Baylor's request of Brittney Griner is shameful

As more high profile athletes are coming out of the closet to admit their sexuality a lot of people would rather this subject remain strictly off to the side. 

Like the good people at Baylor.

Take former Baylor women's basketball center Brittney Griner, who in her four years in Waco was the rarest of breeds. She was the female college athlete who generated revenue for her school. Few female college athletes have ever done that.

After being the No. 1 overall pick of the WNBA draft, Griner came out and admitted she is gay. That was just about as big of a surprise as her admitting she is tall. Everyone just kind of assumed. Maybe not everyone but I wasn't exactly surprised. .

And I was pretty sure nobody cared. I don't.

But Griner told ESPN that she was told to keep it to herself while she attended Baylor.

Griner told Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey that she was gay while she was being recruited. Is this the first case of women's basketball trumping the bible in recorded history.

"It was more of a unwritten law [to not discuss your sexuality] ... it was just kind of, like, one of those things, you know, just don't do it," Griner said in the interview. "They kind of tried to make it, like, 'Why put your business out on the street like that?'"

Yes, like how the military once was.

Living in the closet sounds like so much fun. Be open, be yourself, provided it fits in with the rest of our beliefs.

Baylor is a Baptist affiliated school. Baptists generally aren't cool with homosexuality because that's what the bible tells them to. 

So Baylor basically said, "We're really not cool with homosexuals, but exceptions can be made because she is Brittney Griner."

Griner wasn't drowning puppies, dealing drugs, running guns to Eastern Europe or rebroadcasting, reproducing, or otherwise using the pictures and accounts of a baseball game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.

Baylor celebrated Brittney Griner the basketball player, and sold her as an inspiration to millions of young girls, but told Brittney Griner the person to shut it.

If you are going to recruit Brittney Griner, and sell Brittney Griner, than you have to be cool with Brittney Griner and not tell her to stay in the closet.

 

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Big 12 to concede all future titles to Kansas after it signed nation's top player

Baylor, nice try.
Same for Oklahoma State.

Just when the Big 12 was ready to crown a new men's basketball champion for the first time since 1934, Kansas just had to step in and go all Kansas on the conference yet again.

In a highly, highly anticipated decision, top prep basketball prospect Andrew Wiggins said he will attend the University of Kansas to play basketball beginning in the fall.

Wiggins is listed as a 6-foot-7 small forward; he has been called one of the top recruits in the past decade.

HOORAY FOR KANSAS, and specifically the institution of higher learning and edumicashion.

This has to be KU's biggest name recruit since Larry Brown hired assistant coach Ed Manning so his son, Danny, would play basketball in Lawrence. Ed apparently was a dynamite coach.

Wiggins is the best prep player in the country, and he was attracting interest from every blue blood program in the nation. He picked KU over Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida State to play college basketball.

He may even attend class, although I don't why.

(* It should be noted that I am a KU undergrad alum, class of ... just very recently.)

This guy is so gone to the NBA this time a year from now the only classes he should be taking are How to Change My Cell Phone Number Every 15 Minutes, The History of Groupies and Entourage Studies.

KU could potentially have the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NBA draft - Ben McLemore - and '14 draft, Wiggins.

Both Baylor and Oklahoma State should have an edge in terms of preseason conference ranking because of the number of quality returning players, but the addition of a talent like Wiggins to Kansas changes everything.

Just prepare now for another KU Big 12 title.

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Red Raiders already announcing plans for football game against Horned Frogs

It's never too early to start planning for anything, and the good people at The Texas Tech University have already unveiled its plans for the home football game between the Red Raiders and TCU Horned Frogs.

Today is May 13, 2013.
That game is scheduled for Thursday, September 12, 2013.

This will be the first home Big 12 game for new head coach Kliff Kingsbury, so it's kind of a big deal. So big that you should probably find your parking spot soon, today preferably.

Of note:
* Potential game times range between 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. If this game starts at 8 p.m., we're looking at an 11:30 p.m. finish. Hopefully. The safe bet is midnight.

* Individual tickets will go on sale for this game on August 1. It should be noted that today is May 13.

* Classes at Tech will remain as scheduled for both Thursday and Friday. The university's "top priority is getting students/faculty to their classes and researchers to their labs while transitioning to host the football game later in the day."

What fell on the cutting room floor was, "The university's top priority is to squeeze as much cash from this game as possible. If studies/research can fit into that priority, all the better. Please don't be too drunk before kickoff."

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The position in football that is no longer worth it

IRVING, Texas - Looking at Dallas Cowboys rookie running back Joseph Randle my first thought was, "Switch positions."

It is not his fault, or even any kind of indictment on his ability. Looking at any NFL running back these days is like the tired "dead man walking" cliche.

Randle is a fifth round pick out of Oklahoma State, which is just about the right place to draft a running back these days. 

With the way running backs "die" these days, why would any kid willingly want to play the position? 

"I like to run the rock," Randle told me.

Without any prompting he continued, "All of them (defensive backs) that were taken in the draft early. I thought about it. I was like, 'Man, I should have played defense.' I did think about that."

I don't have a son, but if I did and he wanted to play football I would tell him to play any position but running back.

With the pounding running backs take these days, and the way more teams both in college and in the pros rotate at least two of them, the "safer" long term plays seems to be something other than this position. Punter, perhaps.

Randle said he played running back, cornerback and safety in high school.

This draft was not running back heavy - the highest taken was North Carolina's Giovani Bernard. A total of six running backs were selected in the first three rounds. Sixteen cornerbacks were selected in the first three rounds.

ME: Running backs just seem to die out so fast.
Joseph Randle: Not my kind.

ME: What is your kind?
Joseph Randle: "I can do a lot. If you have more than one good back, like we do, that will help us. I'm a running back and that is the position I wanted to play. I wanted to score touchdown. It's more fun defense. I liked to tackle and hit people, but you can do that on defense. This is what I chose and I'm sticking with it."

 

Godspeed.

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Gary Patterson has mastered the art of the non-conference schedule

Show of hands who knew Minnesota has a football team?

TCU has announced it will play a home and home football series against the University of Minnesota beginning in 2014. 

Call it the Jim Wacker Series. The much-beloved deceased was the head coach at TCU from 1983 to '91, and then went to Minnesota where he was from 1992 to 1996.

This photo is from Wacker's days at TCU where he was asking this handsome young kicker why he kicked the ball out of bounds to start the game. I think.

TCU will host the Golden Gophers on Sept. 13, 2014. It will play at Minny on Sept. 3, 2015. 

(BTW - The Twin Cities are a perfect place to visit in the summer months. U of M is a great campus. There is a lot to do up there, and the weather is usually fantastic in September - the snow doesn't fall until around September 23rd.)

This series is another example of TCU head coach Gary Patterson doing what he does as well as anyone in the country - scheduling the fake "hard" game. All good coaches do it. At least the ones who want to keep their jobs.

Minnesota is an ideal non-conference opponent. The Gophers are not some MAC, Sun Belt or FCS dog. Season ticket holders won't complain that TCU is bringing in a bad non-conference opponent that they won't even leave the parking lot to enter the stadium to watch.

The Gophers can will be spun as a Big 10 opponent who have appeared in a bowl game nine times since the start of the century. All true.

The fine print won't include that this team has not won a bowl game in its last five appearances, and has been in a grand total of 15 bowl games since 1961.
The fine print on the Gophers won't include that they are 67-87 since 2000. They are 26-49 since 2007 and have one winning season in that stretch.

The way college football works for the BCS affiliated schools, there is minimal incentive to load up the non-conference schedule with challenges any greater than this.

Basically, this is like adding another Kansas to the schedule. 

As any good coach knows, you can never play Kansas enough.

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Texas A&M just another school spending whatever it can on a football stadium

Since logic and common sense vacated the premises on the spending in college athletics roughly 20 years ago, it makes perfect sense that Texas A&M is considering spending about $450 million for a renovated football stadium.

Just when the University of Texas thought its renovated digs at Darrell K. Royal Stadium were going to be grand, the good people wearing the maroon and white have unveiled a plan to make the new Kyle Field large and expensive.

The plan was presented to A&M's board of regents on Wednesday.

Seating capacity would be 102,000 and the price tag on this expansion is $450 million. This project would begin immediately after the 2013 season, or when Johnny Manziel is done playing his last college game. It would be done in time for the start of the 2015 season.

Yes, that means Texas A&M's attendance will be bigger than UT, which currently holds 100,119 proving once and for all that more people can potentially attend a home Aggies game than a UT football game. I think we know some university that has its priorities in order.

But UT wants to expand the stadium again to a capacity of 112,000, so take that. Hopefully by then Texas A&M will have a plan to increase Kyle Field to 113,000.

Seriously. This is insane to spend this much money on a venue that is used six times a year. Maybe eight. It also completely consistent with the rest of the great state a Texas, and the United States.

If you are doing the math ...
* SMU built Ford Field for a cost of $42 million.
* TCU renovated Amon G. Carter Stadium to the price of roughly $164 million.
* Baylor is building a new football stadium just across the Brazos River from campus with a price of $250 million.
* Texas Tech spent roughly $85 million over about a ten year period to upgrade its football stadium.
* Texas A&M wants to do a football stadium that will cost $450 million.
* Houston plans to spend $100 million for a new football venue.
* North Texas spent $78 million on its new digs.
* Texas spent a total of $450 million over a 15 year period to remake all of its athletic facilities.

Also of note, many of these athletic departments are also associated with schools of higher learning. 

It goes right along with the dream of all Division I college athletic programs that have football: If you spend it, they might win, and then they'll come, and then you might break even on the rest of the department.

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Baylor lands huge "recruit" in men's basketball

Not sure how Baylor men's basketball coach Scott Drew pulled this off, but his team should contend with Oklahoma State for the Big 12 title next season.

Center Isaiah Austin is returning to Waco for his sophomore year rather than declare for the NBA draft. Most mock drafts had Austin being selected in the first round. By sticking around this should give Austin the chance to gain some weight. He's 7-foot-1, and approximately 123 pounds. He is listed as 220 pounds but that appears to be about 50 pounds wrong.

Austin averaged 13 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks as a freshman last season for a Bears team that won the National Intramural Tournament in New York City.

"We're extremely excited to have an opportunity to work with Isaiah for another year," Drew said in a statement. "I think it's a compliment to Baylor Nation, the university and the team that Isaiah wants to return, and I know Baylor Nation is really excited to have him back for another year."

Somewhere Drew had to be high-fiving anybody with a hand at this news. His job just got a lot easier since the season ended.

The team does lose Pierre Jackson to graduation, but will not only return Austin but senior forward Cory Jefferson (13. ppg., 8.0 rpg.), guard Brady Heslip and Rico Gathers. The Bears are going to be loaded.

If the Bears or Oklahoma State do not end Kansas' run of nine consecutive Big 12 titles the rest of the conference schools should no longer play basketball.

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The one thing Jerry Jones has made good on

Jerry Jones may not be able to deliver a Super Bowl in the next 50 lifetimes, but the man can deliver others things as promised.

The crooks that run college football have not only decided on a College Football Playoff but that the first title game in the "playoff era" will be at Cowboys Stadium. The game will be Jan. 12 2015.

The Cotton Bowl will also be a part of the rotation for the semifinal games as well with the other rich-kid bowls such as the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Chick-fil-A.

(BTW - Hats off to the people that devised this playoff to name it just that - College Football Playoff. This name is not some post-modernistic art of simplicity. By not including tag 'NCAA' or anything else it can easily sell the naming rights to a corporate sponsor without having to share a dime with the organization based in Indianapolis.)

Now let's just hope that Fort Worth/dallas is not buried in snow and ice the way this region was when the Super Bowl came to town in 2011. While we're at it, let's hope that every paying customer actually has a seat to sit in to watch the game. And that nobody dies, either.

This will essentially give the people at Cowboys Stadium, and North Texas organizers, the chance to correct the many screwups that happened when the Super Bowl came to town. By the time the Unnamed Corporate Sponsor College Football Playoff Title game comes to Cowboys Stadium it will have hosted a Super Bowl, NBA All-Star game, NCAA Final Four, Cotton Bowls, among many others high-profile events.

All of these have gone well with the exception of that one Super Bowl, which was a horror show for event planners.

North Texas is not on the schedule to host another Super Bowl. Those already in the books are:
2014: New York/New Jersey
2015: Phoenix

The Super Bowl in 2016 will be the 50th, and that will likely be in an area that has a tradition of hosting the big game at the end. Think South Florida.

If the College Football Playoff title game goes well, enough time will have passed since that fiasco in '11 that Jerry should enough street cred' to host the Super Bowl again.

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Casey Pachall better be TCU's starting QB

Had a good laugh at the Tweet by Fort Worth Star-Telegram TCU beat writer Stefan Stevenson; he said he would cover TCU's game against LSU naked if Casey Pachall isn't the starting quarterback.

Stefan (pictured) should do it anyway, just to liven up a dull pressbox.

Simple nudity by a beat writer ain't enough - if Casey Pachall is in good standing with the team and he is not the starting quarterback for TCU against LSU on 8/31 at Cowboys Stadium the head coach should be fired and replaced by Pat Sullivan.

All of this talk about the quarterback race between Casey Pachall and Trevone Boykin being tight is laughably stupid. Either that or Casey Pachall is suddenly terrible (he isn't), or Trevone is suddenly Dan Marino (he isn't).

On a conference call with Big 12 head coaches today, TCU head coach Gary Patterson said he will likely name the starting QB during two-a-day practices. He was not laughing when he said this.

"That race with the quarterback is very close. One beats you with his arm and one beats you with his legs," Patterson said.

If Casey Pachall didn't think he was going to be the starter he should have transferred to another school where he could start 11 or 12 games. He needs to play to have any shot at a real pro career.

"He's a little rough around the edges," GP said today of Pachall. "He always had a Josh Boyce as a go-to guy and he's not there. And establishing who he is throwing to and what he is doing and getting him more familiar with the young receivers on the team."

While there is not a soul around TCU's program who is not grateful for what Boykin did last season, and believes that he will be an effective QB, no one says he is better than Pachall. The QB who can beat you with his legs averaged 3.3 yards per carry last season; of note, the stats do not include how many sacks he avoided.

Pachall can make throws to places Boykin simply never demonstrated he could. Boykin never gained the trust of his head coach to make throws into crowded areas. 

That said, there is a level of expecation surrounding Pachall's return that may not be quite warranted.

As good as he is, he has not faced the level of competition that Boykin has. The only Big 12 team Pachall faced was Kansas, which is in the conference because of its basketball program. The only teams Boykin has faced are big ones.

Pachall hasn't done it against the "big people" yet. The safe bet is that he can, and the sure money is that he will be starting against LSU. If not, Stefan is going to be naked in the Cowboys press box and the head coach should be fired.

 

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Bill Snyder drops the truth about college football

Kansas State head football coach Bill Snyder will forever retire the Boring Interview award, but perhaps in his advancing age he is less afraid to state his own opinion. Bravo.

In an interview with 610 Sports Radio KCSP, Snyder went off on the state of college football that it has become a giant money grab that has altered the priorities of what a university should stand for.

Snyder said: "I can only speak personally. I'm grossly overpaid for what I do. That's part of what creates the issue."

No one is disagreeing with Snyder, but who is going to stop this giant gravy train of cash? The coaches? No. The agents? Hell no.

Snyder is 73, and recently signed a five-year deal worth $14.75 million. I wonder if he said, "Heeeeeey, no thanks."

Snyder continued: "I think it's in a bad place right now. It's in a bad place for a variety of reasons. We've allowed it to become money driven. We've allowed it to become TV driven. We've allowed athletic programs or football programs to mean more to a university than what the university is really supposed to be all about.

“The last I heard, we were educational institutions. Certainly there is an education that takes place in football, and I understand all the parameters. But it's not driven by values; it's driven by dollars and cents."

All of the above is accurate.

When schools realized a visible football and men's basketball team could be major revenue producers and beacons for donations is when the model dramatically changed. It has since become a race between coaches inside their own programs for "we need this and we need that" and the spending is non stop. These things need money. This means school officials have to beg donors, or agree to whatever TV wants to cover costs, which also include coaches' salaries.

What will change this reality Snyder did not say.

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