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So, West Virginia has won three different BCS bowl games in the last six years - with three different coaches no less. What to make of this? Well, first of all, it puts the Mountaineers in a pretty select group of college football programs that have won three or more of these since the system was created in 1998 – eight programs to be exact. There’s Ohio State, USC, Florida, LSU, Texas, Miami and Oklahoma that have won at least three BCS bowl games in the last 14 years. And now, um, catch your breath here, West Virginia. That’s right,...

On the morning of April 11, 2011, University of San Diego basketball coach Bill Grier received a surprise visit at his home from two FBI agents who told him that one of his former players, USD's alltime leading scorer Brandon Johnson, and another ex-USD player named Brandon Dowdy were being charged in federal court at that very moment with trying to fix games. That information was shocking enough, but when the agents told Grier about the third defendant linked to USD basketball, former assistant coach T.J. Brown -- a man Grier thought highly of even as he dismissed him in...

Alabama just intercepted a pass at the LSU 32 with 7:00 left in the third quarter.

There hasn't exactly been a lot of good news about the Penn State football program in recent months, and the program got a bit more on Saturday. There are multiple reports coming out of State College that quarterback Matt McGloin got into a fight with receiver Curtis Drake following practice on Saturday. A fight that ended with McGloin being knocked out cold. The details of what happened or what caused the fight are still sketchy at this point, but apparently there was a heated exchange during practice, and when Drake approached McGloin in the locker room after practice, things went...

On the day after their basketball teams lost all self-control and sullied the reputations of their universities in the annual “Crosstown Shootout” game, the schools came back 24 hours later with punishments that further diminished the two. They took one of the worst on-court episodes in recent history and basically brushed it off with soft suspensions and hollow words. Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates dropped an unsuspecting Kenny Frease with a sucker punch to the face, then punched another player, then tried like heck to go after several more but was restrained. He got only six games. If I were a Cincinnati...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - All week long, the chatter about Virginia being on the rise left out an important fact in the mind of Virginia Tech's players: They were still the best in the commonwealth until proven otherwise. The No. 6 Hokies showed they were tops Saturday night, blanking the No. 24 Cavaliers 38-0, their first shutout loss at home in 172 games - since a 55-0 defeat to Clemson on Sept. 8, 1984.

There is a problem with the Bowl Championship Series, but it’s not the one you probably think. College football doesn’t need a playoff. A traditional playoff system – an eight-team or even four-team bracket – brings nothing in the way of advantages over the current system and probably would make things considerably worse. Don’t tell me the traditional architecture for playoffs is the only – or even most – accurate way to determine a champion. The St. Louis Cardinals just won the World Series under that system despite having fewer wins in the regular season than any other team that...

Thursday, November 17 TIME (ET) MATCHUP 8:00 PM ET North Carolina at No. 8 Virginia Tech 8:00 PM ET No. 20 Southern Miss at UAB 8:00 PM ET Marshall at Memphis Friday, November 18 TIME (ET) MATCHUP 8:00 PM ET No. 2 Oklahoma State at Iowa State 8:00 PM ET Toledo at Central Michigan Saturday, November 19 TIME (ET) MATCHUP 12:00 PM ET Citadel at No. 12 South Carolina 12:00 PM ET Indiana at No. 15 Michigan State 12:00 PM ET No. 16 Nebraska at No. 18 Michigan 12:00 PM ET No. 17 Wisconsin at Illinois 12:00 PM ET Louisville...

My long-time friend Giuliana called me from San Diego on Sunday. She mentioned that a friend of her Navy SEAL husband stationed at Coronado Island had tickets to a very special NCAA basketball game that was played on the Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson out in San Diego on Veterans’ Day. You may recall that it was the USS Carl Vinson that handled the disposal at sea of Osama Bin-Laden’s body recently. She was told that because the tickets were for “special VIP” seats, she would be subjected to an intensive background check. Why a background check for an NCAA...

A few millennia from now, when archaeologists from an ascendant Brazil or Turkey or wherever sift the shards of American civilization and find the ruins of the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., they will wonder why a 109,901-seat entertainment venue was attached to an institution of higher education. Today, the accelerating preposterousness of big-time college football is again provoking furrowed brows and pursed lips. But there probably were few of either among the 20 million who Saturday night watched Alabama's student-athletes play those of LSU. These teams' head coaches' salaries are $4.6 million and $3.75 million, respectively, and their...

The decision of Penn State’s trustees to fire the storied football coach Joe Paterno and the president of the university is a strong, and a fairly unusual, statement in our sports-obsessed society that there are more important things than winning. A friend calls my attention to an even more dramatic case that I wouldn’t have remembered on my own in which a university president made an even stronger statement by suspending the entire basketball program for three years to try to purge it of a culture of corruption. Does the name Quintin Dailey ring a bell? I’m a sports fan,...

Speaking at the tribal headquarters of the Spirit Lake Sioux Nation, attorney Reed Soderstrom announced a lawsuit against the NCAA alleging copyright infringement and civil rights violations. The Sioux tribe supports the University of North Dakota’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname and logo, but the NCAA has deemed them to be “hostile and abusive.” Soderstrom alleges that the NCAA has violated “the religious and first amendment rights of the Dakota Sioux tribes.” He also alleged a double standard in the application of the NCAA’s policy against the use of Native American names and imagery. “Though the NCAA has decided ‘Fighting Sioux’ is...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic congressman compared the NCAA to the Mafia over how it controls the lives of student athletes. "I think they're just one of the most vicious, most ruthless organizations ever created by mankind," Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush said of the NCAA at a congressional forum on college sports Tuesday. "I think you would compare the NCAA to Al Capone and to the Mafia." Rush made the accusations at the forum called to look at the impact of "back-room deals, payoffs and scandals" in college sports. The NCAA declined to respond to Rush's comments. The congressman spoke...

The Spirit Lake tribe Tuesday sued the NCAA for blocking its attempt to let the University of North Dakota use the sports nickname Fighting Sioux. Tribal attorney Reed Soderstrom said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court challenges the NCAA's policy banning the use of Native American names and imagery by collegiate athletic teams. He said the suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association was brought on behalf of more than 1,004 members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "in direct response to their attempt to take away and prevent the North Dakota Sioux Indians from giving their name forever...

Spirit Lake Tribal Council representatives announced this morning that legal action has been taken against the NCAA over the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo. According to attorney Reed Soderstrom, representing the Committee of Understanding and Respect, and Archie Fool Bear, individually and on behalf of 1,004 petitioners from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the lawsuit against the NCAA was filed in response to their ruling on the nickname and subsequent sanctions. The lawsuit involves 12 counts, including copyright infringement, lack of jurisdiction and “intentional infliction of emotional distress on the Sioux people.”

Great field level camera work that shows you what it is actually like to be on the field at the end of a game like that. You hear every sound and see every player chest bump.

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy  than to fumble this football"  - John Heisman Fighting Irish GameDay "When you win, nothing hurts."  -Joe Namath @ Alabama "It isn't necessary to see a good tackle-  you can hear it." -Knute Rockne @ Notre Dame "My advice to defensive players: Take the  shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor."   -Bowden Wyatt  @ Tennessee "Motivation is simple. You eliminate  those who are not motivated." -Lou Holtz  @ Arkansas "If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold,  you gotta know the password: "Roll, Tide, roll!" -Bear Bryant ...

UND officials have estimated the cost of retiring the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo at nearly $750,000, not counting the cost of changes that may occur at the privately-held Ralph Engelstad Arena. University President Robert Kelley sent the estimates last week to a budget analyst and auditor with the North Dakota Legislative Council, in response to a request made by Rep. Mike Schatz, R-New England. Schatz, who has declared that he will not support an attempt in next month's special legislative session to clear the way for retirement of the name and logo, said he asked for the cost information...

TIME (ET) MATCHUP 8:00 PM ET No. 16 South Florida at Pittsburgh 8:00 PM ET Houston at UTEP Friday, September 30 TIME (ET) MATCHUP 8:00 PM ET Utah State at Brigham Young Saturday, October 1 TIME (ET) MATCHUP 12:00 PM ET No. 14 Texas A&M vs. No. 18 Arkansas* 12:00 PM ET Minnesota at No. 19 Michigan 12:00 PM ET Northwestern at No. 24 Illinois 12:00 PM ET Mississippi State at Georgia 12:00 PM ET Penn State at Indiana 12:00 PM ET Rutgers at Syracuse 12:00 PM ET Toledo at Temple 12:00 PM ET Tulane at Army 12:00 PM ET...

As I wrote in Saturday's editions of The Times, there will be a one-on-one basketball tournament on Alcatraz Island Saturday night, featuring 64 players from the U.S. and abroad playing for $10,000....Early prison code banned inmates from interacting with the outside world, but once a year, they played the World Series over the loudspeakers in the yard. “That was the only time I was there when they were allowed to listen to any kind of radio program,” Heaney said Then in the 1950s a radio system was installed for inmates to listen on headsets in their cells. That coincided with...

The rest of college football formally surrendered to the Southeastern Conference Sunday, ending a decades-long war that had become hopelessly one-sided. The surrender took place just outside Appomattox, Va. SEC officials declined to explain why this site was chosen. "What began 85 years ago in Pasadena has been finished today," the SEC said in a statement, referring to Alabama's 1926 Rose Bowl victory over Washington, which established Southern schools as a threat. "This is our sport now."

When you have two very well-known colleges, Syracuse and Pittsburgh who have made it official that they are looking at joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in college athletics,(ACC); it marks the death knell of the Big East in college football and most likely, in its other sports, including basketball. What took me by surprised is that it was Syracuse and Pittsburgh, both basketball powerhouses in regards to men’s college basketball and for Syracuse, its men’s college basketball program headed by the legendary head coach Jim Boeheim who lead his team to the NCAA’s men’s college basketball championship in 2003. What...

The concept of the Pac-16 is again being actively discussed by Pac-12 officials as well as officials at Oklahoma and Texas, a source close to the situation told ESPN's Joe Schad. The source said those schools know the opportunity to join the Pac-12 is their decision. Oklahoma State is expected to follow Oklahoma's lead and Texas Tech is a possibility as the fourth school.

GRAND FORKS – The image Bennett Brien created a dozen years ago, borne into a cauldron of zealous admiration and bitter controversy and destined apparently for retirement by the end of this year, should not be called a logo, the artist insists. “It’s not a logo,” he said. “It’s a symbol.” And the symbolism of the Native American man depicted in his design for the University of North Dakota has been misunderstood, he said.

The honor code at West Point possesses an admirable directness: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do." In those few words the United States Military Academy sends a clear message about what the institution expects of its cadets. Of its 12 words, the last five are the most difficult. Plainly it's not enough to behave honorably oneself. The code comes to mind while reading the sordid news about the University of Miami's football program. The Hurricanes have been in the headlines since last week, when Yahoo! Sports ran a story about a former booster—now serving...

Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players Charles Robinson By Charles Robinson, Yahoo! Sports 2 hours, 34 minutes ago KEARNEY, N.J. – A University of Miami booster, incarcerated for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme, has told Yahoo! Sports he provided thousands of impermissible benefits to at least 72 athletes from 2002 through 2010. In 100 hours of jailhouse interviews during Yahoo! Sports’ 11-month investigation, Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro described a sustained, eight-year run of rampant NCAA rule-breaking, some of it with the knowledge or direct participation of at least seven coaches from the Miami...

Can't be about politics all the time huh? Anyways semi political as the BCS system maybe coming to a swift end with the apparent formation of 4 super conferences and the Big-10, Pac-10 and the ACC\Big East look to consolidate and create a defacto playoff system.

More than a dozen current and former college coaches -- including Texas Tech's Billy Gillispie, Arizona's Lute Olson, Baylor's Scott Drew and Gonzaga's Mark Few -- are believed to have lost investments most recently valued at over $7.8 million combined with the late Houston-area businessman and AAU basketball operator J. David Salinas, sources close to the matter tell SI.com. According to documents reviewed by SI.com, the value of Gillispie's investment alone was purported to be $2.3 million; Olson's, $1.17 million; Drew's, $621,000; Few's, $353,000. Salinas, who committed suicide on Sunday amid a months-long investigation into his businesses by the U.S....

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVN) -- Ohio State will vacate their 12 win 2010 season along with a victory in the Sugar Bowl as part of self-imposed punishment for NCAA rules violations. The recommendations also include a two-year probation that would not cost the Buckeyes any scholarships or ban them from post-season play. Ohio State is asking the NCAA to go easy on it because it says former-coach Jim Tressel was the only official that knew of infractions. The university also announced it has reached an agreement with Tressel to change his resignation to a retirement. In a release Ohio State said...

The ESPN special filmed on Penn State's University Park campus earlier this month is set to air at 8 p.m. tonight on ESPN, followed by a 9 p.m. showing on ESPNU. The special features Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and is titled "Difference Makers: Life Lessons with Paterno and Krzyzewski". State football coach Joe Paterno, left, and Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski meet at Penn State in State College, Pa., for the taping of an ESPN show "Difference Makers: Life Lessons with Paterno and Krzyzewski." The show was filmed in front of a...

Fri-Sat-Sun (best of 3) Mississippi State at Florida 12pm (Game 1 & Game 2) Stanford at UNC 3pm (Game 1 & Game 2) Texas at Arizona State 7pm (Game 1 & Game 2) Oregon St at Vanderbelt 8pm ( 9pm Game 2) Game 3 , if Necessary, TBD Sat-Sun-Mon (best of 3) UC Irvin at UVA 1pm ( Game 1 & Game 2) Texas AM at FSU 430pm (1pm Game 2) UConn at South Carolina 6pm (7pm Game 2) Dallas Baptist at Cal 8pm (10pm Game 2) Game 3 , if Necessary, TBD

The Bowl Championship Series has stripped Southern California of its 2004 title and will leave that season without a BCS champion.

Jim Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigned Monday amid NCAA violations from a tattoo-parlor scandal that sullied the image of one of the country's top football programs.

Finally a story posted about Lacrosse that had nothing to do with death, arrests, or rape! With Stony Brook's loss last week to Hartford, I wasn't too interested in who would win the NCAA LAX championship. As I was watching the quarter-final game between Maryland and UNC, there was a play that was just unbelievable. I was wondering what the heck was going on. Everybody was fooled, including the cameramen.

Now that the birth certificate issue has finally been laid to rest, the President announced that he has far more important things to do. Immediately after that announcement, the President flew to Chicago for an appearance on Oprah, and then on to New York for two fundraisers. This week, “importance” shifted to college football. The Justice Department sent a letter Tuesday to the National Collegiate Athletic Association stating that “serious questions continue to arise” over whether the Bowl Championship Series—the sport’s much-criticized method for choosing a champion—complies with antitrust laws. Every year, it seems that the only folks who like...

Kemba Walker has read a book. You read that right: Walker, the University of Connecticut (UConn) star guard and NCAA Men's Basketball National Champion, Walker has just admitted to finishing his first book "cover-to-cover," in an interview for Sports Illustrated. While for many that is in fact an achievement, for a junior in college who will be graduating this May, who undoubtedly should have read quite a few texts over the years, it is an embarrassment. The incident once again illustrates the fantasy that is the life of a superstar Division I student-athlete.

Spartans, UNC to play on an aircraft carrierBy Reporter, Deseret News Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 12:11 a.m. MDT SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Sports Commission has confirmed that Michigan State and North Carolina will play in the Carrier Classic on Veterans Day, the first NCAA basketball game to be played aboard an aircraft carrier. The commission, working with Morale Entertainment Foundation, says it has received written commitments from the two schools and that approval from the U.S. Navy is expected soon. Organizers haven't announced which aircraft carrier will host the Nov. 11 game.

SAN DIEGO — Brandon Johnson became the University of San Diego’s all-time leading scorer for men’s basketball during a game on Feb. 13, 2010, but it was something else that allegedly happened in the same month that was the subject of a federal indictment unsealed Monday. He is accused of fixing a game for money. Johnson was one of 10 people indicted on a variety of charges that included sports bribery, illegal sports bookmaking and marijuana distribution. Two others had ties to USD’s basketball program: former player Brandon Dowdy and former assistant coach Thaddeus “T.J.” Brown. Johnson was arrested in...

I don’t know about you, but I had a hard time stomaching the sight of Jim Calhoun holding the championship trophy after Monday’s final game of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament. Not because it was a lousy game (though it was), but because Calhoun, the pugnacious coach of the University of Connecticut “program” — as the big-money Division I teams are called — shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the gym. Just weeks earlier, the N.C.A.A. had sanctioned him for “failing to create an atmosphere of compliance” with its recruiting rules. To put it more bluntly: UConn cheated. Among the...

It’s safe to say not many people, when they filled out their NCAA basketball bracket, picked Butler and Connecticut to meet in the championship game. But, one person from Des Moines did – with a little help from his dog. Dan Bolsem has a 7-year-old Red Heeler he named Phoenix, a nod to both the city in Arizona and his admiration for the actor Joaquin Phoenix. The 36-year-old photo journalist at KCCI-TV has already won his office pool after using Phoenix as inspiration. “I had my dog pick all dog names,” Bolsem said. “If there wasn’t a team with a...

HERE WE GO FOLKS!!! "... This is for all the small schools, that never had a chance to be here."-HOOSIERS My favorite line, from one of the greatest movies of all time. You just have to be from Indiana, before class tournaments began, having experienced Hoosier Hysteria first-hand, to understand what this really means. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGL0uuCxXyQ

VCU (11) v Butler (8) -3.5 O/U 110 - 6:09pm EDT CBS-TV Kentucky (4) v UConn (3) +2.5 O/U 110 - about 8:49pm EDT CBS-TV

Good Morning And WELCOME To Final Four Weekend! Enjoy the upcoming college b-ball games this weekend!

The Bowl Championship Series is so troubled by the graft exposed in Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl corruption report that it appointed a special “task force.” Among the members is an athletics director who accepted a free Caribbean cruise from the Orange Bowl just last summer. Yes, there’s nothing like having a guy – in this case, Southern Mississippi’s Richard Giannini – who takes lavish gifts from one bowl game to judge another bowl game for giving out lavish gifts.

The official sport of the "new normal" recently held its annual championships in Philadelphia. Think of college wrestling as the athletic version of an austerity program. Wearing almost nothing, coached by men who make next to nothing, and with no hope of professional careers because they don't exist, 34 competitors in each weight class arrived on the mats of the NCAA tournament. Of course, all but one in each of the 10 weight classes left disappointed. As consolation prizes, many received significant facial bruising and at least one, defending champion Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State, a dislocated shoulder. Was...

And then were two. More than 5.9 million brackets were filled out for ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge, but exactly two went 4-for-4 in picking Final Four teams. Only 1,093 brackets had three of the Final Four correct, while 2.1 percent had two right. A total of 27.6 percent had one Final Four team, while the vast majority of you -- 70.3 percent -- don't have a single team left. The improbable VCU-Butler matchup definitely busted the most brackets, as just 192 brackets correctly predicted VCU and Butler to meet in the national semifinals. Overall, 36,732 (0.6 percent) had Butler in the...

The Curse of the Obamabino continues! Last year, Barry O's picks fell by the wayside. This year, same thing! His Baracket has been busted! The O-Man went out on a limb and picked a Final Four of Ohio State (a #1 seed), Duke (another #1), Kansas (still another #1), and Florida (a #2 seed, risky call there, Barry). But the O-Man Omen does not BOde well! Barry's teams are now the Final Forgotten! Let's see what the DUmmies have to say about the Marx Madness, here in this THREAD, "Sunday's NCAA Tournament Thread (Elite Eight)" and this THREAD, "Does...

After crushing the competition for the first week of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, President Obama's bracket is starting to resemble those of fans across the nation: busted. The president was comfortably among the 99th percentile on ESPN.com after the first three rounds of the tournament (including the first round of two play-in games), but his picks began to falter this week as the Sweet Sixteen got underway. Three out of the president's picks for the Final Four (Ohio State, Duke, and Pittsburgh) lost this week, with his choice for national champion Kansas set to take on Virginia Commonwealth Sunday...

Well, No. 11 VCU just finished off the last remaining No. 1 seed, Kansas, in the men's NCAA Division I basketball tournament. You'll recall that Obummer voted 'present' on his brackets and chose all number one seeds to make the Final Four. The guy couldn't even summon the leadership to guide a sharpie to anything other than the number 1 seeds (because that would require making a tough decision or two, oh noes!). Or maybe he just went with number ones because he thinks of himself as "the One." Maybe Zero will lose interest in basketball and pay attention to...

Fans attending this year’s March Madness games will be greeted by a video of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and NCAA President Mark Emmert encouraging them to “say something” if they see suspicious activities. The video, which will also appear at most other winter championship events, is part of a national campaign sponsored by Homeland Security to raise citizen awareness in high-profile environments such as major events and public transit. Security at the games has always been a priority for the NCAA, but the rapid growth of the Final Four in recent years has prompted the Association to...