which started the season red hot (winning their first four games) has struggled recently (losing 3 of their last 5). Kansas State has struggled against the state of Oklahoma (losing to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) but is perfect against the rest of the country and looks to maintain any chance they have at winning the Big 12.
• NCAA Game of the Week: #5 Oklahoma Sooners against #22 Baylor Bears – The matchup of two very different superstar Quarterbacks. Both Sooners Quarterback Landry Jones (a traditional pocket passer) and Bears Quarterback Robert Griffin III (think Michael Vick but with a more accurate arm) will be playing in the NFL next year, assuming Griffin doesn’t pursue his very legitimate shot as a professional track star. Oklahoma, hopes a few teams in front them will stumble and are just hoping for a chance to play in another National Championship game. They'll get a chance to help themselves out a little as they still get to play #2 Oklahoma State.

September 19th update

Big East joins Big 12 in limbo

• In the mid 2000's, the Big East lost three of its biggest football schools (Virginia Tech, Boston College and Miami) as those schools defected to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. Recently two of the Big East’s best basketball schools decided to follow their former conference mates to the ACC.
• Pittsburgh and Syracuse were granted acceptance to the ACC on Sunday after it was reported they submitted applications to join the conference on Friday. Connecticut is rumored to be frantically attempting to join Pitt and Syracuse in defecting to the ACC. These moves, if they go through, will make the ACC far and away the undisputed basketball powerhouse conference and would cripple the Big East, which used to be in the running for that title.
• While the Big East is facing danger, the Big 12 may already be on the brink of oblivion. Texas A&M university announced two weeks ago that they will be leaving the Big 12 to join the South Eastern Conference. Nebraska began play in the Big Ten this year and there has been rumors of powerhouses Oklahoma and Texas looking at their options as well. There has been controversy from the members remaining in the Big 12 who do not want to let Texas A&M out of the conference, led by Baylor University, are scared that the exit will lead to a mass exodus and the eventual dissolution of the conference.
• As with most things in life, these moves are motivated by money, in these cases by television contracts. The more marquee schools each conference can get in the two biggest college sports (football and basketball) the more they can charge for television rights, however for Pitt and especially Syracuse to abandon the Big East has already created a small uproar.


Injuries already marring 2011 NFL season

• Michael Vick had the Eagles in a good position to win but after suffering a concussion and being knocked out of the game the Falcons rallied to win 35-31 in a game that also saw Jeremy Maclin suffer a huge, illegal hit that at first looked like it could have caused a concussion.
• Speaking of injuries, no one has been massacred so far this season like the Chiefs and the Colts, two division winners last season. The Colts lost Peyton Manning for either most or all of the season and had to release former defensive player of the year Bob Sanders because of his injury history and have had WR Austin Collie suffer two (you guessed it) concussions in the past 12 months.
• The Chiefs have arguably had even worse luck, losing superstar safety Eric Berry (who played every snap last year on defense and made the Pro Bowl), Tight End Tony Moeaki who was an up and coming offensive weapon and made one of the nicest catches you'll ever see last season, tough linebacker Brandon Siler who was signed this offseason to shore up the run defense and now, the coup d'etat, Jamal Charles (who ran for 6.38 yards per carry in 2010 which was second in NFL History. All are out for the season and the Chiefs have looked shocked and demoralized, losing by a combined 89-10 to two last place teams from 2010.
• Tony Romo played with broken ribs, Miles Austin caught 3 TD passes and Jesse Holley caught a 70+ yard pass to get the Cowboys down to the one yard line as the Cowboys rebounded from a tough loss to the Jets the week before to defeat the 49ers 27-24 in OT.
• Ravens NT Terrence Cody suffered a concussion and returner David Reed had his arm in a sling after a 26-13 loss to the Titans who got production from people other than star RB Chris Johnson.
• Arian Foster, last year's rushing yards leader, came back briefly from a hamstring injury but then left although the Texans were lucky enough to get production from Steve Slaton and Ben Tate on the ground and beat the Dolphins.
• In matchups of healthy teams, the #1 draft pick of this year's NFL draft Cam Newton continued to shatter rookie passing records, throwing for 432 yards and rushing for a TD in a close 30-23 loss to the defending Super Bowl Champion Packers and Tom Brady had another great game, throwing for 423 yards and 3 TD's in a win over the Chargers, bringing him to a staggering, cartoonish 940 yards and 7 TDs after just 2 games.
• Don't forget to watch Monday Night Football, as the Giants who have lost 4 defensive backs and 6 defensive players to injury (and might be without star DT Justin Tuck and WR Hakeem Nicks) take on the Rams who have lost star RB Steven Jackson to a quad injury for a few weeks, WR Danny Amendola with a dislocated elbow, and have Sam Bradford banged up with finger injury on his throwing hand.