A Hometown Headlines newsletter                 

It's beginning to get old but how many chances should Michael Vick be afforded?

(6/30) Never too old, or young, to learn. How about this for a lineup of quarterbacks at the Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana the second week in July? Alabama’s Greg McElroy, Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett, Stanford’s Andrew Luck, Christian Ponder of Florida State, LSU’s Jordan Jefferson and Boise State’s Kellen Moore. "This is the best group of quarterbacks we’ve ever had," understated Archie Manning, who runs the camp along with sons Peyton and Eli Manning.

And speaking of quarterbacks, there are nine major college teams out there who will start a rookie quarterback and actually may have a shot at winning big. Those nine include Georgia’s Aaron Murray, Cincinnati’s Zach Collaros, Pittsburgh’s Tino Sunseri, West Virginia’s Geno Smith, Penn State’s Kevin Newsome, Texas Garrett Gilbert, Oregon’s Nate Costa, Oregon State’s Ryan Katz, and, of course, Florida’s John Brantley.

The NBA players collusion meeting took place this week as Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and LeBron James got together in Miami to discuss their free-agency. Wade told sources that he felt the Heat had a chance to spring a coup that would bring all three to Miami.

There’s got to be an suspension, right? How many chances does former Falcon and now Eagle quarterback Michael Vick get in the NFL? After someone was shot during Vick’s birthday party over the weekend, Vick was questioned by police. Now let’s see if he has to go see Roger Goodell at NFL headquarters.

The Duke-North Carolina basketball game will be televised nationwide during prime time next March 5. Here’s a little known fact about the combatants. The Blue Devils’ Mike Krzyzewski is 34-35 against the Tar Heels overall but owns a 19-9 win margin over the past 10 seasons.

Here’s a sports list that I couldn’t resist. FoxSports.com compiled the top 10 No. 1 draft picks of all time in the NBA. No. 10 Patrick Ewing, Knicks and LeBron James, Cavaliers, No. 9 Tim Duncan, Spurs, No. 8 Hakeem Olajuwen, Houston, No. 7 Shaq O’Neal, Orlando, No. 6 James Worthy, Lakers, No. 5 David Robinson, Spurs, No. 4 Elvin Hayes, San Diego, No. 3 Bill Walton, TrailBlazers, No. 2 Magic Johnson, Lakers and No. 1 Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Milwaukee.

And finally, or at least I think finally, Lance Armstrong says that this will be his last Tour de France. I think he waited one year too long to make that announcement.

This is Norman Arey saying, Come on folks, seriously, how many chances should Michael Vick get?

 

And you think you have a tough golf course. Be thankful you don't live in Montana

(6/29) I just don’t get it. Atlanta is one of the most urban cities in the U.S. It’s the off-season home of hundreds of pro athletes, the majority African-American. The city’s population is more than 50 percent black, it’s the home of Hank Aaron and Evander Holyfield and Dominique Wilkins and the rap and hip-hop capital of the world. Why isn’t Atlanta the preferred destination of some of the top athletes? Why isn’t there a fight for players to be invited onto the Hawks’ and Braves' roster?

So we read today that Joe Johnson, the Hawks’ one true all-star, may take less money – let me repeat that – less money to play elsewhere. Anything to get out of Georgia’s capitol. When the greed that pervades professional athletics takes a back seat to geography, something’s definitely not right.

What’s wrong with this scenario? Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished eight at New Hampshire and said he felt encouraged. Encouraged with an eighth-place finish? That’s not exactly displaying swashbuckling spirit, determination and drive.

Adrian Peterson, Minnesota’s most-talented running back, may be preparing for a holdout. The best running back in the NFL may not be that easy to keep, thus the Vikings signed Heisman Trophy-runnerup Toby Gerhart and Ryan Moats. So, let me get this straight: the Vikes really don’t know who their quarterback or starting running back will be this coming season? Heck of a way to run a franchise.

And you think you got a tough golf course? Golfers at Valley View Golf Course in Bozeman, Mont., reported they had to hold up play for a few minutes as a mountain lion decided to play through.

I’m sure all you recruitniks out there know about Zach DeBell of Tarpon Springs, Fla. DeBell is a 6-foot-7, 265-pound lineman who was virtually not recruited by major colleges. Well, proving that nobody can hide anymore, DeBell received his 24th invitation to play at a major college over the weekend, this one from Notre Dame.

In answer to questions as to why Derrick Favors left Georgia Tech after only one year to go to the NBA, here’s the reason. Favors will be paid $19.3 million over the next three seasons. That’s why.

With the free agent signing period beginning this week, here’s the dilemma the NBA faces. There are eight maximum contracts available in the league but there aren’t eight free agents who deserve one. What this amount to is that several somebodies will be vastly overpaid.

This is Norman Arey and I hate it when a mountain lion holds up play.

 

The state of North Carolina refuses to recognize football

(6/28) How basketball crazy is the state of North Carolina? Consider this. Beginning today, the Raleigh News & Observer will begin a team-by-team breakdown of the dozen teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference in basketball. Attention: Football is less than two months away.

The Des Moines Register reports that the two state senators from Iowa have sent a letter to Big 10 commissioner Jim Delaney asking for information on the conference’s plans on expansion and more info on the Big 10 television network. Politicians just can’t seem to stay out of sports.

Just as we discussed how the Big 10 is going to split its dozen teams, the Pac-10 has a similar problem. But the truth of the situation is no matter which way they go, somebody’s going to be upset. Basically, the left coast league is looking at two scenarios. One is to keep all the California together in one division along with the two Arizona schools, and add Utah and Colorado in with the teams in Oregon and Washington. The other is to split up the California schools. Stay tuned.

Makes you wonder if UCLA is doing proper due diligence in its football recruiting. Three Bruin freshman recruits were arrested on the Los Angeles campus over the weekend on suspicion of felony theft.

And just in case you run into Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt, don’t call him "Josh." Nesbitt has let it be known that he’d prefers Joshua. Hey, it’s his name.

Some were surprised that N.C. State grabbed Maryland athletics director Debbie Yow for the same job in Raleigh, I personally like Yow. She’s not afraid to take chances. If you remember, she hired Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen as head coach when no one else would. It paid dividends, at least for a while. She’s managed to keep Gary Williams happy, and that’s no easy task. I think the Wolfpack is going to be pleased with her.

And speaking of State, football coach Tom O’Brien, who is 16-21 after three years in Raleigh, may be feeling a little left out in the cold. O’Brien pointed out that the chancellor he came to N.C. State with and the athletics director are no longer in place.

Strange but true. Evan Turner, the superb Ohio State guard who was selected No. 2 in the NBA draft last week was the lone player from the entire Big 10. And it might be noted the Trevor Booker, the senior forward from Clemson, was the first senior taken with pick No. 22.

Sorry folks but it just isn’t that surprising that someone was shot at 2 a.m. at Michael Vick’s 30th birthday party over the weekend.

This is Norman Arey and I’m not wishing Vick a happy birthday.

Why would the Steeler players care what Ben Roethlisberger has to say?

(6/25) Who would have ever imagined it? Mighty Michigan, the Wolverines, The Big Blue, are ranked No. 71 in TheSportingNewsToday.com’s pre-season football poll. The men of Rich Rodriguez are ranked below Duke, Virginia, SMU and Temple, to name a few that are close by. Something’s gotta give in Ann Arbor.

Purdue University hosted a dinner to honor former quarterbacks Len Dawson, Bob Griese and Drew Brees. During his speech, Brees said, "To be honest with you, I didn’t know much about Purdue. I thought it was an Ivy League school."

After losing more than 120 pounds, pro golfer John Daly has made nine consecutive cuts.

Here’s an excellent question asked by Rivals.Com about North Carolina quarterback T.J. Yates from Marietta. The senior looked to be of all-star quality two season ago when he was throwing to the likes of first-round NFLer Hakeem Nicks, third-rounder Brandon Tate and fifth-rounder Brooks Foster. Yates wasn’t as impressive last year. The internet site asks did the trio of receivers make Yates look better than he really is. This year will answer that question.

Does anyone but me think it’s strange that the SEC supposedly invited Oklahoma and Texas A&M to join its conference last week during the college football expansion madness. Not Texas but the Sooners and the Aggies. That’s according to Oklahoma president David Boren.

Pittsburgh Steeler receiver Hines Ward, a former Georgia Bulldog, says the NFL team is waiting for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to talk to the team as a whole and tell it all. I mean, what’s the troubled guy gonna say - that he was falsely accused of raping two different women?

And no, the Big 12, now 10, is not looking to expand back to its original dozen schools. Many had thought that the conference would invite TCU and Houston to take the place of the departed Colorado and Nebraska. That’s not going to happen simply because the piece of the pie the league would have to give the duo was more than the two could bring to the table.

And you can certainly understand why I just have to mention that former University of Georgia tennis star John Isner won his match over France’s Nicolas Mahut by a score of 70-68 in the final set. The duo played more than 11 hours in the record-setting match at Wimbledon. .

As a whole, college basketball coaches are not in favor of the one-and-done rule where a college freshman plays one year and then goes to the NBA. Here’s the reason. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo points out that when 70 underclassmen come out early thinking they’re a top 30 pick, "somebody’s lying and somebody’s getting bad advice."

This is Norman Arey and I don’t care what Ben Roethlisberger has to say.

 

 

Dooley picks up one big Vol booster. Whatever happened to tennis in this country?

(6/24) With Wimbledon in its first week, please note that there are precious few American males who have a legitimate shot at winning and once you get past the Williams sisters, no women. Interesting to note that as late as 1989, seven of the top 10 male players in the world were from the U.S. Today, there are only seven males in the Top 100 and only four women in the top 100. Yet, according to Frank DeFord, tennis is on an upswing in this country with more than 30 million players.

Football writer Matt Hayes of the Sporting News says the five biggest winners in the expansion movement were Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick, DeLoss Dodds, athletics director at Texas, Tom Osborne, AD at Nebraska, Kyle Whittingham, football coach at Utah and Bill Self, basketball coach at Kansas.

New Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley already has one important fan, for sure. Former Vol and now Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning says he’s impressed with Dooley and his philosophy and says all he needs is time.

Now that American Lance Armstrong has officially announced that he will compete in the Tour de France, I guess we can look forward to a long summer full of doping stories and French accusations.

This doesn’t look good on the resume. The Florida Marlins fired manager Fredi Gonzalez this week and the reason that is significant is that Gonzalez is the man most rumored to take over the Atlanta Braves when Bobby Cox retires after this season.

Want to know how the Big 10's new 12-team lineup will split up into two six-team divisions? Everything I’ve seen puts Ohio State, Michigan and Purdue heading up the ‘East’ and Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin in the ‘West.’ Hey, nobody said geography was a prerequisite for football leagues.

Remember all-everything prep player Sentreal Henderson, who waited and waited before signing with Southern Cal? In fact, he signed only after coach Lane Kiffin assured him the NCAA penalties weren’t going to be major. It seems the 6-foot-8, 300-pound offensive lineman may not attend after all. Henderson, from Minnesota, didn’t show up in L.A. for an orientation meeting.

And finally, the North Carolina basketball program hit another little bump this week when power forward James McAdoo of Norfolk, Va. decided not to finish high school early and enroll in Chapel Hill in time to play this fall.

This is Norman Arey and I think the Braves should hire Fredi Gonzalez now as coach-in-waiting.

The smartest dogs in the world are border collies; poodles are second.

(6/23) Forbes Magazine is out with its annual list of ‘Most Disliked People in Sports’ and guess what? Former Falcon quarterback Michael Vick leads the list for the second straight year. Oakland Raiders’ owner Al Davis placed second followed by Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, golfer Tiger Woods and Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones.

If you win, they will come. Not necessarily. The Atlanta Braves, with the best won-lost record in the National League, are no better than ninth in attendance in the NL. The Braves average 29,200 per outing.

Don’t know if you saw North Korea play in the World Cup but I was impressed by the huge following they had in the stands. My question was how did so many fans get out of the country to attend? Well, they weren’t North Koreans. They were actors hired from China.

Who is the one person who will have the most pressure resting on his or her shoulders in this coming sports year? Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez, not a bad guess. Florida quarterback John Brantley, maybe. But I choose Harrison Barnes, an in-coming freshman basketball player at North Carolina for the honor. Barnes, the top-ranked player in the country in some estimates, will be expected to bring the Tar Heels back to the elite level they enjoyed just two years ago. Tall order for a 6-foot-8, 212-pound 18-year-old.

Name of the Week: Jerry Kill, head football coach at Northern Illinois University.

An interesting experiment may be coming up with the Green Bay Packers. The club is thinking of playing Cullen Jenkins at linebacker. Jenkins is 6-feet-2, 305 pounds, not exactly your prototypical linebacker size. In fact, he would be the NFL’s first 300-pounder at that position.

Here’s an unbelievable note. BP Oil Co. says it will remain a sponsor of the 2012 Olympics in London. The oil-spill company says the sponsorship will cost it $58 million. I guess it’s not running out of gas. . . Meanwhile, the Rose Bowl didn’t fare as well as Citi Bank announced it will no longer be the name sponsor for the Pasadena Classic.

The fact that the University of Georgia will be starting a redshirt freshman quarterback is not plowing new ground for the Bulldogs. David Greene did it and he turned out to be the most winning quarterback in NCAA history until supplanted by Texas’ Colt McCoy last year.

And finally, this has nothing to do with sports, per se, but because I like dogs, I’m including it anyway. In a survey of 208 dog obedience judges , they judged the following breeds the smartest. In order, Border Collins, Poodles, German Shepherds, Gold Retrievers, Dobermans, Shetland sheepdogs and Labs.

This is Norman Arey and I’ve got a Standard Poodle.

More instant replay in baseball? The players aren't in favor of it.

(6/22) Hey, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. An airplane pulled a banner across the sky at the U.S. Open reading, "Tiger, are you my daddy?" Not exactly original but the point was made.

And speaking of Who’s Your Daddy? Now here’s a list that’s a little different. For Father’s Day last week, Blacksportsonline ran a list of athletes with the most illegitimate children. Former NBA star Calvin Murphy was atop the list with 14 children with nine women. Atlanta boxer Evander Holyfield placed third with 11 children, nine illegitimate. What a country.

The NCAA is leaning toward Indianapolis as the play-in site for the four games that will open next year’s basketball tournament. The four games are necessary after the field was expanded from 65 to 68 teams.

Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops admitted he might be a little disappointed that his school didn’t join the Pac-10. "You add what the Pac-10 brings, which is long tradition and history, great schools and great academics. I just thought it was a win-win in my eyes."

Interesting. In a survey done by USA Today of 584 major league baseball players, 55 percent did NOT want any more replays added to the game and said they were basically O.K. with the umpiring. Forty-three percent were in favor of it.

OK. Here’s the latest estimated income for the remaining members of the Big XII after dropping down to 10 teams and luring more television money. The preferred schools (Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M) will get $20 million while the others will receive $14-$17 million. That’s not bad after last year’s payout of $8.7 million to $15.4 million.

I wrote yesterday about Auburn’s new $16.5 million indoor practice facility for football. Since then, I’ve learned that nine of the 12 SEC schools either already have a indoor practice facility or have one being built. The only thing I can figure out as to the reason for this is to impress recruits. Yet one of the SEC schools that doesn’t have one is Florida and nothing’s wrong with its recruiting.

Of the 11 players mentioned most often for this year’s Heisman Trophy, six are quarterbacks. Those include Washington’s Jake Locker, Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor, Florida State’s Christian Ponder, Boise State’s Kellen Moore, Miami’s Jacory Harris (I don’t think so), and Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett. Of course, until he does something to take himself out of the race, the favorite would have to be Alabama running back Mark Ingram, who won it last season.

This is Norman Arey and I don’t want to see anymore instant replay in baseball, either.

Big East denies rumors that it's going to expand by two teams next week

(6/21) It’s finally time to fish or cut bait as the NBA draft comes up this week and the predictions are flying. A compilation of most draft projections have these players going one, two and three. John Wall, point guard Kentucky to Washington; Evan Turner, guard, Ohio State to Philadelphia and Derrick Favors, forward, Georgia Tech, to New Jersey.

The decision by Texas and Texas A&M to remain members of the Big XII was a no-brainer. The two schools got a paycheck last season of between $8 million to $12 million. But with the influx of new TV money and the conference’s willingness to give the Longhorns and Aggies the lion’s share, they each could bring home $20 million this season.

There’s another brouhaha forming and what it best illustrates is that sports and politics simply don’t mix. The Texas legislature is pushing the Big XII hard to invite the University of Houston. Right now, the Cougars are a member of Conference USA. Houston is the third largest school in the state.

And speaking of expansion, rumors continue that the Big East will invite Memphis and Central Florida as early as next week. The league denies the talk.

The chances are better than 50-50 that the University of Texas will have the first TV network devoted exclusively to one team. The Longhorns negotiated the right to create its own network and carry Texas sports exclusively.

Since yesterday was Father’s Day, Rivals.com put together a list of sons currently playing college football whose fathers played the NFL. The list had more than 100 names.

Doesn’t seem exactly right but the Los Angeles Lakers announced they would pay more than $2 million to throw themselves a parade in downtown L.A. to celebrate their NBA championship they won last week over Boston.

Tiger Woods’ sports agency, IMG, estimated that it would lose around $4.6 million from endorsements for the pro golfer as advertisers dropped away from the troubled player. That translates to roughly $30 million lost by Tiger himself.

Auburn University officials announced plans to build a $16 million indoor practice facility next to its football practice fields. The school says the structure will be paid for by private donations. I can understand that with all the snow and bad weather that part of Alabama has to endure.

And finally, Sporting News isn’t convinced that Notre Dame is yet ready for prime time. The sports publications has the Irish listed 29th in its pre-season rankings. Of course, you might ask what do they know? They also picked Miami as the No. 4 team in the country.

This is Norman Arey and why would anybody want Central Florida and Memphis?

The Irish and the Globetrotters are the only independent teams left in the 21st Century

(6/18) The NFL is now getting into the wine business -- at least the New York Jets are. The club announced a new limited release wine called Jets Uncorked. It’s a cabarnet sauvignon that I’m sure is more than full-bodied.

The SportingNewsToday.com ran its list of the Top 25 athletes under 25 years old. I’m not going to subject you to all 25 but some mentioned included Orlando’s Dwight Howard, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, the Titans’ Chris Johnson, former Kentucky guard John Wall, Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria and the Lions’ Ndamukong Suh and Calvin Johnson.

Don’t hold me to this but in my opinion, the proposed conference expansion is over, at least for five to 10 years. Utah was officially invited to join the Pac-10 and will give the league 12 teams after the recent addition of Colorado. The Big 10 also is at an even dozen after adding Nebraska. I think that’s it. And even if it isn’t, it should shut the mouth of Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah about college athletics.

And just a quick question but why does the Big 10 now have 12 teams and the Big 12 now have 10 teams?

And speaking of names, Sports Illustrated’s Frank DeFord suggested when the four mega-conferences do become reality, the naming should be easy. The Big 10 would become the Nasty North, the Pac-10 the Wicked West, the SEC the Savage South and when the ACC and Big East combine, they’re the Evil East. DeFord also notes that Notre Dame is the only team operating alone and independent in the 21st century with the exception of the Harlem Globetrotters.

And this just in from the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World, sports power broker and former Arkansas football player and Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones feels that Fighting Irish and the Razorbacks should join the Big 12. Unbelievable.

Not quite as unbelievable as this. Orlando radio station WKMG is reporting that the Big East will issue invitations to Central Florida and Memphis by next week. Ain’t all this wonderful?

And finally, a story with a moral. A South African man was beaten to death by his family when he tried to change the television programming from a gospel show to watch the World Cup matches. His wife and two children slammed his head against the wall and floor until he died.

This is Norman Arey and my wife and children can watch anything they want on TV.

The ACC may be balanced this year in football but that doesn't translate into strong

(6/17) Was there anyone out there who truly believed that the NBA finals wouldn’t go to the seven-game limit, especially after Boston beat Los Angeles in the fifth game? It’s all about money and seven games is better than five or six. Believe me.

I think it’s great news that Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo has decided to forgo coaching Cleveland in the NBA and stay in East Lansing. I think he, like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, will retire at his school.

Whether its good news or bad, I’m not sure, but Georgia Tech basketball coach Paul Hewitt has added Robert McCullum as an assistant coach. McCullum, who has been around the block and was head coach at Western Michigan and South Florida, compiled an 84-119 record as a head coach.

The basketball folks in what was formerly the Big XII say their league is much stronger without the departed Colorado and Nebraska. That’s probably true. The Buffs and ‘Huskers had a combined for a total of nine NCAA tournament appearances in 71 years.

I’ve read in several magazines and various publications and blogs that the ACC may be the most balanced football league of the BCS conferences this year. Maybe so but it shouldn’t be confused with strong. In the SportingNewsToday.com pre-season poll, ACC teams ranked 89th, 86th, 70th, 68th, 54th, and 34th before anybody made it into the Top 25.

NASCAR’s popularity continued to drop in the Fox TV ratings as they fell more than 7 percent from last season.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that the Big XII isn’t out of the woods yet and that divorce is still imminent. The newspaper claims that the disparity in money from the conference, which was already heavily weighted in Texas’ favor, will be even greater now and that resentment will eventually split up the unhappy crews in the north division.

The question has been asked if Georgia Tech baseball coach Danny Hall is recruiting way too good for the Yellow Jackets. Nine of the incoming Yellow Jacket baseball recruits were signed by Major League Baseball, two in the first round.

Maybe $10 million just isn’t what it used to be. FedEx’s offer to pay any BCS conference $10 annually if they would take the University of Memphis as a member has had no takers - at least not yet.

This is Norman Arey and I’m beginning to feel the same distaste for Texas that I feel for Notre Dame. Can you say arrogant and greedy?


So these past few months have been much to do about nothing. Is this all there is?

(6/16) Remember the Peggy Lee rendition of ‘Is this all there is’, which became popular in 1969? It was sort of an existentialist song that tells the story of a person who is disillusioned with life. That’s exactly how I feel today with the announcement that Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have turned down the opportunity go join the Pac-10 and will remain in the 10-team yet-to-be-renamed Big XII.

So, is this all there is? Supposedly the Pac-10, who had dreams and as it turns out, delusions of grandeur, is left to invite Utah to round out its membership at an even dozen after its addition of Colorado last week. It seems that the Big XII is now safe, at least for the foreseeable future.

If the Big 10 should pull in its horns and stay at 12 teams after the addition of Nebraska, it would seems that college conference expansion has come to an end.

Of course, if the Big 10 continues what many thought would be an expansion to 16 teams, then all bets are off. But it looks as if the Big East and the ACC have been saved from scramble-mode. It looks as if the SEC won’t be forced to step outside of its comfort zone and go raiding for the likes of Florida State and Clemson. It seems that the arrogant Irish of Notre Dame may maintain there independence.

Folks, I’m really, really disappointed and on the edge of despair with this news. I had envisioned a much grander landscape with wonderful new rivalries developing and a shakeup of college football never seen before in history.

Supposedly the greed of the Longhorns ruined the negotiations with the Pac-10. Texas simply wanted more of the pie than the league was willing to give.

FoxSports! ran an article listing the seven most irritating sports props at athletic events, no doubt brought on by that daggone vuvuzela heard constantly during all World Cup matches. Others on the list included the foam finger, thundersticks, masks in the crowd, cow bell, and the air horn. Whatever happened to just clapping and yelling?

Getting rid of a pretentious boor and hiring a seemingly dedicated and earnest young football coach has not translated into success at the box office for Tennessee. The Vol brass says that the school has sold roughly 1,000 fewer tickets this year as they had last year at this time when Lane Kiffin was still at the helm and before Derek Dooley replaced him.

Interesting article on Rival.Com concerning season ticket prices for Division I-A college football. It’s tricky because many schools require a donation in order even to purchase season tickets. The highest priced ticket is at Ohio State, which costs roughly $2,100 per ticket. Notre Dame, Michigan and Wisconsin are also in the most-expensive category. The lowest among those is $900. The cheapest season tickets can the found at Western Kentucky and Kent State at $30 per. So, do you get what you pay for or not?

This is Norman Arey and it’ll cost me next to nothing to sit in front of my television set this fall.


Make no mistake about it: College football and football only is driving league expansion

(6/15) If there was any doubt what was driving college conference expansion, former coach and athletic administrator C.M. Newton put it to rest. Said the former Alabama and Vanderbilt basketball coach: "TV is driving it. Everybody is looking for TV revenue generated by football. We here (in Kentucky) might live in the definition of a hoops hotbed, but most of the rest of the athletic world does its decision-making on what’s best for those in shoulder pads. Fact is, college basketball is on a downward trek what with falling attendance, lower TV ratings and an NCAA tournament no one network was willing to televise. Football is the cash cow on the rise." There you have it.

This from the Dallas Morning News on conference expansion:. ‘At the heart of the entire chain of events is something that goes beyond athletics pride or TV dollars. It’s Texas’ president Bill Powers’ dream to join his alma mater, Cal-Berkeley and Stanford - at the very top of Pac-10 academic institutions.’ If that’s true, so what? Seems like a worth while goal to me.

And this from the Los Angeles Times on Southern Cal being penalized by the NCAA for cheating: USC athletics director Mike Garrett said ‘As I read the decision by the NCAA, I read between the lines and there was nothing but envy. They wish they all were Trojans. Today I got a purpose for wanting to dominate for another 10 years. He also said he felt "invigorated by all this stuff’ and ‘with the penalty we got, I know we’re bigger than life.’ Would you say this is rational or rant? Perhaps he’s slipped a gear?

And this from North Carolina sports cynic Jamie May: ‘Notre Dame can no longer compete at the championship level in football. If they join a conference, they are exposed as a pretentious Stanford wannabe sans sun, blue skies, and the money of Silicon Valley. Much easier to remain independent and play the academies.’

Reports out of Cleveland say that if Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo doesn’t accept the head coaching job with the Cavaliers, the NBA club would be interested in talking to former Atlanta Hawk coach Mike Woodson.

And finally, one of my pet peeves may not be going away. With the addition of Nebraska to the Big 10, the conference now has 12 teams, so what’s going to be the new name of the bigger and better league? Commissioner Jim Delaney says he doesn’t know. He thought the conference name would be changed when Penn State was added as the 11th team 17 years ago, but he was wrong. "I found out that Big 10 was a name that carried a lot of meaning for a lot of people." How about the Dirty Dozen?

This is Norman Arey and I think USC’s Mike Garrett should just shut up.

No matter which way you slice it, Texas has to shoulder the blame

(6/14) With at least four Big XII teams meeting with their presidents, chancellors and Boards of Directors this week, there should be more movement in the wild scramble to change the landscape of college sports. Meanwhile, the Mountain West has admitted that it might be interested in Big XII members Kansas, Missouri and possibly Kansas State but has no interest in Baylor. The Mountain West added Boise State late last week.

A couple of things happened that deserve at least a mention. First, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo is one of the elite college coaches in the land. I frankly don’t understand his flirtation with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Izzo going to the Cavaliers at this point is like buying a car without an engine -- LeBron James has yet to decide whether he’ll return to Cleveland. . . The Atlanta Hawks’ hiring of former Hawk assistant Larry Drew is, in a word, disappointing. Here’s a team that won 53 games last year, had several important parts of the puzzle on their roster, and opt for Drew. Makes no sense.

Well, it happened. Miami shooting guard Dwayne Wade sat down with Raptors’ power forward Chris Bosh and Hawks’ shooting guard Joe Johnson last week to discuss their free agency. Nobody’s talking about what was decided.

Looking for someone to blame for the football realignment scramble, look no further than Austin, Texas. The University of Texas, 14 years ago, demanded and was granted a larger share of the Big XII’s proceeds than its league mates if it joined. That drove a wedge with other members of the conference until some, like Nebraska, just decided it wasn’t going to take it anymore.

And I don’t know if "blame" is the right word but Notre Dame had a huge hand in what’s happening right now to the college landscape. By joining the Big 10, the Irish could have saved the conference system as we know it today but chose to remain independent. Said athletics director Jack Swarbrick in the Chicago Tribune, "the changes don’t impact Notre Dame."

How about this? FedEx president and CEO Fred Smith notified the BCS conferences that he will pay them $10 million every year if the conference would invite the University of Memphis to be a member. FedEx’s home office is in Memphis, Tenn.

And finally, I just have to say this. The sanctions imposed on Southern Cal couldn’t have happened to a better guy than Lane Kiffin. The loss of 30 scholarships and no bowl games for two years is severe. It’s something that may take the Trojans up to a decade to overcome. Good.

This is Norman Arey and I hope Texas A&M opts to jump to the SEC and lets Texas go to the Pac-10.

College football has now officially shifted off its axis, so hold tight

(6/11) Now that Nebraska has fired the shot that will be heard around the world of college football, the instant guessing and predictions will surely follow from every point of the football landscape. Will the PAC-10 take the Big XII’s entire South Division? Will the Big 10 further expand to 16 teams, taking much of the Big East with it? What will the SEC do to counter the Big 10's foray into expansion? Will the ACC and Big East be forced to combine its somewhat watered-down talent to former the Bigger East? Any and all of it could happen.

Nebraska’s defection is surprising only in an emotional/traditional way. The Cornhuskers have been butting heads with the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas , et.al., since 1892 or so. But it makes financial sense and we all know about college athletics and money. Former Sooner coach Barry Switzer, whom I wouldn’t designate as a philosophical sort, said "You have to give up tradition for finances." The man is Plato.

Colorado felt the same way. The Buffs announced late Thursday that they were leaving the Big XII (which is now the Big X) for the Pac-10 (which is now the Pac-11.)

And a word of caution from sports cynic Jamie May in North Carolina. ‘What about UNC-Charlotte and Georgia State and the myriad of institutions that have heavily invested in football in recent years but will only find debt and obscurity. Fools gold.’

Some guys just can’t behave. Former Oregon starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli is one of them. The Ducks’ quarterback was suspended from the football team for a year when he pled guilty of a March 12 misdemeanor burglary charge. He was picked up this week for possession of marijuana and driving without a license. He’s now gone forever.

Talk about drafts. The NBA has two rounds and drafts roughly 60-some players, the NFL has seven round and takes no more than 250. But Major League Baseball just finished its annual draft. It consisted of 50 rounds and more than 1,500 players. And if you want to know who Mr. Irrelevant is in baseball, it was James Rice, a catcher out of Western Kentucky who was chosen 1,525th by the New York Yankees.

The proposed television show on TLC, NASCAR Wives, has been dropped from production. The program, which was to star DeLana Harvick, wife of Kevin Harvick, Kelley Earnhardt, sister of Dale, Jr., Angie Skinner, wife of Mike Skinner, and Shana Mayfield, wife of Jeremy Mayfield, was dropped because of a lack of drama. Imagine that.

For what it’s worth, Georgia placed No. 2 in the SEC in academic rankings in football and in overall sports. The Bulldogs’ APR, which is an NCAA-designed measure which assesses the eligibility, retention and graduation of athletes over a four year period, was 973 out of a possible 1000, second only to Vanderbilt’s 975.

This is Norman Arey and I can’t wait to see who defects next.

College football's ground-breaking game of musical chairs is under way

(6/10) Finally, somebody did something real. Nebraska announced late yesterday that it was, indeed, leaving the Big XII and will be the 12th member of the Big 10 (or maybe the Big Dozen). Ladies and gentlemen. Everything and I mean everything is now up for grabs. I've got a feeling this won't stop until we have an entirely new landscape in college sports. Ea Gads! Look what the Cornhuskers done wrought.

Another thing about the biggest thing going in college sports - conference realignment and expansion - the question is what would happen to basketball programs such as Butler, James Madison, Davidson and say, Virginia Commonwealth. The answer is the discrepancy in money and facilities which exists now would widen. In essence, I think the advent of super-conferences would put the smaller schools out of business.

Perhaps one of the reasons Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has shown no interest in jumping to the NBA is the Blue Devil boss was paid more than $4 million in 2009 and that’s a year before he won his fourth national title.

Here’s a neat note concerning the Major League draft. The sons of three current major league managers were selected in the second day of the draft - Ozney Guillen, son of Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie; Patrick Leyland, son of Detroit Tiger manager Jim; and Brett Bochy, son of San Francisco manager Bruce. Oh, and all three were drafted by their father’s teams.

Now that the Cleveland Cavaliers have admitted contact with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, the Spartan coach might look at what two other pretty good college coaches have done in the past, says SportingNewsToday.com. Then-Stanford coach Mike Montgomery jumped to the pro league and managed to win roughly 40 percent of his games. Mike Krzyzewski is getting rich staying at Duke. Izzo needs to stay in East Lansing.

OK. Washington Nationals’ phenom pitcher Stephan Strasburg has made his debut and unless you’ve been under a rock or second base, you know that he won his first start and struck out 14 for the evening. I guess those of us who want to wait and see might point out that (1) it was, after all, against the lowly Pirates and (2) he did give up two earned runs, which means he is capable of making a mistake or two. Still, that was pretty good.

NFL watchers are spending an inordinate amount of time looking at the Arizona Cardinals this off-season and asking if Matt Leinart can play. The answer is mixed but I don’t see many options for coach Ken Whisenhunt. I think he has to plan on putting his chips on Leinart until the quarterback proves him wrong.

This is Norman Arey asking who would have thought Nebraska would be the first to go?

So the World Cup begins this week. Read my lips: I couldn't care less

(6/9) It’s my understanding that the World Cup begins this week in South Africa. This is the sports highlight for many fans around the world. But it’s no highlight of mine. I don’t like soccer. I don’t care if it’s the most popular sport in the world, it’s not my most popular sport. In fact, it’s not in my top 18. Soccer is boooring. This country has been told by the soccer purists that it must love soccer, that it must embrace it. Poppycock. Soccer sucks.

The Sporting News magazine pro football edition for 2010-11 is out and they picked the New York Jets to meet the Dallas Cowboys in next February’s Super Bowl. . . In an interview, former Georgia Tech big man Derrick Favors was asked who he would pick first in the NBA draft if he were an NBA general manager. "I’d pick myself," he said.

The Major League Baseball draft saw a familiar name chosen by the Los Angeles Angels in the first round. Right handed pitcher Cam Bedrosian, yes, son of Steve Bedrosian, is expected to be a late-inning reliever. . . Bad news for Clemson but quarterback Kyle Parker, an outfielder, was taken by the Colorado Rockies as the 26th overall pick. I fear that means that Tiger coach Dabo Sweeney will be looking for a quarterback come fall. . . A curious pick for the Los Angeles Dodgers, which chose pitcher Zach Lee in the early going. Lee has said all along that he intended on playing quarterback for LSU.

Here’s a note that I really like. LaSalle basketball coach John Giannini has been signed to a multiyear contract by the college. Giannini’s record is 83-97 in six year with the Explorers and posted a 12-18 overall record and was 4-12 in the Atlantic 10 last season.

And all you Gator fans might hold up on making any reservations to next January’s mythical championship game. Gary Danielson says the Florida offense as we knew it under Tim Tebow won’t be the same without him. "I know the (Tim) Tebow spread works," said Danielson, "but I’m just not sure any other spread will work in this conference. You can’t have (starter) John Brantley getting hit 12-15 times a game."

At the same time, let me give the Florida fanatics some positive feedback. Brantley, in spot relief duty last season, hit on 36 of 48 passes for 410 yards and seven touchdowns and no interceptions. No bad at all.

The college football conference expansion mania that grips the sports has surely taken over all the news lanes. In SportsIllustrated.com’s football section, 11 of the top 13 stories dealt with various expansion scenarios. One story by football writer Stewart Mandel presents 16 different scenarios that could happen.

This is Norman Arey and I’m looking forward to seeing all the college quarterbacks playing in the major leagues.

Visualize this: Southern Cal playing Alabama in Russia in early January--outdoors

(6/8) All this time, we’ve been watching the wrong conference and the wrong team. In the wild, wild world of college conference expansion, everyone kept Jim Delaney and the Big 10 in their sights. Wrong. It looks like the Pac-10 and commissioner Larry Scott are going to fire the first shot.

Sunday, the Pac-10 presidents gave Scott the authority to pursue expansion. In other words, the new commissioner can issue invitations to join his conference without going back for permission. That, in turn, forced the Big 10's Delaney to admit that his timetable might be expedited with the news. Hold on.

And if that didn’t shake ‘em up enough, Scott also said that he plans on marketing the Pac-10 in Asia. That’s right. Scott says the west coast is the gateway to the Pacific Rim and that many Asian students attend Pac-10 schools. "I think we’re going to be the first collegiate conference to have an international marketing plan which will include broadcasts of our games and games played internationally. You’ll see our student-athletes playing in an organized way in Asia."

Scout.com listed its picks for playing the easiest college football schedule this season. The list included Kentucky, Texas Tech, Mississippi State and Wisconsin. The Wildcats’ schedule includes Louisville, Western Kentucky, Akron and Charleston Southern. Do their season-ticket holders get a discount?

Circle Sept. 11 on your college football calendars. In fact, circle it in red ink. Here’s the lineup for that one day: Florida State at Oklahoma, Miami at Ohio State, Oregon at Tennessee and Penn State at Alabama. And just for fun, throw in South Florida at Florida.

And by the way, if college football should go to a 16-team playoff, the estimation is that it would net the schools roughly $90 million annually, and that, as they say, ain’t chicken feed.

In an effort to persuade LeBron James to cast his lot with the Chicago Bulls, Chicagoland Speedway president Craig Rust has renamed his race track the LeBron James Speedway. Seriously.

And finally, here’s a new rumor concerning expansion that I haven’t seen before. The Kansas City Star is reporting that there’s a scenario where Arkansas may ditch the SEC to become a member of the Big XII.

This is Norman Arey and I like the idea of international play for colleges. Russia in the spring is supposedly beautiful.

Some college teams getting ready to grab their wheelbarrows and go to the bank

(6/7) The Southeastern Conference will distribute $209 million to its dozen members. The amount is the largest ever for the league and tops last year’s $132 million by 57 percent. The amount comes to roughly $17.3 million per team.

With all the scenarios involving college conference expansion, there are some teams that it seems no one wants. In the Big XII, Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State don’t seem to have a home waiting for them. The real interesting team here is Kansas, which has an elite program in men’s basketball. Jayhawk basketball would have a hard time surviving as an independent.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Big XII commissioner Dan Beebe has given Nebraska an ultimatum to notify the conference of its intentions within two weeks.

Here’s why the Big 10 wields the big stick in conference realignment. The conference has its own television network. Let’s say that Texas should agree to join the league. The state has roughly 24 million people. If, say, eight million of those paid 70 cents per month to watch the network, the conference would rake in $5.6 million per month.

The AJC’s Mark Bradley predicts that Georgia will go 9-3 during the regular football season, losing to South Carolina, Arkansas and, of course, Florida. The writer says Georgia Tech will finish 8-4, with road losses at North Carolina, Clemson and Virginia Tech and then a season-ending loss to the Bulldogs.

It’s for sure that NBA superstar LeBron James isn’t making friends with his league executives. The LeBron sweepstakes is overshadowing the NBA’s playoffs between the Lakers and the Celtics.

Intense reader Joey Mac sends this in: An article which appeared in 1946 in the Elkhart (Ind.) Truth newspaper in the town where John Wooden held his first job. "Elkhart school officials announced today that John R. Wooden, English teacher and coach from South Bend Central High School, will be the principal speaker at their recognition dinner, although they had hoped to get a prominent person."

And finally, I don’t know how good or bad Bill Curry’s first Georgia State football team will be but the Panthers are getting some pretty decent players via transfer. Besides acquiring Alabama quarterback Star Jackson, Curry welcomed former Georgia Tech starting lineman Joseph Gilbert and backup Tech lineman Clyde Yanell and Auburn tight end Bailey Woods.

This is Norman Arey saying the conference realignment plane is getting ready to take off.


Oh woe is me in Knoxville; now you can plan your fall party with this TV schedule

(6/4) Football writer Matt Hayes of SportingNewsToday.com says this about the University of Tennessee football program. "Tennessee doesn’t have a legitimate Division I quarterback. Projected starter Matt Simms wouldn’t be on the two-deep at any other Southeastern Conference school. It would be one of the worst season ever on Rocky Top." Man, that’s cold.

In my personal effort to make your life easier, here are the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech games that will be on television this fall with the starting times so you can go ahead and plan your wedding or party. For the Bulldogs, the South Carolina game on Sept. 11 will kickoff at noon; the Sept. 18 Arkansas contest will also start at noon; the Oct. 2 game at Colorado will begin at 4:30. And the annual October adjustment with Florida will see the airwaves at 3:30 on Oct. 30. For the Yellow Jackets, their Sept. 11 game against Kansas begins at noon as does the Sept. 18 game with North Carolina. The Nov. 4 game at Virginia Tech is set for 7:30.

Let me be sure I’ve got all the non-news straight. (1) Arizona State’s Dennis Erikson isn’t on the hot seat; (2) Georgia’s Mark Richt isn’t on the hot seat; and (3) Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski still isn’t interested in jumping to the NBA and neither is Michigan’s State’s Tom Izzo. I think that just about takes care of it.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier questioned the commitment of projected starting quarterback Stephen Garcia. "It may be a point where he’s playing the best he can.," he said. "It may be that we’re expecting too much out of him. If that’s the case, then we need to get the next guy ready to play." That next guy would be true freshman Connor Shaw from Flowery Branch, Ga.

I’ve always been a fan of Fresno State’s Pat Hill’s philosophy of playing tough teams as he popularized the "anybody, anywhere, anytime," quote. The Bulldogs aren’t backing down again this season as Fresno will host Cincinnati and Illinois and travel to Utah and Ole Miss.

Florida edged out Ohio State in Rival.com’s ranking of the best one-two football-basketball punch in college sports since the BCS era began. Texas, Oklahoma and Southern Cal rounded out the top five.

Easy now. I agree that Paul Johnson is an excellent football coach and he’s just what Georgia Tech desperately needed to right the ship that has been listing badly since the mid-60s. But one columnist in the AJC referred to the former Navy coach as the ‘New Bobby Dodd.’ Whoa, now.

This is Norman Arey and I think Steve Spurrier is just crying wolf.

Urban has a good heart, just not an esophagus; Richt, Johnson, Kelly agree on something

(6/2) I don't mind telling you, these are slow times in sports.

After reading my commentary of Monday on collusion in the NBA, the free-agent summit has been called off. The meeting among Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson, et. al. isn’t going to happen, says Henry Thomas, agent for Bosh and Wade.

The college football dreamers on The Flats think that another national championship is in Georgia Tech’s future as long as Paul Johnson stays on as head coach of the Yellow Jackets. Just food for thought but the last time the Jackets won a national title was in 1991. That year the team rushed for 2,300 yards and passed for 2,000. Johnson’s teams annually run for 4,000 yards but threw the ball a total of 168 times last year. Can it be done with those kinds of stats?

What do Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson, Georgia’s Mark Richt and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly all agree on? Defense. All three schools are changing to a 3-4 defense this season, mainly to counter the spread offenses that are taking over college football.

You remember Matt Schaub, right. He was the backup to Michael Vick when he was traded to the Houston Texans and then seemingly got lost in the NFL miasma. It’s worthy of note that the former University of Virginia quarterback threw for 4,770 yards last season for 29 touchdowns and went to the Pro Bowl.

The Southeastern Conference and the Big XII Conference convened in separate locations this week and I can assure you that the proposed college football conference expansion is on the table. And here’s what will come out of those meetings - nothing. Nothing will happen until the Big 10 makes whatever move or moves it plans. But it is interesting that SEC boss Mike Slive says his league won’t sit by and let expansion pass them by and Big XII commissioner Dan Beebe opened his conference’s meeting with a plea to stay together. Interesting times.

The top four recruiting classes in basketball in the ACC belong to North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest, in that order. And if you care, Georgia Tech’s efforts were rated no better than 10th in the league.

As Florida coach Urban Meyer proclaimed his good health to all in attendance at the SEC meetings, saying it was never a heart problem but an esophageal spasm which caused his discomfort, I took a look at Florida’s football schedule for this season. Outside of its annual game with Florida State, the out-of-conference games for the Gators includes Miami (Ohio), South Florida and Appalachian State. I’d feel better too with that schedule.

And finally, here’s something a little different. Two-time NBA most valuable player Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns will join CBS in telecasting the upcoming World Cup soccer matches.

This is Norman Arey and I don’t think another national title is in Georgia Tech’s near future.

Oh no! Not another pre-season prediction for Georgia to win the national title

(6/2) FoxSports.com published its list of five overused sports cliches, which is kind of redundant since if they weren’t overused, they wouldn’t be cliches. Anyway, the top five included:

1 - "I just went out there and gave 110 percent." (You can’t give more than 100, no matter what you think).

2 - "It is what it is."

3 - "We’re taking it one game at a time."

4 - "They just wanted it more."

5 - "This team showed a lot of courage and overcame a lot of adversity."

-My personal favorites are "We’ve got to step up" or "We’ve turned the corner."

Georgia has been picked yet once again as a possible pre-season national champion in football. Phil Steele, a football analyst and publisher of a football magazine, said he likes Oklahoma to be a dark horse candidate but he’d probably choose the Bulldogs right behind them. Whoa!

The college baseball tournament begins this week and the ACC, SEC and Pac-10 each had eight teams selected to the 64-team field.

If the SEC eventually tries to add Texas and Texas A&M to its lineup in the upcoming college conference expansion, it won’t be the first time, says Georgia’s Vince Dooley. He said that the league seriously considered the two Texas institutions in 1991 but ultimately invited only Arkansas and South Carolina.

And speaking of Dooley, new Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, son of Vince, has a tough road ahead of him. The recruiting in Knoxville has been woeful during the last two seasons of Phil Fulmer and the one year with Lane Kiffin. The younger Dooley is going into battle badly outmanned.

Rivals.com offered up this list of 10 college football teams who lost several close ones last year who could have a break-out season this time around. The 10 were Purdue, Southern Miss, N.C. State, UConn, Arizona, Air Force, Baylor, Tulsa, Colorado and Washington. I think you might add Georgia into the mix.

Sometimes you just have to let up a little. Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner was in the delivery room with his wife as she gave birth to their first child (a daughter) but admits to having made several recruiting calls while waiting for the birth.

The top 12 quarterbacks in the SEC? Here’s how CollegeFootballNews.com sees it: Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett, Florida’s John Brantley, Stephen Garcia of South Carolina, Alabama’s Greg McElroy, Jordan Jefferson of LSU, Auburn’s Cam Newton, Nathan Stanley of Ole Miss, Georgia’s Aaron Murray, Kentucky’s Mike Hartline, Larry Smith of Vandy, Chris Relf of Mississippi State and Tennessee’s Chris Simms.

This is Norman Arey and I think Phil Steele might be a little overboard.

I promise you there was a time not long ago when sports were just fun

(6/1) I want you to imagine this scenario and then ask yourself if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I’m no lawyer, but my common sense compels me to ask these questions.

Let’s imagine that Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning, New England’s Tom Brady and New Orleans’ Drew Brees are free agents. They decide to get together and "talk over" what they might do, where they might sign, and find out what the others are doing.

Or better, imagine St. Louis’ Albert Pujols, the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez and Minnesota’s Joe Mauer are free to sign with anyone and that trio sits down "to talk things over," to decide where they might sign and the pros and cons of each team and each division and each league.

Or how about Alabama’s Nick Saban and Florida’s Urban Meyer and Texas’ Mack Brown meeting to take a look at the college football landscape, figure out where the next national champion may be coming from and where they might choose to ply their trade next season and what conference would be the easiest to dominate.

Well, in essence, that’s exactly what Cleveland’s LaBron James, Miami’s Dwayne Wade and Atlanta’s Joe Johnson are doing. They announced they plan on getting together "to talk things over." Does anyone think this is a bad idea other than me? How about you, Commissioner David Stern?

For starters, you three guys are supposed to be sworn enemies. You don’t get together to fraternize in the off-season and you don’t all gather at someone’s home to discuss your careers.

Second, isn’t this collusion in its purest form? The definition of collusion is collusion takes place within an industry when rivals cooperate for their mutual benefit. It’s where the decision of a few can significantly impact the entire industry or market place.

Third, its common knowledge that James will be able to name his next coach, wherever he goes. Image that. One person has become as large if not larger than his industry.

What’s going to happen to those five 18-year-olds who have committed to Kentucky when LeBron thinks he might like to play for John Calipari? Do you think Calipari would even hesitate to jump the Lexington ship to coach the world’s greatest player? He couldn’t get there fast enough.

Here’s what’s happened here.

-The inmates truly are running the asylum.

-Hey Congress, where are you when you really should step in?

This is Norman Arey wondering what happened to sports. Remember when they used to be fun?