Milwaukee Brewers' sausage thieves reveal heist details
Milwaukee's weiner bandits reveal details of their first-ever sausage heist.
Missing racing sausage left in Wisconsin bar | Sports | The Seattle Times
Jen Mohney, a bartender at TJ Ryan's, tells the Journal Sentinel ( http://bit.ly/13nWgM4) two men - one wearing a hoodie pulled over his face - lugged the costume into the bar, dropped it onto a stool and told her "You did not see anything."
Because this whole incident is just pretty darned funny and that's why I'm starting with it.
With N.C.A.A. and Emmert Embattled, Calls for Reform Grow Louder - NYTimes.com
"I don’t recall a time when there has been less optimism about the N.C.A.A. and how it operates," said Josephine Potuto, the former chairwoman of the N.C.A.A.’s Committee on Infractions and a law professor at Nebraska. "Whether that’s on merit, or a confluence of events hitting at the same time, the fact is there’s an overwhelming feeling that everything is wrong."
Read this article, and you get repeated comments about how hard it is for Mark Emmert. Such sympathy for a guy who's getting paid $1.6M per year. He gets sympathy largely because there aren't that many public sector people who'd stick their necks out to take the position. If he were in the private sector, he'd be getting skewered for the job he's doing. Why the double standard?
The problem is Emmert and his advisors seem to be operating in a bubble separate from the actual people (coaches, ADs, commissioners) involved in college sports on a day-to-day basis. Where is the "fiscal accountability" in the recent rules deregulation championed by Emmert that is already spawning a new arms race among football powers to assemble expensive, bloated recruiting staffs? Where's the organizational transparency in conducting secret, unprecedented negotiations with Penn State's president to enact crippling sanctions he can't appeal? How can the NCAA staff work with any sense of security given the unprecedented turnover that's taken place since Emmert arrived?
Bold emphasis mine.
The new deregulated recruiting rules can't stand. You know that, right? While it'd be nice to have Kate Upton recruiting for Nebraska, it's not going to happen anymore than Nick Saban is going to hire a huge staff that will kill everybody
If the recruiting rules do stand, then you know that it isn't the NCAA that's lost its way - it's the entire lot of college administrators around the country. Mandel has it right - "fiscal restraint" is exactly the problem here.
With universities around the country continuing to raise tuition and/or student fees, stealing from their student assistant fund to buy athletes iPads, and the fact that recruiting deregulation would lead to millions of dollars being spent on nothing more than increased stalking of teenage boys, the public will sooner or later go nuts and demand an accounting of what the hell is going on in college football. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because the generation that's bearing the debt of all this hasn't yet realized just how screwed they've become and haven't yet assumed positions of power.
Mark Emmert needs to be fired. Not allowed to resign, nor given a big severance package, just plain fired. Someone needs to stick a fork in the ground and start making sense of the NCAA. The problem with that? That public sector issue I mentioned where no one wants to stick their neck out, so maybe the best option for everyone is to take the NCAA private. Note that I am not advocating paying student athletes, but I am advocating that either college administrators TAKE CHARGE or that the biggest football power conferences say to hell with the current system, break apart and create their own.
SEC Baseball Power Rankings: After Week 2, No Reason to Move Arkansas - Team Speed Kills
Arkansas takes the top spot in our look at the pecking order in SEC baseball so far. But two undefeated teams and a list of other competitors are making some noise
Dave Van Horn has Arkansas playing well.
Michigan State lands their Al Borges in former OSU OC Jim Bollman - Land-Grant Holy Land
The big news of the morning almost goes without saying. In a complete and utter head scratcher, former Ohio State defensive coordinator turned Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio is set to name former much scrutinized OSU offensive coordinator Jim Bollman to be the Spartans' new offensive coordinator. Bollman had been previously named Purdue's offensive line coach under fellow former Buckeye assistant, Darrell Hazell, after a year in exile at the line coach at Boston College (who's o-line was a venerable turnstile, FYI).
Jim Bollman to join MSU football staff - The Only Colors
It's unclear at the moment if Bollman will be the offensive coordinator, but this is Mark Dantonio going all-out on Tresselball. Bollman was Tressel's OC in Columbus, and Mark Dantonio spent some time as DC. Bollman and Dantonio also spent time under Tressel at Youngstown State and under Nick Saban at MSU.
Why Big Ten football coaches should listen to the hive mind before hiring - SBNation.com
Dour Mark Dantonio, a coach who learned from Jim Tressel, the master of the uninspiring win, hires the inventor of Walrusball.....
Walrusball, Tresselball - the question is, after watching Michigan State's offense last year, is this the right direction for Mark Dantonio to be going?
Consider that the Spartans lost five games last season by a total of 13 points (but won their bowl game by one over TCU after an UGLY first half of offense), maybe Dantonio is fine with playing Tresselball. Oh, the hell with "maybe", he clearly believes that's his best chance for success although you have to believe that the ugly will grow on the Spartan faithful after a while.
As a Husker fan, I'm fine with the choice, but if you could replicate Tressel's "mastery of the uninspiring win", wouldn't you do it?
Huskers Win 10th Straight - Huskers.com - Nebraska Athletics Official Web Site
Hailie Sample's layup with 43 seconds left off an assist from Lindsey Moore brought No. 20 Nebraska all the way back from a late five-point deficit for a 55-53 win at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
With the win over Wisconsin and Minnesota's win over Penn State in a really ugly, horribly officiated game last night, Nebraska and Penn State will meet on Sunday to see if Nebraska can win a share of the Big Ten title. BE HERE FOR THE GAME THREAD!
Big Ten with 74 leads NCAA allocations allotment for wrestling championships | PennLive.com
As it is each season, the Big Ten Conference was awarded the most entrants for the NCAA Wrestling Championships March 21-23 in Des Moines, Iowa. The Big Ten has 74 automatic qualifiers and can earn additional spots through at-large qualifiers to be selected on March 13.
Board finds U-Md. regents broke open meetings law in Big Ten talks - The Washington Post
The report faults the University System of Maryland for not holding public sessions on the switch.
I know little about the University of Maryland, but they sound like a cancer to me, a cancer that the Big Ten does not need.
Most Overrated Coaches - One Bronco Nation Under God
Another coach who can curse and throw headsets with the best of em. He has the most athletic quarterback his school has seen since Tommy Frazier, and hasn't gotten his team to a BCS game.
Listed right below Lane Kiffin and right above Charlie Weis. And you thought there were some Husker fans who hate on Bo Pelini...
Spring football: Charting Taylor Martinez’s accuracy | sports.omaha.com
Dadgum! The Omaha World Herald's Sam McKewon beats us to reviewing an analysis of Taylor Martinez done by SB Nation's Bill Connelly at Football Study Hall! You need to read it and Bill's quarterback analysis.
Colorado lineman uses threatens guard, knocks down wall at party
Kafovalu was issued a summons on charges of threatening bodily injury, trespassing, consumption of alcohol by a minor and use of fighting words, writes Mitchell Byars. He used fighting words.
Used fighting words. I have to admit, I never realized that "fighting words" were a part of the law. Turns out that fighting words are not covered by free speech, established by a case - Chaplinsky vs New Hamphshire - all the way back in 1942.
Given that, maybe I should rethink all the trolling I do on twitter. While I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get punched and charged with a crime, maybe the world would be a better place if I were more peaceful myself. Maybe I should be on that cesspool of social media spreading the love and joy of being alive, my appreciation for the competition displayed by opposing team's athletes, and the adoration that those schools' fans show for their team. Maybe I could help make the world a better place.
And maybe, just maybe, someone in Colorado could build a better brick wall, the kind that can't be knocked down by a drunk offensive lineman.
Just something to think about as you begin your Friday.