In case you're wondering, here is the complete list of outrageous things Lane Kiffin has not done since becoming head coach at Tennessee:
1. Paint himself orange and skydive naked into Bryant-Denny Stadium. 2. Ask what Urban Meyer has done that's so great. 3. Consult with the UT astronomy department to see whether the universe would be annihilated if his ego was ever in the same room as Bruce Pearl's. 4. Coach in, and win, a football game.
For a moment, I had to cross off "make an outrageous scholarship offer to a middle schooler" because, well, there were reports that he just did that. Evan Berry, 13-year-old son of former Vol running back James Berry and brother of current Vol Eric Berry, has officially committed to the Vols. Or so said Rivals.com and ESPN, sort of.
It is really never news when the Oregon Ducks get new uniforms. The Nike fashion template seemingly has variations, alternative jerseys, subtle changes and hundreds of different combinations. So, the announcement of new uniforms being unveiled should have been met with a collective yawn.
Yet according to the Ducks, this is truth as long as you only consider the significant changes. Then the timeline goes 1996 Cotton Bowl, the 1999 season, 2003 and then 2006. Things like last year's duck feathers on the shoulders apparently don't count in the way Oregon defines new uniforms in their evolution.
The new uniforms -- which still includes duck feathers as an option -- are again of the mix-and-match combo scheme loved by Oregon and Nike. Between the pants, helmets and jersey choices, there will be some 80 different uniform combinations.
According to the press release, the new uniforms weigh in nearly 25% less than the prior models. They will fit closer. Expect them to have a real slimming effect on the linemen.
In 1990, Notre Dame signed a glitzy football television contract with NBC. The deal revolutionized college athletics and brought millions into Notre Dame's bank account. It was a huge financial windfall that guaranteed the Fighting Irish would remain independent from other conferences.
Chances are, you still think that Notre Dame is banking major revenue from this agreement in comparison to other teams. Chances are, you're wrong. What do Vanderbilt and Northwestern have in common when it comes to football? Answer: They likely both get more money for their televised football games than Notre Dame does. As does every other team in the Big Ten and the SEC.
Last summer, the SEC signed a new $2.25 billion television rights deal with ESPN. The amount was staggering. ESPN is now on the hook for $150 million per year for the next 15 years. Now we know that every SEC football game will be televised on the network's broadcast partners, infinitely more basketball games will arrive on the network, and sundry lesser sports will also be featured.
It's a deal of tremendous implications that catapults SEC sports coverage into the realm of professional sports. What's been left unexamined is how this will change ESPN's news coverage of the league, and how that resulting coverage is going to make the SEC the de facto national college league of choice. Why? Because ESPN has spent so much money on the rights packages, the SEC has to be front and center.
There's little chance it was anything more than a copy-editing oversight, but by gosh, Minnesota's 2009 spring football media guide happened to leave something out of the record--namely, the 55-0 loss to Iowa which closed the regular season. Granted, there are many reasons the Gophers might like to forget that game, but I've learned never to assume evil when plain old "durrrr" will suffice.
Of course, this is the internet age we're talking about, so naturally the matter has attracted attention. Specifically, it caught the attention of the Cedar Rapids Gazette's Mike Hlas, who notes that he remembers the game quite clearly. Also naturally, Hlas's calling attention to the matter caught the attention of the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Michael Rand, who knows it's all in jest but decides to take a swipe at the perceived one-way nature of the Iowa-Minnesota rivalry.
Read both Hlas's and Rand's posts, and you come to one conclusion.
The Independence Bowl has always resided in that lower tier of bowls. Unlike other bowls at that level, though, the Shreveport, Louisiana-based bowl has struggled with keeping its corporate sponsorship.
It has not had the stability of hotel chains (Gaylord Liberty and Sheraton Hawaii), electronics (Pioneer Las Vegas), auto financing (GMAC Bowl) or even pizza (Papa John's Bowl). It has had three different corporate sponsors just in this decade.
What's your No. 1 fear if you subscribe to cable and you're a sports fan? Aside from the signal dying on the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament or on any Saturday or Sunday in the fall, it's that through no fault of your own you might not be able to watch your favorite teams play because of rights disputes between major companies.
We've seen it with the Big Ten Network and several cable companies, and we've seen it with the NFL Network and virtually every cable company. Nothing sucks more as a sports fan than being a paying subscriber, being willing to pay whatever you have to for the games you want to see, and still not being able to watch your favorite team play from the comfort of home. It's a constant dance between content providers and cable distributors over how much channels should cost, and fandom is the collateral damage.
The latest rights dispute that seemed likely was between ESPN and Comcast. Only it never materialized.
The above video shows Brian Smith, a reporter for the student newspaper at Texas Christian University, saying he thinks TCU would be better off with incoming freshman Casey Pachall at quarterback than with returning starter Andy Dalton. Smith offers some mild criticism of Dalton and praises Pachall's talents, and overall it's a rather unexceptional commentary on the state of the TCU program. But when TCU coach Gary Patterson heard about the commentary, he was furious.
It is never easy for Division II sports programs to make news without a major criminal investigation or a tragedy. Bringing on a "name" hire is the one exception, meaning the University of Nebraska-Omaha stands a chance of making SportsCenter with the hiring of Trev Alberts as its new athletic director.
The former Nebraska Cornhusker star and college football analyst was the obvious front-runner. Alberts was the only candidate for the position brought to Omaha to meet with the public and media the week before the hiring.
Lance Leipold, the football coach at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has offered an apology for using inappropriate language to a reporter at the student newspaper -- and for banning the paper from covering his team -- after the paper ran a column criticizing his players.
In case you're wondering, here is the complete list of outrageous things Lane Kiffin has not done since becoming head coach at Tennessee:
It is really never news when the Oregon Ducks get new uniforms. The Nike fashion template seemingly has variations, alternative jerseys, subtle changes and hundreds of different combinations. So, the announcement of new uniforms being unveiled should have been met with a collective yawn.
In 1990, Notre Dame signed a glitzy football television contract with NBC. The deal revolutionized college athletics and brought millions into Notre Dame's bank account. It was a huge financial windfall that guaranteed the Fighting Irish would remain independent from other conferences.
Last summer, the SEC signed a new $2.25 billion television rights deal with ESPN. The amount was staggering. ESPN is now on the hook for $150 million per year for the next 15 years. Now we know that every SEC football game will be televised on the network's broadcast partners, infinitely more basketball games will arrive on the network, and sundry lesser sports will also be featured. 
There's little chance it was anything more than a copy-editing oversight, but by gosh, Minnesota's 2009 spring football media guide happened to leave something out of the record--namely, the 55-0 loss to Iowa which closed the regular season. Granted, there are many reasons the Gophers might like to forget that game, but I've learned never to assume evil when plain old "durrrr" will suffice.
The Independence Bowl has always resided in that lower tier of bowls. Unlike other bowls at that level, though, the Shreveport, Louisiana-based bowl has struggled with keeping its corporate sponsorship. 
What's your No. 1 fear if you subscribe to cable and you're a sports fan? Aside from the signal dying on the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament or on any Saturday or Sunday in the fall, it's that through no fault of your own you might not be able to watch your favorite teams play because of rights disputes between major companies. 
It is never easy for Division II sports programs to make news without a major criminal investigation or a tragedy. Bringing on a "name" hire is the one exception, meaning the University of Nebraska-Omaha stands a chance of making SportsCenter with the hiring of Trev Alberts as its new athletic director.
