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45-35 Hook'em

A Chinese proverb which has been quoted since at least the 2000 election cycle by the drive bys says “may you live in interesting times.” Well maybe I don’t want to live in interesting times. Since then, it’s just become too interesting. You have a political party getting away with fraud for their own political gain, a presidential candidate a gaggle of dead voters away from the presidency, the Treasury Secretary attempting to ensure the financial well being of all Americans, and then there’s one of the Congressmen from my own state, I won’t go there... ...meanwhile Florida has a...

Last week, we had a fellow FReeper mention early on in the thread the great games in the late 60s and early 70s between Nebraska and Oklahoma. Nothing per se against the Sooners, but I loved the option. First off, it’s somewhat simple compared to a lot of other offenses—certainly the west coast offense of the post Tom Osborne era. Many people like to see things like 50 yard passes or a de-cleating hit. I liked watching the Nebraska teams that used to run the triple option when a quarterback would a) take the ball himself and likely fake a...

Opportunity is knocking, Clemson. You better capitalize now because the path to an ACC crown may never be this smooth again. The Tigers are the storyline of the 2008 season in the ACC. While they’ve got the league’s best quarterback, Cullen Harper, and as much talent as anyone in the conference, the rest of the ACC is down. Way down. Florida State and Miami remain weak facsimiles of the programs that used to collect crowns faster than anyone else in the country. Boston College was built for last year. Georgia Tech and Virginia are about to undergo some serious growing...

The Big Ten isn’t as bad as you think. Because of the geographical location, media coverage, and history, the Big Ten is the most popular conference in college sports. Big schools, big fan bases, big rivalries, big stadiums, its own network … big, big, big. It’s such a big league that it has too many teams for its name. Since there’s so much attention and so much coverage, fans from other leagues love to pile on when things aren’t going so well. However, for all of the bad PR and all the shots the Big Ten has taken over the...

But New York City's former first son is swinging back hard. Late Wednesday, his attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in North Carolina, contending the university has violated its obligations to him as a student-athlete and demanding he be invited back to Duke's state-of-the-art golf-training facility.

As CBS Sports announced Monday that it has hired Clark Kellogg to replace Billy Packer as lead analyst for its college basketball broadcasts, Packer cast an unemotional eye on his three decades as one of the network's signature voices and said he is eager to work on other projects.

Fresno State Defeats Georgia 6-1 to win CWS (2-1). At least this year's Georgia choke will make people forget about UNC choking in 2006.

If the roles were reversed, Georgia football coach Mark Richt would've been proud. Richt made the flight to Omaha hoping to see the Georgia baseball team win the national title. Instead, he saw a football game. Well, at least in the score sense. After using clutch hitting and closer Josh Fields to overwhelm Fresno State in the series opener, Fresno took round two 19-10 using a barrage of offense. Georgia coach Dave Perno felt like he was on the gridiron. "We had a tough time defending the post pattern across the middle. It was killing us," he jokingly said about...

President Bush met this morning with President Arroyo of the Philippines in the Oval Room Transcript President Bush met with Prime Minister Dung of Vietnam in the Oval Office Transcript President Bush welcomed the 2007 and 2008 NCAA Sports Champions to the White House Secretary of State attended a Middle East Conference in Berlin, Germany Enoy your visit to Sanity Island

OMAHA, Neb. | A pair of bulldogs will tangle for college baseball’s top prize, with one considerably more rested than the other. Fresno State’s Bulldogs qualified for their first College World Series final by defeating North Carolina 6-1 on Sunday night. They’ll turn around quickly and face Georgia’s Bulldogs, who ran through their side of the bracket without a loss, which means in the new series schedule Georgia will be playing its fourth game in nine days tonight when the finals begin at 6 p.m. Fine by Georgia. “We were all getting kind of itchy and talking back to each...

CORAL GABLES - Even halfway around the world, people are wondering who the University of Miami will start at quarterback next season. That was one of the questions Shannon received during a week-long trek to the Middle East...The most frequent question Shannon said he received didn’t have anything to do with football. “Does everybody back home still respect us?” Shannon said he and the other coaches were asked. “Does everybody believe in what we’re doing, have confidence in us?” Shannon declined to express his thoughts regarding the situation in Iraq, but said, “I’ll put it this way: You are happy...

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2008 – The University of Kansas national champion men's basketball team began their victory lap in the nation’s capital yesterday by visiting wounded warriors and signing autographs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here. The University of Kansas national champion men's basketball team poses for a picture with injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The team and coaching staff kicked off their two-day tour of the nation's capital by visiting wounded warriors June 2, 2008. Defense Department photo by John J. Kruzel  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Towering players in...

The tournament is underway. 2008 NCAA men's lacrosse tournament bracket First RoundMay 10-11 QuarterfinalsMay 17-18 SemifinalsMay 24 FinalMay 26 Champion (1) Duke (16-1) Loyola (Md.) (7-6) Duke, 12-7 Ohio State, 15-7 Ohio State (10-5) (8) Cornell (11-3) (5) Johns Hopkins (8-5) Hofstra (10-5) Navy, 8-7 Navy (9-5) (4) North Carolina (8-5) (3) Syracuse (12-2) Canisius (10-5) Colgate (11-5) (6) Notre Dame (13-2) (7) Maryland (9-5) Denver (10-6) Maryland, 10-7 UMBC (12-3) (2) Virginia (12-3)

Collin Finnerty wanted Loyola to win in its NCAA Tournament assignment Saturday afternoon at Duke, where awkward moments could have superseded anything else. The top-seeded Blue Devils defeated Loyola as expected in men's lacrosse, then took aside a former teammate and shared a special moment. Finnerty posed for an impromptu photograph near midfield with his ex-teammates, capping a strange get-together on a splendid, yet windy, Saturday afternoon at nearly full Koskinen Stadium. Duke players say Finnerty remains part of their group even though he wore the opposing uniform during the Blue Devils' 12-7 victory. He was one of the three...

To hear Howard Avery describe it, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie knew nothing of his son when their paths happened to cross at a recent AAU basketball event. As fate would have it, though, that chance encounter led to a scholarship offer from the Wildcats and perhaps the earliest verbal commitment in the history of college basketball's winningest program. Michael Avery, a 6-foot-4 eighth-grader from Lake Sherwood, Calif., says he will play for the Cats. Now on with the business of finding a high school. "That's the funny thing," Howard Avery said with laugh. "We've got our college. Now we need...

Penn State wins first NCAA volleyball title in 14 years By Associated Press 8:04 PM CDT, May 3, 2008 IRVINE, Calif. - Top-ranked Penn State won its first NCAA men's volleyball championship in 14 years, rallying for a 27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23 victory over second-ranked Pepperdine on Saturday night. Matt Anderson had 29 kills for the Nittany Lions (30-1), who beat UCLA in 1994 for their last NCAA men's volleyball title. Anderson, the national co-player of the year, was selected the NCAA tournament's most valuable player. Teammate Luke Murray added a career-high 12 digs, tied a season best with 63...

Less than 48 hours after playing like volleyball teams intent on winning a national championship, Penn State and Pepperdine will be back at UC Irvine's Bren Events Center floor today for a 4 p.m. match. And only one of them can leave the building with national title hardware. Penn State (29-1), which came to Orange County as the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championships, overcome a sluggish Game 2 Thursday night to eliminate Ohio State in four games, 30-21, 26-30, 30-22, 30-17, during the first semifinal.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A judge threw out the $5 million verdict an Alabama football fan won in his lawsuit accusing the NCAA of slander, ruling in a decision made public Wednesday that jurors were wrongly swayed by prejudice against the sanctioning organization. Circuit Judge William Gordon granted the NCAA’s request for a new trial in a lawsuit filed by timber dealer Ray Keller of Stevenson, but he did not set a date. Gordon said in a 13-page opinion that the multimillion-dollar verdict wasn’t supported by evidence, and he ruled the award “is the result of passion or prejudice.” He also...

Today's highlights include Hopkins vs Navy, Duke vs Army. Action starts at noon. Standings 1 Syracuse 2 Duke 3 Virginia 4 Georgetown 5 Cornell 6 Navy 7 Maryland 8 North Carolina 9 UMBC 10 Drexel 11 Bucknell 12 Notre Dame 13 Johns Hopkins 14 Denver 15 Princeton 16 Brown 17 Army 18 Loyola 19 Ohio State 20 Hofstra

Talk about getting off on the wrong foot. A Plant High School (Tampa, Fla.) tight end broke the Florida Gators’ 2006 BCS National Championship trophy over the weekend at a NIKE football camp. I kid you not. Orson Charles, who is being recruited by Arkansas and at least 10 other schools including Florida, bumped into the “handcrafted Waterford crystal trophy” outside of UF coach Urban Meyer’s office this weekend. The poor guy declined to talk about breaking the Gators’ crown jewel to a local TV crew, as did his head coach, according to a report. The trophy has a reported...

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — More than 100 college presidents and athletic directors are urging NCAA President Myles Brand to re-examine the presence of alcohol ads on broadcasts of games, suggesting that college sports and beer advertising are a “bad mix.” The Center for Science in the Public Interest has said some of CBS’s game telecasts may have exceeded the amount of beer advertising allowed. In a letter sent yesterday, the presidents cited the amount of beer advertising during CBS’s broadcast of the “March Madness” college basketball tournament. “Beer advertising during the games continues to undermine the many positive attributes of college...

Did anyone else notice the lack of respect by the Stanford women who were playing for the Championship against Tennessee last night? Openly not holding hand over heart when the National Anthem was played. A bunch of losers. Reminds me of BHO.

The President and the First Lady returned to Washington on Sunday as did Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates from the NATO Sumit in Europe. Today the President spoke about the Colombia Free Trade Agreement and signed a letter to Congress on the matter.Click here for further details The President also hosted a ceremony honoring members of the NCAA football champion LSU Tigers at the White House. The President also met with small and medium business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Pray for President Bush -- Day 2762 Secretary of State...

4/6/2008 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- College basketball officials recognized the contributions of American servicemembers throughout the world during the men's NCAA Final Four weekend April 4 through 7 in San Antonio. Military members were present during college basketball's biggest weekend while singing the national anthem, presenting the colors, sitting in the stands and watching live from bases directly fighting the war on terrorism. The military was saluted throughout the weekend as officials of the NCAA saluted American warriors at festivities throughout the weekend. NCAA coaches and the public talked to and thanked troops serving on the front lines in...

Anybody watching this game? I am in 'shock and awe'tm at what Kansas is doing to UNC.

For Kelly Costa, the NCAA Women's Final Four Tournament in Tampa is about parties and socializing. "I don't care about sports," said Costa, who lives in St. Petersburg. "I can't wait to check out all the parties and the great lesbian scene and being around a lot of great girls." The Final Four games Sunday and Tuesday will showcase the nation's best women's basketball match-ups. But the tournament will also usher in what is widely believed to be the largest lesbian gathering in the history of the Tampa Bay area. Other than the Dinah Shore golf weekend in Palm Springs,...

CBS-TV 6:05pm EDT San Antonio Memphis at UCLA pickum O/U 133 1/2 8:47pm EDT San Antonio Kansas at UNC -2 1/2 O/U 157

Has anyone taken a look at the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournement Telecasts? I'm not really interested in the games themselves but I am interested in the politics. Yesterday I was watching the UVa lacrosse game on ESPN2 and switched over to ESPN during a commercial. There was one of of the women's basketball games on. It looked to me like there were about 450 people in the stands, including mothers and bestfriends. The game that's on now (ODU-UCONN) has a little bit bigger "crowd"; maybe 1000. Obviously there is little interest in these games but ESPN is producing them and...

All - see link for an intersting website created by students and Texas A&M. Its a fun, legal, novel approach for sports betting. http://www.centsports.com/?opcode=68626 It's simple ... when you first sign up for CentSports, we give you ten cents ($0.10) play money to bet with. You can use this to bet on almost any major college or professional sporting event (MLB, NBA and NFL games, etc.). Anything you win you keep and can use to place more bets, accumulating money as you go. You can cash out whenever you want (as soon as you have a balance of $10.00 play...

North Carolina center Tyler Hansbrough has been named the winner of the 2008 Rupp Award as the national player of the year, the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky announced Tuesday. Hansbrough already has been named national player of the year by the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl was selected Coach of the Year.

FINAL: (7)WEST VIRGINIA 73 (2)DUKE 67 Somehow the sun seems to be just a bit brighter once Duke is eliminated. Congrats and thanks to West Virginia.

Could Barack Obama's NCAA championship pick have something to do with an upcoming primary? No, he was leaning toward North Carolina because of its 6-foot-9 star. The Democratic presidential candidate and avid basketball player selected North Carolina, Kansas, Pittsburgh and UCLA in his Final Four bracket, and is counting on North Carolina to beat UCLA in the championship game. North Carolina, with 115 delegates at stake, holds its primary May 6. During his short flight Wednesday from Fayetteville to Charlotte, N.C., Obama began working on his NCAA basketball tournament bracket. The campaign staff is competing in a $10 per person...

This message is from VRWCmember who is challenging you to play Men's Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com. This game gives you the chance to win $10,000 by predicting the winner of the most games in the 63 game men's college basketball tournament. A correct selection in the first round counts as 10 points, and in each succesive round the point values are doubled. You can create up to ten entries, and best of all, it's FREE to play. Get in the action now: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/group?groupID=43926 Game Front: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/frontpage Group: FReeper Madness Password: no2hillaryin08 Are you up to the challenge?

Joining Office Pool? You're Not Alone NCAA Tournament Pools Hurt Businesses' Bottom LinesPOSTED: 3:24 pm EDT March 17, 2008 CHICAGO -- How much work will be lost from participation in March Madness office pools, as well as the watching of the NCAA college basketball tournament games on the job? The question arises now that team selections have been announced. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said employers could see as much as $1.7 billion in lost productivity over the next few weeks, as the tournament proceeds. The calculation includes estimates on participation in the pools, worker wages and the...

Former NCAA tournament selection committee chair Gary Walters once called the too-good-to-be-true pairings that the bracket produces the "serendipity of the tournament." Roy Williams might use another word in three weeks. Roy Williams could face his former team in San Antonio. The dadgum fan might reach into his adjective repertoire from his interview with Bonnie Bernstein circa 2003 to describe the path his top-seeded Tar Heels are on thanks to serendipity. If the seeds hold, the national semifinal would pit No. 1 overall seed North Carolina against Midwest Region No. 1 seed Kansas, the team Williams had just led to...

North Carolina beat Clemson 86-81 for a record 17th Atlantic Coast Conference title.

Montell Watson had 15 points and Brett James 13 to lead seventh-seed Elon into its first Southern Conference tournament championship game with a 75-61 victory Sunday over the College of Charleston. The Phoenix (14-18) came into the tournament 11-18, but knocked off their second league heavyweight in as many days following a 60-57 defeat of second-seed Chattanooga on Saturday. . .

UNC wins the ACC regular season with a 76-68 victory over Dook.

It's a gloriously sunny afternoon, and Eddie Sutton has slipped away from his tomblike office at the University of San Francisco to return a phone call from the relative quiet of the lobby inside the aging War Memorial Gymnasium. The hoopla over Sutton has masked deep discontent among influential alumni and donors of the athletics program, unhappy over the manner and timing of Evans being jettisoned, and its potential effect on important efforts to recruit top-quality basketball players to a program that is clearly faltering. Much of that discontent centers on USF's new athletics director, Debra Gore-Mann, whose inconsistent explanations...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff violated telephone recruiting restrictions imposed because of his previous violations at Oklahoma, then lied about it to the school and NCAA investigators, according to an NCAA report released Wednesday. The NCAA listed five major violations against Sampson, saying he gave "false or misleading information" to investigators. Sampson "failed to deport himself ... with the generally recognized high standard of honesty" and "failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance within the men's basketball program," according to the report.

RENO, Nev.: A prep football player who had claimed he was duped into believing he was recruited to play at a Pac-10 school admitted Wednesday he made up the story. Kevin Hart, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive lineman for Fernley High School, offered a broad apology in a statement he issued through the Lyon County School District. Hart said he had wanted to play football at a Division I school "more than anything." "When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley...

Bob Knight embraced all the proper things in college basketball: discipline, dedication, loyalty, smarts and toughness. His teams always had a high graduation rate, and there never was a whiff of rule-breaking associated with his programs. And yet, instead of being serenaded to a chorus of hallelujahs as he exits Texas Tech in midseason, Knight is being reminded yet anew of his legendary imperfections and combustible nature. Knight never was as disciplined as he demanded his players to be, which was the enigmatic dimension of his larger-than-life personality. His ideals were impeccable. He just could not live up to all...

Bob Knight, the winningest NCAA men's division I basketball coach in history, has retired as Texas Tech's coach effective immediately. Knight, 67, won his 902nd game Saturday when the Red Raiders downed Oklahoma State. He will be replaced by his son, Pat. Knight informed athletic director Gerald Myers of his decision Monday morning. Knight won three national titles at Indiana, in 1976, '81 and '87. In all, he took the Hoosiers to 24 NCAA tournament appearances and reached the Final Four two other times. During his tenure at Texas Tech, Knight was 138-82, and he led the Red Raiders to...

LUBBOCK, Texas -- A spokesman for Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers says men's basketball coach Bob Knight has resigned, effective immediately.

BISMARCK, N.D. - Members of the Spirit Lake Nation likely will vote on whether to support the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname, the tribe's leader says. Chairwoman Myra Pearson said Saturday that the tribe has grown tired of the issue. "It's been something that's not as important as our health care or housing or everything we're faced with out here, but it's been popping up all the time, and I think we need to put it to rest here pretty quick," she said. Under a settlement with the NCAA reached last October, UND has three years to win...

BCS' snub of Dogs spurs House to call for playoffs Lawmakers take handoff from Adams ATLANTA - Georgia lawmakers briefly turned aside from issues like the drought, gun control and transportation Friday to voice their displeasure with college football's Bowl Championship Series system. The state House - a known hangout of some prominent football fans - voted 151-9 Friday to urge the NCAA to create a playoff system for college football, adopting a resolution that calls the current system "dysfunctional." There was no debate. "The only major sporting event without a playoff system to identify its true champion that I...

Memphis replaced North Carolina as the No. 1 team in college basketball Monday, the Tigers' first appearance in 25 years at the top of The Associated Press poll. Kansas, the nation's only other undefeated Division I men's team, moved up to No. 2 while the Tar Heels dropped to fifth after their loss to Maryland. Drake and Baylor were two new entries to the rankings, joining the Top 25 for the first time in a long time. Memphis' only other appearance at No. 1 was as short as possible - a one-week stint in 1983. "We've got one extra day...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The NCAA has adopted a new rule to help pregnant student athletes not have to choose between having an abortion or losing their scholarship or place on a team when they become pregnant. The new rule comes after exposes that students at Clemson University and University of Memphis had abortions rather than lose their sports standing.The Division I Management Council voted 46-5 to support a proposal that prevents schools from retracting scholarships to student athletes who become pregnant.According to a report in the Daily Aztec, the student newspaper at San Diego State University, San Diego...

Two-time All-America linebacker James Laurinaitis will stay at Ohio State for his senior year. "After a long thought process and strategic evaluation of the pros and cons of this decision with my close family and friends, I've decided to stay at Ohio State," Laurinaitis, the former Wayzata High School standout, said in a statement issued by the school. Laurinaitis, a 6-foot-3, 244-pounder from Hamel, Minn., won the 2007 Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker and the 2006 Nagurski Award as the top defensive player in college football. The Big Ten defensive player of the year this past season, he...