NCAA Football Ncaa Basketball Gossip

Actually, you can add Michigan and Jim Delany to that list.

Here's the full story. University of Florida president Bernie Machen has been pushing for a playoff system for college football since before Florida was selected to play in the BCS National Championship against Ohio State. In fact, he started putting the wheels in motion before Florida won the SEC championship game against Arkansas in late '06.

That he still campaigns for a playoff today, despite the fact that Florida ended up being lucky enough to get selected to the title game instead of Michigan, says volumes about his passion for the subject. And in this recent CBS Sportsline interview, Machen used both barrels of his verbal shotgun to express his thoughts.

More after the jump. (You'll be entertained, I promise.)

Lester Munson, the legal analyst for Sports Illustrated, has a fascinating look at a class action antitrust lawsuit that is scheduled to go to trial in June and could cost the NCAA a huge amount of money.

At issue is the NCAA's policy of not including school supplies, recommended text books, laundry expenses, health and disability insurance, travel expenses and incidental expenses in its athletic scholarships. The lawsuit says that unfairly costs athletes an average of $2,500 a year, and since the suit represents all 11,500 Division I athletes, encompasses four years of school and antitrust suits allow for triple damages, we could be looking at the NCAA losing $344 million. The NCAA's annual budget is $465 million.

The NCAA's lawyer, of course, says schools can't afford to pay for all those extra things the lawsuit is saying should be covered by athletic scholarships, but I get kind of tired of hearing what the schools can't afford when I read about the dozens of coaches making seven-figure salaries. This is an important case to keep an eye on.

Hat tip: Signal to Noise.

With 7:54 to go in the second half of Florida's 86-60 rout of Ohio State, Urban Meyer was shown chatting with former Ohio State receiver Cris Carter.

Greg Gumbel: "That's Urban Meyer, the head football coach here at Florida. You don't think he'd like this game to be some sort of an indicator as to when these two teams meet for the BCS championship game, do you?"

Billy Packer: "Well, Thad Matta gave him a little message yesterday. He went over to his seat is and he wrote down on the seat, 'We're going to kick your butt in the BCS championship.' So I'm sure that was a very interesting little message he received when he sat down today."

"Interesting," indeed.

Note to Mr. Matta (and the rest): Thank you for demonstrating what Ohio State athletics is apparently about... all talk, no action.

Larry Vettel at Gatorcountry.com wrote a nice piece entitled "Florida Duo Is Nation's Best Coaching Tandem." (requires subscription) Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer, not surprisingly, get the nod as the nation's two best coaches in the NCAA's top two sports -- Division I-A football and Division I-A men's basketball. Is Larry biased? Sure he is -- as am I -- but I think even the nastiest, bitterest Gator Hater would have a hard time arguing with championship quality success the Gators have had throughout the year of 2006. After all, not too many schools can say they field teams which can legitimately hunt for national championships in both sports, much less actually play for them... in the same year.

Vettel made a Top 10 of the best coaching duos across the nation. His picks include:

#10: Notre Dame (Charlie Weis, Mike Brey)
#9: Tennessee (Phil Fulmer, Bruce Pearl)
#8: LSU (Les Miles, John Brady)
#7: North Carolina (Butch Davis, Roy Williams)
#6: Southern Cal (Pete Carroll, Tim Floyd)
#5: Oklahoma (Bob Stoops, Jeff Capel)
#4: Texas (Mack Brown, Rick Barnes)
#3: Louisville (Bobby Petrino, Rick Pitino)
#2: Ohio State (Jim Tressel, Thad Matta)
#1: Florida (Urban Meyer, Billy Donovan)

I wouldn't argue #1 or #2. Donovan and Meyer... well, what can you say? They're the best, or, if you want to argue that point, they are without a doubt among the best of the very best. At OSU, Jim Tressel wins... and wins... and wins, while Thad Matta landed the hottest recruiting class of 2006 and Greg Oden looks to be every bit as good as advertised. Those two are also among the very best in their respective sports, and having them together at one school, especially with the tradition of winning at Ohio State, is a huge boon for the Buckeyes.