-Late last week it looked as if the Big 12 was on its last legs. Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were bound for the Pac-12 and Missouri was going to the SEC. Turns out none of that is going to happen after the Pac-12 voted against expansion (for now). Instead it was the Big East that was dealt a major blow when Pittsburgh and Syracuse suddenly announced their intentions to head for the ACC and they are expected to be followed shortly by Rutgers and UConn. At this point I don't expect the Big East to survive as anything but a basketball conference. With that in mind I wouldn't be too upset to see Louisville, Cincinnati and TCU move to the Big 12. I never thought Louisville and TCU made any sense in the league and Cincinnati is too solid of a program to be left by itself. Then West Virginia can move to the SEC and the musical chairs can stop for a couple years. Plus, maybe this way Notre Dame can finally win the Big East tournament. (Yes, it always comes back to Notre Dame.)
-The big news in the NFL this week was a couple of Giant players being caught on tape clearly faking injuries as a way to stop the clock without using a timeout in an effort to slow down the Rams no-huddle offense. Of course the people at ESPN are outraged by this behavior, because, really, what does this teach the children? In any kind of controversy along these lines, I'm always more interested to hear what the other professional football players still in the league are saying. And pretty much to a man they all agreed, yeah, it's fine. There are so many rules slanted to give the offenses an advantage in football that everyone is kind of willing to let this one slide. Really, there is no way to prove a guy is faking (God forbid a ref accuses a guy of acting hurt and it turns out he has some kind of internal injury), so we're all just going to have to live with this one. Even the children.
-Speaking of kids, in order to curb violence in the stands of a Turkish soccer league one team took the extreme step of banning all men from the stands. They only let in women and children for the game and made men watch from home. Players said it was a very pleasant experience and they loved the positive energy the crowd gave them versus the angry vibe they normally get. That being said, I bet it never happens again. Trust me on this one; as soon as whoever owns the stadiums sees that the alcohol sales were way down and how much money they didn't make, that will be the end of that little social experiment.
-After he was caught using performance-enhancing drugs for a second time, Manny Ramirez announced his retirement rather than serve out his 100-game suspension. Well, a couple days ago Manny said that he planned to apply for reinstatement to the league and would serve his suspension so he could play ball again, even if it meant going over to Japan to play. In various reports Manny was quoted as saying he was, "Unprepared for retirement." Interesting. While I'm willing to concede that Manny never struck me as the kind of guy who would have hobbies to fill up all this new-found free time and he was probably going stir-crazy in retirement, I'm pretty sure it was Manny's bank account that was the most unprepared. I get this crazy feeling that Ramirez wasn't exactly diligent in watching the people who oversaw his money.
-While we're on the subject of performance-enhancing drugs, earlier this week the World Anti-Doping Agency said that it was planning to add nicotine to it's list of banned, performance-enhancing substances for 2012. Um, what? First off, this pretty much only effects golf, because I don't know of any other sport which allows you to smoke during it anyway. But, secondly, does anyone think of nicotine is a performance-enhancer? I've known many smokers in my life and I have to tell you, I've never once been playing a sport with them and found myself wondering how they found that amazing edge. Mostly I wonder if they are going to die if we make the pick-up game full-court.
-However, the topic of smoking golfers does lead us nicely into the story of John Daly. Daly was playing over in the Austrian Open on Friday when he had a rough go of it on the 15th hole. First he hit a shot into the water. Disgusted, he threw his club into the water after it. Then, after finishing the hole he was approached by a tournament official, told he had taken an illegal drop and was assessed a two-stroke penalty. Already 4-over for the tournament, Daly walked off the course (though, at least he took the time to shake his playing partners' hands). We can be done with Daly now, right? He's withdrawn from 16 tournaments in the last four years and only had two top-tens in that same span. I understood his initial appeal - he was the every man, come-out-of-nowhere, underdog, people's champion. But at this point he's just kind of a jerk, right? When he's not playing badly at tournaments he complaining about conditions or not getting invited. At some point players and tournament officials have to think he's more trouble than he's worth and I imagine we're getting pretty close to that point.
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