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Posts for ncaa

The “Other Side” of Sports Gambling Has Always Existed

Kevin Kinkead - May 14, 2018

Photo Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

Match fixing, bribery, extortion! Corruption! Has the Supreme Court opened Pandora’s Box of illicit activity with Monday’s historic ruling?

In case you’re living under a rock, SCOTUS decided that the 1992 federal anti-sports gambling law is unconstitutional, which now gives individual states the right to allow sports betting. That’s a win for the 10th Amendment type who wants the independence to spend his or her own money as they see fit, while the federal government focuses on more important things, like governing the country. I think we call those people Libertarians. Or are they moderate Republicans? Actually, I’ve been told by the comments section to stick to sports, so let’s stick to sports before we anger the “Paul Jolovitz Fan Club President.”

You’ll see states begin to roll out programs immediately while leagues like the NBA look to monetize the ruling. It makes sense for every organization to embrace this and find ways to turn the inevitability into a positive, but the NFL seems committed to being a bit hard-headed, at least for now:

My first thought is that legalized sports betting will bring new audiences to the game, much like fantasy football did for the NFL. People who otherwise did not give a shit about the Jaguars vs. the Titans would at least tune in to see whether Blake Bortles would throw three touchdowns or three interceptions. Likewise, people who don’t care about the WNBA or MLS might explore a lower-level league in an effort to unearth a money-making strategy. Maybe the degenerate who frequents SugarHouse Casino might put their money into sports instead of Craps once Pennsylvania rolls out a program.

The flip side is that some people think this opens the door for more scandal from within. More Pete Rose types. Think about the NWSL player who only makes $55,000 a year who might be enticed by the ability to bet against herself and then half-ass the on-field effort. Think about the referees who could exhibit a tight whistle or just not blow it at all in the dying seconds of a close game.

The short answer to all of that is that corruption already exists in sports and always has. I mentioned Rose. How about Havertown’s very own Tim Donaghy?

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In what World is Penn a 16 Seed?

Kevin Kinkead - March 12, 2018

Not a great Sunday for the NCAA selection committee or anyone associated with the selection show. Both found a way to take simple things and make them complicated instead.

Where to start?

How about the fact that a a 20-13 Syracuse team was given a play-in game as a #11 seed, but not the 20-14 Notre Dame team that won in the Carrier Dome minus two key players?

Or you could look at the 23-11 USC team that finished second to Arizona in the PAC-12 this year and lost in the conference tournament final. They didn’t get in, but UCLA (20-11) and Arizona State (21-11) are going dancing despite finishing multiple spots below the Trojans in the conference.

Think about Oklahoma, who lost 8 of 10 to finish the year. The 18-13 Sooners were 9th in the Big 12 but got in over Oklahoma State, who finished 19-14 with wins against Kansas (2x), WVU, Texas Tech, Florida State, and split with their Bedlam rivals.

Sure, Davidson’s A-10 tournament upset kept a more deserving team out of the tournament, but this year’s bracket is rife with questionable selections and seedings.

That includes your Penn Quakers, a 24-8 team that won its (brief) conference tournament and finished 12-2 in the Ivy League to split the regular season title with Harvard.

They were rewarded with a 16 seed and a trip to Wichita to face Kansas, a team that gets yet another post-season home game. Kansas shoots the three-pointer as good as anyone in the country, while Penn has the second best three-point defense in college basketball, so I think we’re actually looking at an intriguing matchup here. My gut tells me that Penn doesn’t stand a chance, especially with repulsive and entitled Jawhawk fans filling the arena, but maybe they make it interesting.

My gut also says that Penn got screwed in the seeding, so let’s take a look at their resume and compare it to the 15 seeds. I used schedule strength and RPI data from CBS Sports.  Continue Reading

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The Bu$ine$$ of College Football

Tim Reilly - December 13, 2017

Photo Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Last week, the college football world experienced another iteration of what has become an annual scandal.

No, I’m not talking about the announcement of the four schools that were selected to compete in the College Football Playoff (CFP), or the various other bowl berths that were assigned. Undoubtedly, charting the four best teams makes for compelling television. Absent a truly objective way to assess teams that do not always play each other, there is always enough uncertainty built into the process to generate debate. But the dispute that arises at the conclusion of each regular season over the CFP participants pales in comparison to the year-end spending frenzy that takes place among the Power 5 conferences and the chaos that ensues throughout the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

Universities that fell short of their boosters’ expectations scour the coaching landscape in search of a savior to lead their football programs back to prominence. Yesterday’s wunderkinds are discarded in favor of today’s geniuses. The outgoing head coach accepts his lucrative buyout package while the ink dries on his successor’s multimillion-dollar deal. When the game of mercenary musical chairs ends, everyone seems to find a seat. Everyone, that is, except for the players who provide the labor and risk their physical welfare for our entertainment.

This time of year, the coaching market moves at warp speed. It can be incredibly disorienting. Take Willie Taggart, for example. One minute, the coach is flashing the “O” during a recruiting trip on behalf of the University of Oregon:

Nine days later, Coach Taggart has abandoned Eugene and the “O” for Tallahassee and the Tomahawk Chop: Continue Reading

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Joe Paterno Was Just a Creature of College Football’s Toxic Culture

Tim Reilly - September 21, 2017

Photo Credit: Matthew O'Haren -USA TODAY Sports

The latest Joe Paterno story slipped into the news cycle two Saturdays ago, nestling itself between the ongoing revelry of a new college football season and the impending calamity of Hurricane Irma.

Given the distractions that presented themselves that weekend, you would be forgiven if you missed it, or, more likely, quickly digested the lede before moving on to the next article.

After all, the Penn State scandal is yesterday’s news. Jerry Sandusky is in prison. Two former PSU administrators and the school’s ex-president received jail sentences for their roles in the cover-up. Paterno is dead, his legacy in tatters outside the Happy Valley bubble. The university has paid millions of dollars in settlements to Sandusky victims.

There are fresh tragedies for the public to consume. Frankly, some of us have even become so inured to atrocity that we’ve lost our capacity for outrage.

However, the primary revelation contained within Sara Ganim’s recent CNN offering should require us all to read past the headline and pause – not for anger – but for introspection.

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John Oliver MURDERSLAUGHTERS the NCAA

Jim Adair - March 16, 2015

Or, “John Oliver [insert violent action here] the [insert terrible organization here]”

In case you forgot, or you just want to burn 21-minutes at work on a Monday, here’s John Oliver from last night’s Last Week Tonight going through the multitude of ways that the NCAA is a a corrupt sham. Happy March Madness, everyone.

Villanova is Projected as a Top Seed in March Madness and Kyle Needs a Minute

Jim Adair - March 2, 2015

Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Villanova’s men’s basketball team is having a hell of a year. After defeating Providence and Xavier (and watching Gonzaga lose to BYU), they now occupy the #4 spot in the top 25 and may be set to land at the top of a bracket in the March Madness tournament as a #1 seed.

With a 27-2 record, NBCSports’ Bracketology has projected Nova to take the #1 seed in the West. They also put Temple on the wrong side of the bubble. It would be the Wildcats’ first number one seed since 2006, when they played their first two rounds in Philadelphia and made it to the Elite Eight. And yes, this post would have a lot more hype and hyperbole if Kyle wrote this, but he passed out upon hearing this news because all of his blood rushed … somewhere.

Roundup: NCAA Regionals in Philly, More Mo’ne, the (Fake) Death of Mr. Met

Jim Adair - November 17, 2014

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Mo’ne

After becoming the first female pitcher to ever win a game in the Little League World Series — and racking up all of the acclaim (and media coverage) that came with that — Mo’Ne Davis will release her memoirs next year. How a teen has memoirs, I do not know, but HarperCollins will publish Mo’ne Davis: Remember My Name under their children’s books umbrella, and the book will be co-written with (or “as told to”) Hilary Beard.

NCAA Tournament

Two great pieces of news on the March Madness front:

1. We get to start calling the round of 64 the “first round” again after the NCAA pretended those play-in games were anything other than a way for them to make more money.
2. The 2016 men’s basketball tournament’s East Regional games will be played at the Wells Fargo Center.

LaSalle will play the role of “host institution” and the other sites for the regional round are Chicago, Louisville, and Anaheim. The 2016 Final Four will be played at NRG Stadium, where they have some experience with basketball court-style floors.

Podcasts

Twitter-hero FanSince09 has released a new conspiracy-driven (and mocking) sports podcast, which should put you in the right mindset for whatever the Phils are going to do this offseason.

And on a slow and dreary day, you can take solace in the fact that Mr. Met is dead. The Onion’s newest spinoff site, Clickhole, reported the death of the “baseball-headed demon” today, at the age of 10,000. In mourning his passing, Clickhole gave us this amazing image:

The world loved Mr. Met’s boisterous performances during Mets games and the way he would walk calmly to the stadium’s boiler room after games and stand motionless, facing the wall, all night long until the next game began.

This could have all happened years ago of course, because of the Phanatic.

UConn Hit with “Secondary Violation” for Auriemma’s Chat with Mo’ne Davis

Jim Adair - September 5, 2014

Photo Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma, after being snitched on for talking to Mo’ne Davis on the phone, was found to be in violation of the NCAA’s rules about recruiting. Auriemma’s offense is considered a secondary violation, which usually only amounts of the punishment of sitting through a powerpoint or something. According to College Basketball Talk, Auriemma was found to be in violation of NCAA bylaw 13.1.3.1, which reads:

Telephone calls to an individual (or his or her relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before September 1 at the beginning of his or her junior year in high school (subject to the exceptions below). If an individual attends an educational institution that uses a nontraditional academic calendar (e.g., Southern Hemisphere), telephone calls to the individual (or his or her relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before the opening day of classes of his or her junior year in high school. Thereafter, an institution may make telephone calls to the prospective student-athlete at its discretion.

The typical punishment for breaking the rule laid out above is “some more education on the rules,” so Auriemma should expect strongly worded .pdf in his inbox shortly.

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