Posts Tagged ‘Football’

« Older Entries

West Virginia Football: One More Key To Victory

August 23rd, 2010

In the past few weeks, you have read a multitude of opinions regarding the things West Virginia must do in order to win the Big East title. A number of columnists, including myself, have listed our “keys” to the Mountaineers’ season.

Therefore, at the risk of adding one more key to West Virginia’s season, I am compelled to mention one more.

The Mountaineers have recently been cursed with positively abysmal kick return coverage.

Actually, to use the word “coverage” in regards to the Mountaineer kickoff unit is giving them way too much credit.

The last two seasons, this missing component of the sport has cost West Virginia several football games and at least one league title.

In fact, there is no question that West Virginia’s football team would have been better off had they chosen to kick the ball out of bounds every time. Even after the penalty was tacked onto the play, the Mountaineer defense would have played with their backsides facing the 50-yard line instead of their rears sticking into the end zone.

The Mountaineers, one of the country’s best in punt return coverage, were one of the worst in covering kickoffs, ranking 104th out of 119 teams in Division I.

This is clearly one of life’s greatest mysteries to me.

If your football team can consistently tackle people on punts, then they should be able to tackle people on kickoffs as well. However, for the past couple of seasons, it has often appeared that Mountaineers feared the opponents’ kick returners were radioactive.

Fortunately, coach Bill Stewart has wisely chosen to fire the special teams coach—also coach Bill Stewart.

His duties will now be handled by Steve Dunlap, a change of pace that is sure to be a welcome relief to Mountaineer fans across the nation.

Any improvement in kickoff coverage would be warmly embraced by Mountaineer fans. In addition, it would also increase the odds the Big East Championship would return to its rightful home in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Particularly last season, the Mountaineer prevent unit played remarkably well, especially considering how often they were placed in the hole by poor special teams play. However, the propensity to give your opponents’ offense a short field will inevitably result in a number of cheap touchdowns being scored against even the best defenses.

If Coach Dunlap can plug the holes in the West Virginia kickoff unit, instead of chasing opposing kick returners on their way to glory, then the Mountaineers could be the team that is finally off and running.

No comments »

Posted in Big East Football, College Football, NCAA, Opinion, WVU Football

Tags:

College Football’s Pac-10 Arms Race: Jake Locker vs. Andrew Luck

August 23rd, 2010

With apologies to Pac-10 quarterbacks such as Matt Barkley and Nick Foles, attention on the quarterback position in the conference will likely focus on Washington’s Jake Locker and Stanford's Andrew Luck.

Considered to be the two best signal callers nationally in the college game, these two quarterbacks will be first-round draft choices in 2011 (should Luck, who is only a redshirt sophomore, come out).

But which one of these gunslingers is better?

Using 10 different attributes to measure their comparative abilities, this slideshow will attempt to answer that question.

Begin Slideshow



No comments »

Posted in Andrew Luck, College Football, Jake Locker, Opinion, Pac-10 Football, Washington Huskies Football

Tags:

BYU Football: Ken Benson’s Hyopcrisy Should End Conference Exit Fees

August 20th, 2010

In the tumultuous summer of 2010 the hypocrisy of conferences forcing their own members—past and present—to pay exit fees whenever a better conference deal comes along should be the most pressing issue, not who's leaving and who's joining.

The current candidate for the biggest hypocrite in college football is Ken Benson, WAC Commissioner, who has the nerve to use the media to beat up Fresno State and Nevada with an exit fee concocted just last week that wasn't even signed by all the parties.

Meanwhile, Mr. Two-Faced Benson has been busy luring Brigham Young, the Mormon college no one seems to want, into a Notre Dame/Big East type deal, the Mountain West be damned.

Mr. Benson, karma is a bitch, isn't it?

If Benson would have done any investigating he would have discovered how unpopular the ND deal is with the Big East football coaches.

John Marinatto and his Providence/Seton Hall/St. John's mafia love the deal. Of course it disadvantages the eight football playing members of the league.

Instead of downgrading former or would-be former members with an avalanche of shame, maybe commissioners like Benson should spend their time promoting their own conferences and providing the best deals for them.

Maybe the guy who should be on the chopping block here is Benson. I mean how inept does a conference commissioner need to be to allow his conference to shrink down to six teams?

Benson and his legal counsel may expect payment in 60 days. Good luck with that, Mr. Benson.  When sixty days turns into sixty months it may become clear to you that the money just isn't coming.

Benson will have the same revelation Dan Beebe is about to experience when the shrunken Big 12 receives exit fees from Nebraska and Colorado that are a pittance.

And to think the shunned five of Kansas State, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State, and Baylor were planning to donate their take of the exit fees to Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma—laughable because there isn't going to be much to split up.

Now is the time for universities to litigate exit fees as far as the Supreme Court and have them declared null, void, and unconstitutional.

A word of caution to college football conference commissioners: Be honest, consistent, and avoid back room deals, you know, like luring Brigham Young from the MWC and making threats (Texas) to Nebraska and Colorado when they voice displeasure with the Texas-take-all ponzi scheme.

If you work on improving your conference instead of sneaking around the trash in the back, you and your league will be much better off.

Comments Off »

Posted in BYU Football, College Football, Opinion

Tags:

College Football: Would Arkansas Make the Leap from SEC To the Big XII?

August 20th, 2010

Get the latest college football news at College Sports Matchups

Moving from the SEC to the Big 12 would align Arkansas more geographically for recruiting. A quick glance at the Razorbacks’ spring roster reveals 31 players come from Big 12 states while just 19 call an SEC state home.  Players from Arkansas were excluded from the list.

Geographical alignment would also be a benefit for games in the Big 12. The shortest drive to an SEC game for Hog fans from Fayetteville is 401 miles to Oxford, Mississippi, and the longest is to the Swamp in Gainesville, Florida—a trip of almost 1,000 miles, one way.

Want to travel to a Big 12 game? Getting to Oklahoma State will only take five hours from Fayetteville. Round trip. Texas Tech is a bit further, but the down and back trip is just slightly longer than the one way travel to Gainesville.

This geographical alignment will also make life just a little easier, and less expensive, for those teams that don’t have private air transportation to their games like the big revenue producing sports. 

 

A Sense of Home

Have the Hogs ever felt like they belonged in the SEC? Many Razorback fans have expressed frustration with their “sense of belonging.” 

To say SEC membership is steady is an understatement. The last change before South Carolina and Arkansas joined the conference was in 1966 when Tulane left the league. The other ten teams have been together since 1932. This is a conference with plenty of long-held traditions and a couple of decades of membership don’t automatically make you “one of the gang.”

Click here for the best iPhone app for college football. Stats, rosters, schedules and more.

Would moving to the Big 12 make Arkansas feel any more at home, though? The Razorbacks have been in a conference with the Texas mafia before. They were always the outsider.

Would it be different with Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma representation in the conference? Did you just watch how Texas pulled all the strings recently?

If Arkansas was in the Big 12, it would be second fiddle to not only the state of Texas, but also Oklahoma. It would also still be nearly impossible to identify a single game on the UA schedule that would have as much meaning to the opposition as it does the Pigs.

 

Competitive Opportunity

Here is the trade you make: You give up playing the likes of Florida, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Auburn to take on Texas and Oklahoma. There is more strength at the top of the SEC and playing football in the Big 12 would generate many more opportunities for success. This is not a poor reflection of the talent on Arkansas’ roster or Bobby Petrino’s coaching. It is just that much tougher to play in the SEC every week.

Basketball fans will find just the opposite. Texas, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas A&M, and Baylor would all have been great teams in the SEC last year. Outside of Kentucky and Tennessee, it is hard to say that any SEC program looks really good right now.

 

Stability

Remember the earlier note about all of the SEC being together since 1932 with the exception of Arkansas and South Carolina? The new Big 12 has not been in place for a month yet.

Here is another issue to watch with the Big 12. Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma are receiving special consideration under the new arrangement. The SEC treats Vanderbilt just like Alabama when it comes to the distribution of television funds. If you give one set of schools an economic advantage, this will equal a competitive advantage over time.

It might not show up in football and basketball, but the favored schools will have instant access to greater funds to hire better coaches and improve facilities for other sports within the athletic department. While all is fair in love and war, it should be a little more balanced when it comes to the distribution of cash generated by all of the conference.

The Big 12 is a league in trouble still. It might be taking a breather right now, but the problems that drove Nebraska and Colorado away are still there.

So, will Arkansas make the leap? While the hearts of Razorback fans might want to return to the days when they played Texas on an annual basis and a chance to face the Sooners every fall, it is hard to imagine they would walk away from the stability and clout the SEC has in college athletics. That said, did you ever think you would see Nebraska in the Big Ten?

Comments Off »

Posted in Arkansas Razorbacks Football, College Football, Opinion

Tags:

The Arguments For Paying College Football Players Are Absurd

August 20th, 2010

 

Get the latest college football news at College Sports Matchups

There are three reasons people consistently offer when they advocate for paying college football and basketball players. Their arguments sound noble as they seek to correct some perceived injustice being experienced by the most high profile of college athletes, but in reality they do not make economic sense or actually solve the problems inherent with  agents, recruiting, financial circumstances, or any of the other challenges that seem to plague big-time college sports.

Here are the typical reasons for paying players advanced by writers, commentator and radio hosts on this subject:

  • The players are generating significant income for the schools and deserve a piece of the pie.
  • It is unreasonable to take kids from the toughest of economic situations and not provide them with any pocket money.
  • If a stipend of some type is given to players it will curb their need to deal with agents or boosters to get money.

Again, all of these sound noble in intent and seem to be correcting some perceived wrong, but in reality they are all flawed, if not flat-out wrong. Here are the facts for each one.

Piece of the Pie Argument

Screams that players deserve a piece of the pie for the revenue they generate are the most absurd of all. They are getting paid!

According to studies the average cost for a year of college at a state university is just above $15,000. Every player on scholarship is receiving this. For players who choose to take their talents across state lines the price tag can grow to the levels charged by private colleges, which average over $35,000 per year.

 

Click here for the best iPhone app for college football. Stats, rosters, schedules and more.

Earning a full ride for athletics will include tuition, accommodations, food, and books. These items cost money. If not,  it will have to be explained why so many families who have kids that won’t have their expenses met be an athletic scholarship spend years putting aside money for their kids to attend college. Why do so many young people invest hours looking for other scholarships, creating debt that has to be paid back or find employment to pay the bills?

If you consider the funds spent by an athletic department for scholarships the same as payroll the expense becomes over one million dollars at the public school average cost for just football. The tag to a private university could be almost three million dollars.

The pie does not end with just football players though. A portion has to be provided to pay the cost of athletic scholarships for women’s volleyball, baseball and other teams. Under Title IX a school will have at least 85 women’s scholarships to award just for playing football. This at least doubles the cost of “scholarship” payroll.

Players are not the only expense schools face either. To varying degrees athletic departments have to maintain their facilities, provide equipment for sports, pay coaches and administration, recruit and dozens of other items that are just part of the business.

Pocket Money Argument

Every year the stories are repeated about players who are so poor they can’t afford to even go with their buddies to get a coke. First, most college students face a shortfall in funds at some point. That is just life.

Second, it is just not true that kids from the most difficult of economic situations have no money to buy a burger with. As a matter of fact, the kids who might struggle the most to grab fast food with their buddies are those that come from middle class homes.

Pell grants can be the best friend for college football and basketball players that come from economically difficult situations. While the majority of these grants are provided to households with an income under $30,000 annually, it is possible to qualify for some amount with income as high as $60,000.

The maximum award for a grant during the 2010-11 school year is $5,500. Now remember, athletes already have their school-related expenses covered, so none of this money is required for those costs. A player who receives the top amount available will have just over $100. tax free dollars to spend each week. Plenty of college kids survive just fine with much less than that.  

The Cheating Will End Argument

This is the most naïve of all the arguments advanced. For some reason, we assume that giving a teen or early twenty-something a few dollars will make him incredibly virtuous when faced with the temptations offered by an agent or booster.

What do most people want once they get something? More. Even if every kid on the football team is provided a cash stipend each week they will remain vulnerable to the offering of agents and boosters, who will still have their same incentive to provide money or perks to athletes.

What are the best solutions for keeping schools out of trouble with the NCAA from issues that are impossible to completely monitor? Check back later for solutions to this ongoing and thorny problem.


Comments Off »

Posted in Alabama Crimson Tide Football, College Football, Opinion

Tags:




eXTReMe Tracker