Author Archives: AD

Sportsnight in the D: ALCS & MNF

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For the first time in ten years, Monday Night Football was in Detroit, and following a 24-13 victory over Chicago, the Lions are 5-0 for the first time since 1956. The home crowd affected the game, helping to cause the Bears’ nine false-start penalties, and officials only had to stop play once for a foreign object thrown onto the field, which I think is pretty good, all things considered. ESPN’s decision to replace now-banished Hank Jr.‘s traditional open with a Detroit-themed segment narrated by legend Barry Sanders was a nice touch too. All of this helped distract Motown sports fans from the painful, extra-inning demise of their baseball team that concluded moments before kickoff. Even if the Tigers were healthy, I’m not sure Texas still isn’t the better team, and the Tigers certainly aren’t healthy. Down 0-2, they return to Detroit for the third and fourth games of the series. Right now, coming home is about the only thing cutting in their favor in this series. If Calvin Johnson can swing a bat, now would be the time for him to speak up.

TCU to join Big XII

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ESPN Dallas/Fort Worth reports:

TCU trustees are scheduled to meet on Monday and are expected to accept the Big 12’s invitation to join the conference, sources confirmed Sunday.

An announcement could come as early as Monday evening.

The Big 12 extended TCU an invitation on Thursday and said it would begin discussions with the university immediately. TCU chancellor Victor Boschini Jr. issued a statement on Thursday about the situation.

“These discussions with the Big 12 have huge implications for TCU,” the statement said. “It will allow us to return to old rivalries, something our fans and others have been advocating for many years. As always, we must consider what’s best for TCU and our student-athletes in this ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics. We look forward to continuing these discussions with the Big 12.”

A move to the Big 12 allows TCU to rekindle some of the rivalries it had for so long in the Southwest Conference, which disbanded in 1996.

TCU, the defending Rose Bowl champion, agreed earlier this year to leave the Mountain West Conference for the Big East, which has an automatic BCS berth.

A source told ESPNDallas.com last week that TCU would have to pay a $5 million exit fee to leave the Big East, but would be able to join the Big 12 in time for the 2012-13 athletic year.

What? You thought the Big XII was collapsing? Over and done with? Maybe. But the Big East is going down first, as reported here a month ago. Texas Christian’s decision to get itself into a BCS conference at all costs made sense two years ago, but now, the Big East is done, and TCU’s football team isn’t as good. (That’s a perspective that shows how fast this landscape really is changing, even if it appears incremental on a day-to-day basis.) The Big XII, fearing it’s next to dissolve, had to take TCU to keep something resembling a critical mass and, conveniently, replace one departing Texas team with another. And of course, TCU still thinks it belongs in a BCS conference. Million-dollar musical chairs.

Big Monday, big week

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Weekend rain in formerly drought-ridden Arlington, TX sets up a big Monday for Motor City sports fans, with game two between the Rangers and the seemingly outmatched Tigers preceeding the Lions’ first Monday Night Football appearance in a decade. The way the ALCS has started, it probably is a good thing Detroit fans will have options tonight.

Indianapolis stayed perfect yesterday, losing to the happless Chiefs, and the Jets and Eagles look as bad as ever.

Saturday didn’t feature many close games either, as the Top 25 largely rolled. Northwestern kept Michigan close early in Evanston, but it wasn’t to be for the Mildcats. (More on that game later.) Florida never was in it against LSU, although Tiger fans were prepared for…whatever. Similarly, the Red River Rivalry looked anything like a rivalry, as Oklahoma dominated Texas, and Clemson continues to look anything like Clemson.

In the works this week: a new writer joins the site and weighs in on Michigan/Northwestern; a new music series; and ALDLAND returns in force to SEC country. Thanks for reading.

Late-breaking Friday textual jam

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Because I’ve probably expended my office audio-listening capital for the day on baseball clips, and because I’ve used up most of my seasonal and Friday-themed songs for the moment, here’s a textual jam to lighten the mood on a Friday afternoon. Inspired by the Georgia Tech football coach’s call to get more students in the stands during games, EDSBS (more on Magalan‘s other favorite sports blog in a future post) profiled an All The Way Turnt Up interaction between the coach and one GT student:

GEORGIA TECH STUDENTS CANNOT HIDE FROM PAUL JOHNSON

Threat of lawsuit brings bonus repayment from John Calipari, R.C. Johnson, donation from Derrick Rose (via The Commercial Appeal)

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The University of Memphis’ disgraced 2007-08 basketball season prompted three local attorneys who claimed to represent unnamed season ticket holders to threaten a lawsuit against former coach John Calipari, former guard Derrick Rose and current athletic director R.C. Johnson before reaching a lucrative out-of-court settlement.

Calipari and Rose, according to the settlement agreement obtained Thursday by The Commercial Appeal, agreed on May 28, 2010, to pay a total of $100,000 to the three attorneys — Martin Zummach, Frank L. Watson III and William Burns — who were representing, in the agreement’s words, “certain ticket holders.” The amount was to be disbursed “as they agree among themselves.” … Keep Reading

(via The Commercial Appeal)

Tigers win Game 5, series against Yankees, 3-2

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Here's your Game 5 winner

The Detroit Tigers hung on to beat the New York Yankees in a decisive fifth game last night, advancing to the ALCS, which starts Saturday night in Arlington, TX.

I questioned Jim Leyland’s personnel decisions before and during the game, but they turned out to be exactly the right moves. Keep reading…

The Little Brown Jug stays in Ann Arbor

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After opening up the college football season with Vanderbilt, I opened big Ten conference play in Ann Arbor last Saturday, where Michigan took a vice-like grip on the Little Brown Jug, beating Minnesota 58-0.

Across the state, the weather had been somewhat crummy all week. I got into town on Friday night hoping to watch Game 1 of Tigers-Yankees. I thought I might’ve seen snow in Ann Arbor, but everyone saw rain in NYC, necessitating a suspension of that game after about an inning of play. Our Saturday-morning tailgate (for a noon game) was a cloudy windstorm punctuated by grilled bratwurst. It turns out that those are the best kind of windstorms. Even better was that things calmed down and the sun came out just in time for kickoff.

I cannot immediately recall a more one-sided game between teams in equivalent classifications above the high school level. I’m told Minnesota was without its senior quarterback. Given that the Gophers have a win on the year and apparently played USC close, he probably deserves some Heisman votes even if he doesn’t take another snap. It wasn’t so much that Minnesota made a lot of mistakes– they only had one turnover, which I predicted right before the play occurred– as that they just couldn’t function on either side of the ball, while Michigan seemed to gain an easy 8-10 yards on every play.

And thus Michigan improbably moves to 5-0. I want to say they aren’t as good as their record, but I’m really not sure anyone has a basis to say anything about them because, outside of the strange Notre Dame game, they really haven’t been tested. The next two weeks will provide that test, though, as they go on the road for the first time this season, first at Northwestern and then at Michigan State.

Look for ALDLAND to take you to a couple more Big Ten games this year, and maybe even another SEC game.

Report on college athletic director pay

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USA Today reports:

Following the lead of the $5 million football coach, athletics directors may be next to hit the college sports salary jackpot.

ADs average about $450,000 at the NCAA’s top-tier schools, according to a USA TODAY analysis, rivaling the pay of many university presidents. But at least five ADs make more than $1 million, and since August 2010, at least 10 public schools have given their AD’s pay raises of $75,000 or more.

USA Today’s cover story on the topic is here. The paper also provided a breakdown of the top 120 schools’ ADs. The top ten, ranked in descending order by total pay:

School Athletics Director Conf. University pay Other pay Total pay Max Bonus
             
Vanderbilt David Williams SEC $2,560,505 $0 $2,560,505 $0
Florida Jeremy Foley SEC $1,545,250 $0 $1,545,250 $50,000
Louisville Tom Jurich Big East $1,422,204 $5,500 $1,427,704 $344,000
Texas DeLoss Dodds Big 12 $1,093,391 $2,365 $1,095,756 $125,000
Ohio State Gene Smith Big Ten $1,074,546 $0 $1,074,546 $250,000
Wisconsin Barry Alvarez Big Ten $1,000,000 $40,800 $1,040,800 $0
Oklahoma Joe Castiglione Big 12 $975,000 $0 $975,000 $510,000
Notre Dame Jack Swarbrick Indep. $932,232 $0 $932,232 $0
Duke Kevin White ACC $908,659 $0 $908,659 $0
Tennessee Dave Hart Jr. SEC $750,000 $0 $750,000 $0

(HT: @AndrewBrink)