by Kent Sterling The inertia sending football programs toward the inevitable four mega-conferences of 16 schools each is overpowering. College presidents are powerless to resist its pull, and the battle to see wihich conferences will survive is a compelling drama is huge as its ramifications. The Big 12 is flying apart before our eyes as [...]
by Kent Sterling Indianapolis has an ability to host big sporting events in a fan friendly environment and deliver a high quality product in world class facilities. It hosts the two largest single day sporting events in the world in the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400, will host this year’s Super Bowl, and the NCAA [...]
Very seldom am I mystified. This debate with smart people over whether Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was right to suggest that student-athletes in sports that generate revenue should be paid has me thinking all the people arguing against it are playing some kind of a joke on me. The professional leagues won’t allow kids [...]
by Kent Sterling Every once in a while an option is presented that is such a no-brainer that it would defy reason not to make it. Such was the case for Purdue in 2004 when it needed to find the right guy to lead Purdue after Gene Keady. Matt Painter was named the guy by [...]
by Will Carroll I hate cupcakes. Both kinds. Call me crazy, but I just don’t have a sweet tooth and hate foods that make me want more. I have enough of an issue with temptation as it is. It’s worse with the cupcakes that college football trots out in September. Samford? Stony Brook? Florida something [...]
by Kent Sterling The University of Texas will receive $247.5 million of a $300 million guarantee over the next 20 years in exchange for allowing ESPN to create a network that entirely driven by Longhorn athletics – with some Texas high school football thrown in. Each year, there will be one football game and eight [...]
by Kent Sterling Oh boy. Logos are always a problem. No one internally ever agrees on a design, and the winners generally are the people who yell the loudest in meetings and beat the opposing forces into submission. The old Big Ten logo was too silly. The numeral “11″ being imbedded as a tip of [...]
by Kent Sterling Big East commissioner John Marinatto and Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe both enjoyed their first restful sleep in six months last night as IU president Michael McRobbie reported that the Big Ten committee he chairs has decided, “we believe that this process (of evaluating the wisdom of Big Ten expansion) has reached [...]
by Kent Sterling The Big East is getting more and more proactive. The dominoes that started to fall in June were revealing a scenario where the conference might have dissolved completely. Nothing like a little uncertainty to get commissioners on the phone to athletic directors who might be interested in saving the jobs at the [...]
by Kent Sterling The Associated Press is reporting that the Big East Conference is expanding its football membership by two schools, bringing the total of participants in the league to 10. One of those two schools is reportedly Villanova – already a member for other sports. What does this have to do with Big Ten [...]
