I never thought I would say this, but job well done Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the guy because he gave me my first interview as a sports journalist, however over the past few years he has infuriated me.
He decided to start the conference's own television network, "The Mountain". With this move, he not only allianated a lot of fans because "The Mountain is unavailable on most basic cable packages. Fans of CSU, Wyoming and Air Force living in the Denver Metro Area had no way to see any football or basketball games. The creation of "The Mountain" also killed recruiting for every school except Utah, BYU, TCU and Air Force. Before the creation of "The Mountain" the conference had an agreement with ESPN to nationally televise a Mountain West Conference game every Thursday night and the creation of "The Mountain" destroyed that. If I am a big time college recruit why would I committ to any of the Mountain West schools? You won't be on national television and you will have virtually no chance at playing for a National Championship.
BYU and Utah weren't really hurt by this because of the loyalty kids have to those schools and in part because of the Mormon religon. Air Force is a millitary school and felt little to no effect and TCU gets the left overs from one of the nation's top recruiting states, so they continued to be solid. The other schools in the conference were the ones who suffered because of this move being CSU, Wyoming, New Mexico, San Diego State and UNLV.
The Commissioner won me back today when he decided to meet with the BCS in order for the BCS to recognize The Mountain West Conference. He beleives the winner of the conference should receive an automatic bid to a BCS game like all the other big time conferences, and why shouldn't they? Utah, BYU and TCU were all in the BCS top 15 at some point in the season and the Utes were the only undefeated team in the land. I think the BCS accepts this and we move one step closer to a playoff system
Today marks that most annoying day of the year, Super Bowl Media Day. This is the biggest waste of time and you know every coach and player absolutely hates doing these interviews, most of the interviews which are just pointless and used as a bad side show anyway.
I recently commented on how sick I am of hearing about Pacman Jones. Well, I'm sick of hearing about baseball, steroids and HGH, in fact, this has annoyed me for quite some time. Now former MLB Players David Justice and Doc Gooden are going off on the fact that former Mets Clubhouse Attendant Kirk Radomski ratted them out for allegedly buying these products from Radomski.
Enough is enough, it has been a year since the "Mitchell Report" has came and gone. Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee have gotten their 15 minutes of fame while many players have been humiliated. The "Mitchell Report" has served its purpose and use of performance enhancing drugs is down and legacies are ruined. Can we just stop talking about it?
So Dodgers Manager Joe Torre decided to write a book about his New York years. After the weekend there were no hard feelings between anybody, but good for Joe. In his own way he ripped the Steinbrenners', Brian Cashman and A-Rod. Good for you Joe.
The Rockies have agreed to terms with Pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. The deal is for 4 seasons. You are probably thinking to yourself, why I am I posting this? This kid is the real deal and once he fully matures he can become one of the best Pitchers in Baseball. He is a big reason the Rockies made their incredible run to the World Series in 2007.
Also, it is reported that Rockies Pitcher Jeff Francis is still having shoulder problems and might not be ready for opening day.
Now we have no idea what is going to happen with Chargers Running Back Ladanian Tomlinson. The Chargers front office needs to show a little bit of class and be up front and talk to Tomlinson straight up. The future Hall of Fame deserves this kind of respect, not only is he a top 10 All-Time Running Back, but he is a better person. San Diego needs to get their act together.
The Denver Broncos made it official yesterday. Former San Francisco 49'er Head Coach Mike Nolan is now Denver's new Defensive Coordinator. OK, should be interesting.
Over the weekend it was reported that Steph Marbury and the Celtics had a verbal agreement that Steph would sign with Boston if he and the Knicks could come to terms to break-up that disasterous relationship. Well, Marbury is still a Knick and that train is still off the tracks heading for an absolute explosion. Marbury hasn't played a minute this season and even though he is getting paid, he deserves to be let go and play basketball. Coach D'Antoni and Donnie Walsh aren't helping matters right now by delaying everything, however if someone is to blame for all of this it is Isiah Thomas who started this mess-(It takes a whole other post to explain my feelings toward Isiah), it is too bad that this problem can't be solved.
Finally, the last few days I have woken up very early and tuned in to ESPN 2 expecting to find "Mike and Mike in the Morning" but the Austrailian Open was on, I was shocked. Did anybody else in the U.S. notice that the Australian Open is going on? I have one piece of advice for Tennis-You may want to advertise. I really believe 2/3 of the country has no clue this thing is going on right now.
Tuesday Top 5's
NBA
1.Los Angeles Lakers-Looked great against San Antonio on Sunday
2. Boston Celtics-Since the slump, this team is now 8-0
3.Cleveland Cavaliers-Going for 21-0 at home tonight
4.Orland Magic-A very good team, but struggled after coming off an amazing West Cost trip
5.Denver Nuggets-Keeping it together without Melo. Expect Melo to return on the 30th against Charlotte and this team will be even better.
NHL-Some body said there was an All-Star Game over the weekend. Can the league put that on some network channel? This league is becoming more and more close to invisible.
1.San Jose Sharks
2.Detroit Red Wings
3.Washington Capitals
4.Boston Bruins
5.Montreal Canadiens
NCAAM
1.North Carolina-Still the best team in the country
2.Oklahoma-Read below
3.UCONN-Probably the most steady in the Big East
4.Duke-I have them here just because of their record, not their talent
5.Pittsburgh-Probably the best rebounding team in the country
The ACC and Big East are so good and their regular season schedules are so brutal. Once they reach Conference Tournament time, it will get even more challenging. This could be Oklahoma's year. These conferences are going to just beat eachother down and have nothing left at the end. The Big 1o, SEC and PAC-10 are down this year and Oklahoma is the best team in the Big 12. I'm not saying Oklahoma will win the whole thing, but keep your eye on them.
NCAAW
1.UCONN
2.UCONN
3.UCONN
4.UCONN
5.UCONN
Every other team in Women's Hoops is playing for 2nd place.
And the Picks........I'm 8-7 ATS after a 1-2 Friday
Take Orlando-10 at home against Indiana-Magic are due for a big one
Take Cleveland at home - 13 against Sacremento-21-0 at home for the Cavs
Take the OVER in the Denver/Memphis game 200 1/2.
Lay off the rest of the games.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment