I was previously agnostic on Ohio State, and the state of Ohio. Now? The scales have tipped a little in its disfavor.

Some assumptions need to be made about why George Washington University honored its part-time professor Bob Kasmir at halftime and then booted him from his courtside seat a half-hour later. The first assumption being that college refs aren’t happy about their payscale, the second being that Kasmir didn’t become a university professor by keeping a quieted tongue and the third being that at least one lie was told during the March 5 game.

Kasmir, a (relatively) high-profile accounting professor, in his infinite accounting wisdom, deduced that it would be a good use of his salary to donate to the university. It DID buy him a courtside seat to Saturday’s game at the Smith Center. It also bought him a shout-out during halftime. It did not buy him the freedom to heckle one of the refs working the game.

From his sideline seat on the court, Robert Kasmir yelled at the referee over a foul call on sophomore forward David Pellom, prompting his removal from the court by a member of the athletics department.

“Basically, I told the ref he was the worst ref I’d ever seen and he wasn’t worth the $1,600 they were paying him and that was it,” Kasmir said. “And then he ejected me from the game.”

According to Kasmir, his ejection was confounding and unfounded as his heckling contained no profanity or threats.* According to Associate Sports Information Director Brad Bower, Kasmir was ejected for violating the NCAA and Atlantic 10 Sportsmanship Statement. A statement defined as:

“Profanity, racial or sexist comments, or other intimidating actions directed at officials, student-athletes, coaches or teams will not be tolerated and are grounds for removal from the site of competition,” the statement reads.

So really, either Kasmir said more than he said he did** or the ref jumped the gun on that ejection. If he jumped the gun, it had to have been because Kasmir got into money talk with refs, ‘cause Lord knows if refs ejected everyone upset with their ability to call a game, basketball worldwide would be a private event held in front of no one. So the ref was touchy about his $1,600 fee. I’d kill to get paid $1,600 to ref basketball. It wouldn’t even matter that it was Atlantic 10 basketball, which hardly counts.

For the record, Kasmir got a louder ovation for getting ejected than he did for being honored; probably because the latter he paid for and the former he earned.

More on the story at the GWU school paper.

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*  Clearly then, Kasmir’s threats were lame.

** There’s room for interpretation in Kasmir’s statement. He said he “basically” told the ref he was awful. Had he literally said, “Hey, ref, you’re awful and because of that I’m going to find you and hit you with a sock full of marbles,” that’s a clear-cut case of basically telling someone they’re awful but omitting a very ejection-worthy phrase as well.

Wesley was knocked unconscious and experienced memory loss during a game on September 24 against SMU. Haraldson did what any physician worth his salt would do and told Patterson Wesley was done for the day. Then Patterson did what an unfortunate amount of college football coaches would do and flipped his lid on the doctor for unreasonably holding Wesley out of the game.

From Kevin O’Reilly’s American Medical Association report quoting Dr. Haraldson:

“Then five or six plays later, I literally was verbally accosted by the coach, screaming at me insanely at the top of his lungs that he doesn’t think [Wesley] has a concussion and what right do I have to hold him out.”

Once TCU took control of the game, going on to win 41-24, TCU Coach Gary Patterson returned and “cast a pseudo-apology” for the outburst, Dr. Haraldson said.

Asked days after the game by ESPN Dallas about Wesley’s condition, Patterson said the sophomore running back was fine. “As far as I’m concerned,” the coach added, “he was fine 10 minutes after he got hurt.”

So that happened. And before we get into what happens next, I’d love to know why Patterson got a free pass on the “as far as I’m concerned” part of his statement. The ESPN Dallas article was one of the few to cover the story and their copy merely recapped what had already happened. No one questioned what a football coach was doing arguing with the team physician? Or what Haraldson would have to gain by frivolously grounding his player. And this isn’t merely a conversation that took place. If you believe Haraldson, this was a one-way verbal shellacking. A shellacking that, at no point, involved Patterson attempting to get all the facts (which is his responsibility in this instance) before going bananas and showed a complete lack of pride and care providing toward its student-athletes.

Now let’s see what happened next.

From the October 20 statement made by Dr. Haraldson:

“TCU takes tremendous pride in the care it provides its student-athletes. Coach Patterson wasn’t aware of the full details of the incident, and I take responsibility for that. We sat down and talked it over, and it’s all been worked out. I apologized to Coach Patterson, and he apologized to me.”

… And everyone in the media let this statement go! Patterson went on ESPN radio and no one challenged him. TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte swept it under the rug as a non-issue. There is no impending investigation, despite the fact that Wesley did have a concussion, has lost portions of his memory and if left to his own devices would have trotted Wesley right back in the game.

Nothing. No biggie. It’s totally cool that Patterson publicly bullied Haraldson and then privately bullied him into softening his report to the AMA. He went from discussing how “insanely breated” he was to taking the wrap for not properly communicating the extent of Wesley’s injury while being embarrassed on the sidelines. This is the equivalent of a mob wife complaining about the restaurant’s food, being taken into the coat closet for five minutes, returning to the table with a black eye and nothing more to say.

The implications alone of TCU’s past and future reactions to player injuries is enough to make everyone’s sudden desire to make this incident go away an alarming development. Anyone who’s ever done a roommates dishes because it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting into an argument over it, or let their kid stay out past curfew because you were too tired to enforce it knows what this is like. But there are much bigger breaks in this system than the ones in charge of dishes and curfews and neither TCU’s coach, nor one of its team physicians seem all that keen on fixing what’s broken.

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So imagine how my mood improved when I ran across Rick Chandler’s college mascot rankings on NBC’s Out of Bounds blog? Bunches. My mood improved bunches, thanks for asking.

Click here if you’re into it. This post won’t be about the list, but about the first pick of the list. Ohio University’s Rufus the Bobcat (seen at left dry-humping neck-tackling rival mascot, Ohio State’s Brutus.

There has never been a more deserving No.1 in the history of time. Not USC. Not Pete Sampras. Not pee. Nothing. To wit:

Brandon Hanning, who wore the “Rufus The Bobcat” costume during the game, has been banned from participating in Ohio athletic events as the mascot because he twice tackled Brutus Buckeye before the [September 18] game.

Top of the list, indeed.

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Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images

Penn State instituted a tradition in which 107,000 fans all agreed to show up at Beaver Stadium for one highly anticipated game each season clad top-to-tail in white. All white. Then they called the place the White House because Penn’s marketing people are paid to be clever like that. At least that’s what I assume they’re supposed to do. I don’t think we see eye-to-eye on it.

The tradition started in 2007 when Notre Dame arrived in University Park. The White House Game continued in ’08 with Illinois and last year against Iowa. Ticket holders for the September 25 game against Temple noticed a message that said “Everyone wear white.” Considering this is well past Labor Day and a fashion faux pas in most contexts, it’s safe to assume the ticket was referring to that game being this season’s White House Game. Nah.

“The White House is a tradition that everyone can agree should be saved for only certain games and certain opponents,” Paternoville Coordination Committee President Alex Cohen wrote in a text.

Suck on that, Michigan. Not only Michigan, but Michigan State should suck on it. And, of course, Temple too. But mostly Michigan. None of them are worthy of a White House Game distinction, despite the White House Game tradition only being three years old and hardly a tradition yet (especially if they skip it this year). The bruised and broken Wolverines program just announced that it spent $226 million in renovations that, among other things, gives Michigan’s Big House the largest capacity in all college football, replacing who? Why, Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, of course.

Are you telling me Penn State can’t leverage this to create a frenzied atmosphere in a game that might not otherwise have one (relatively speaking, of course. This is still Penn State)? Here, try: “109,901 screaming Wolverines ain’t nothin’ but white noise. Show ‘em how it’s done, Lions.”

See? That’s not bad for a a hopelessly drunk guy giving it six seconds worth of thought. Notice how I made it “‘em” instead of “them?” That was for the kids. They love that stuff. Or how about this? The Michigan-Penn State game is the day before Halloween. Can’t we work in a reference to “white as a ghost” or something? C’mon, Penn. You now have the second-biggest stadium in the nation and the people that lowered you to that distinction are visiting you the day before Halloween! You can’t make an event out of that, but you’re willing to host your next White House Game against ‘Bama on the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks? Good luck with that.

I can understand not hosting another White House Game if people were complaining that all the white was somehow bothersome:
…’Cause this is how Klan rallies get started.
…’Cause the albinos are beginning to stir.
…’Cause this is literally the only way Pennsylvanians could get an whiter.

I could keep going, but I won’t. All I’m sayin–

‘Cause such a concentration of white lions in one habitat is unnatural!

… Sorry. I thought I had tucked that one away. Won’t happen again.

The truth is, college kids don’t need a reason to … well, to do anything as a huge group. Tell ‘em to wear white, they’ll do it. They’ll do it awesomely. This is like “Iron Man 2″ leaving $100 million in box office grosses on the table by not going 3-D. It’s your funeral. Enjoy getting smacked by “Alice in Wonderland,” a movie which I believe was shot in the extra space created by Michigan’s Big House renovations.

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Photos courtesy of Flickr

Today, TIPs looks at who the top 14 picks in the draft should pick next month.

1. Washington Wizards – Greg Monroe Yeah, the Wizards should pick John Wall, but what have the Wizards done lately that makes you think they’ll do what they should? Therefore, to maintain their image of constant failure, the Wiz should burn their first pick on someone undeserving for reasons that make “Lost” seem linear and sensical. They’ll pick the Georgetown-er because he’s a “local talent” or some damn thing.

2. Philadelphia 76ers – Evan Turner … Then of course, the Sixers, assuming Wall was going to be chosen first, pick  Turner before realizing they just let a franchise player fall to the Russians.

3. New Jersey Nets – John Wall The Nets choose Wall. Then LeBron joins the team and Brook Lopez shows the world he has a fifth gear. A Russian does what Springsteen, Sinatra and Bon Jovi never could: make New Jersey respectable.

4. Minnesota Timberwolves – Eric Bledsoe I can see the ad campaign now: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we drafted another PG, but we were told the little guy from Kentucky was awesome.”

5. Sacramento Kings – Derrick Favors He’s the best big in the draft and the Kings could use someone in the frontcourt that doesn’t have weak little noodle arms.

6. Golden State Warriors – DeMarcus Cousins Um, what was Andris Biedrins’ free throw percentage last season? .160. Oh. Wait, what? Yeah, they’ll take Cousins. I’m sure this jerk will get along with Nellie just fine.

7. Detroit Pistons – Al-Farouq Aminu When one Tayshaun Prince isn’t enough, get an Austin Daye. When two Princes can’t be wrong get Aminu and a Spin Doctors record.

8. Los Angeles Clippers – Cole Aldrich This guy will replace what the Clips lost when Marcus Camby was traded while also acting as insurance for oft-injured Chris Kaman. As if those two items weren’t harbingers of doom, Aldrich is a white guy from Kansas. Draft day will be the last any of us hear from Aldrich.

9. Utah Jazz – Wesley Johnson This pick guarantees the Jazz will lead the league in Wesleys next season.

10. Indiana Pacers – Ed Davis With Cole Aldrich probably gone by the 10th round, the Pacers will take the guy with the second-whitest sounding name left on the board. Larry Bird will immediately panic when he realizes he accidentally drafted a black guy.

11. Memphis Grizzlies – Xavier Henry I almost chose James Anderson, but I decided – as I imagine the Grizz will also decide – that “Xavier Henry” fit in with the blues band thing the Grizz have going with the likes of O.J., Z-Bo, Rudy and the crew.

12. New Orleans Hornets – Donatas Motiejunos Because people finally figured out how to pronounce “Stojakovic.”

13. Toronto Raptors – Hassan Whiteside Meet the new Bosh. Same as the old Bosh (except way different).

14. Houston Rockets – Daniel Orton Just in case Yao’s foot doesn’t stay healthy. And, really, why would anyone assume it will?

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Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images

Friday morning, University of Kentucky coach John Calipari put to rest the rumors that he’s leaving the Wildcats for any number of NBA openings next season by tweeting that he’s staying to finish what he started – which, presumably means, he’s got a handful of future NBA Rookies of the Year left to usher out of college basketball.

Either that, or he meant that he still hasn’t finished the rest of “Friday Night Lights” Season 4.

Fans of the show will note that NBC’s Friday night drama aired its second episode of the season, in which Coach Eric Taylor holds a late-night practice in hopes of wooing back his team that had quit on him. The reverse is true at Kentucky, of course, as the rumors have been that the team has been charged with the wooing lately. But stick with me.

Coach Taylor’s ragtag bunch of misfits show up and humor another one of his lump-in-the-throat, uber-earnest motivational speeches in which he renews his faith in the team, the school and their ability to compete as one cohesive unit.

Here’s Taylor’s culminating message from Friday’s climactic speech (check out the 2:30-mark of the scene for additional flavor)

Who wants to finish this fight? Who will finish this fight with me? … The players all begin ceremoniously tossing their jerseys into a bonfire on the field. Let’s finish it. Let’s finish it. Let’s FINISH it. Let’s finish it. Let’s finish it.

About eight hours before this episode, Calipari basically made the same speech – albeit limited to 140 characters and without the curious ceremony of igniting school property.

If you’re a “FNL” fan, this is probably pretty cool. If you’re a Wildcats fan, it might be a tad alarming. Calipari, after all, is getting paid almost $4 million a season – you’d hope that he’d borrow his inspirational words of appeasement from a program that isn’t on the verge of being canceled.

That’s just bad jeux-jeux.

But Calipari posted that message Friday morning and the show aired at 8 pm EST – who’s ripping off who?

Firstly, the current season of “Friday Night Lights” aired on DirectTV last year. Secondly, as mentioned two inches above, Calipari makes enough loot that not splurging on the satellite service to watch the episodes early shouldn’t have even entered his brain. And thirdly, skipping the first run of this underrated drama would be unthinkable. Why? Well, the hot, hot, hot cast for starters. And for enders, where else would Calipari come up with his nuggets of inspiration, if not from Coach Taylor?

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If one thing in this world is certain, it’s that Lady Gaga is here to stay. If two things in this world are certain, it’s that Lady Gaga is here to stay and even in hard economic times, the price of premium seats at sporting events go up.

What if the best seats in your team’s arena or stadium were sold to you like condos? Does that sound like something you might be interested in?

Sports mortgages are here and they’re going to improve your life in ways that you never imagined … is what the marketing department for these new innovations want you to believe. And they might be telling you the truth, but they might also be lying their asses off. I’ll come back to that in a second. First, what’s a sports mortgage?

Cash-strapped pro franchises and university athletic programs are toying with the concept of charging fans a fixed rate over extended periods of time for their premium season ticket seats.

At Kansas, Jayhawk fans who sign up to pay as much as $105,000 over 10 years will earn the right to buy guaranteed top seats for football over the next three decades. In return, the seats themselves will stay locked in at 2010 prices.

U.C. San Francisco fans have even more latitude—30 years to pay for a half-century’s worth of season football tickets. Like a home mortgage, the long-term deal requires the equivalent of annual interest payments.

Yeah. ‘Cause when people think Jayhawks tickets worth $10,500 per season, they’re thinkin’ KU football.

These “equity seat rights” or “endowment seating program” plans propose that every participant fans is a big winner because no one will jack up the prices of their seats on them. Additionally, even if they sell their tickets elsewhere, the original owner of the tickets can write it off as a school donation.

But what isn’t being said about this ticket-selling method? For starters, no assurances are given to fans that all this additional guaranteed revenue for the programs will serve the team’s best interests. In theory, revenue raises the reputation and success of the team. Without that carrot dangled in front of the teams – why wouldn’t they just sit on the money? Spend it elsewhere? Or do nothing with it until the 11^th hour?

Kansas is among the leaders of sport mortgages (to be called “sportgages” until I find something about ‘em that I support) and the university hopes to eventually raise $200 million from these tickets, saving program from falling into debt or dipping into state tax dollars. And the myriad stadium and sport complex improvements developments that money would buy is nice, yes, but impractical.

[California’s Golden Bears] has sold more than 1,800 of the 3,000 available seats, collecting $150 million for renovations to its own Memorial Stadium, built in 1923.

The top pricing tier costs between $175,000 and $225,000 and provides University Club members with not only prime seats for the next five decades but also sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. However, when the 6 percent annual administrative fee is rolled in, a University Club seat worth $225,000 will cost the buyer more than twice that much when paid out over 30 years.

One way to look at this is that fans will be locked into seeing their team for 10, 20 or 30 years. Another way to look at it is that people will be LOCKED IN to seeing a team for 10, 20 or 30 years. My finger didn’t get stuck on the Caps Lock button. That would be too much of a coincidence.

Fans shouldn’t want to be locked into anything centered around a sports team for decades at a time. Teams are fluid – especially college teams. I know there are thousands, perhaps millions of fans blindly rooting for teams until they die and I guess this is the problem with a lot of sports fans. Paying essentially a second mortgage for tickets to a team over a lengthy period of time is a clear statement from fans: I have no standards other than that you exist. You don’t have to succeed, you don’t have to maintain a high-level of talent over this time period, you don’t even have to keep the same school colors – just exist.

That – as a slobbering, desperate, self-esteemless fan – is all I ask. Oh, and premium parking and maybe a padded seat.

Now here, take my money.

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Photos courtesy of Flickr

In the past two weeks, the Bowl Championship Series has made a string of moves that are about as strange as that time your weird uncle Harold signed up for a MySpace account.

Last week, the BCS promoted Bill Hancock to the role of BCS executive director. His job is to be the face of college football’s much-maligned postseason system. And he’ll be the guy doing all those media interviews every time there’s a BCS controversy. He’ll also have to march in front of Congress every time the BCS gets called into a congressional panel.

Shortly after Hancock was promoted, he set up social networking sites for the BCS on Twitter and Facebook so fans can have access to the system. So far, this has made for some great entertainment, as football fans around the nation can direct their hate to the very source of so much postseason despair. Just take a look at what people are saying.

Finally, on Monday it was revealed that the BCS hired Ari Fleischer as a PR consultant to help pump even more sunshine on the system. Without getting all political here (we are a sports blog), it is interesting that the BCS went with a former political flack to help them absorb the hate. As Fleischer’s own website says: “No one faces tougher coverage than sports figures – except for Presidents and top government officials.”

Now, Fleischer wasn’t talking about college football postseason structures on his website, but you have to wonder if any U.S. president has ever faced such universal disdain as the BCS. It’d be great to see the Harris poll conduct an approval rating on that system. Even in the best of times, it’d be hard to imagine more than 15 percent of college football fans are in favor of it.

All of these moves come at an interesting time, because can you think of a year that’s had less BCS controversy? Since about early October, it’s been the Florida-Alabama winner versus Texas in the national championship game. So long as those teams win out, the deck is stacked in their favor.

Then again, just for giggles let’s look at what would happen if Texas lost. TCU and Cincinnati would both then be neck and neck to face the Florida-Alabama winner. Meanwhile, Boise State could also make a claim for a title shot after winning out for the second straight year.

Naturally, that sort of scenario could be solved with a playoff structure, but that must be why the BCS is taking such defensive measures. Since there’s little controversy now, maybe the BCS is just ramping up for years when it won’t be so cut and dry.

But we’re more interested in how Hancock’s role will evolve. Beyond being a stooge for the BCS, will he one day begin to act like the commissioners in the pro leagues? David Stern and Bud Selig tend to show their faces for the championship games, but they also are quick to speak out over big controversies as well. It’ll be interesting to see how visible Hancock makes his role. For some reason, we picture him sitting in various luxury boxes at big BCS games, laughing with his cronies about the continued lack of a playoff system.

Then again, maybe it’d be best if Hancock stayed behind the scenes. Judging how the BCS Twitter page is being received, we probably don’t need a walking, talking BCS promoter right now.

With college hoops kicking off this week, I wondered why there wasn’t more fanfare ringing in the new season. Then I wondered why I wondered that.
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Slowly, ever so slowly, the belittling of the WNBA among basketball critics is eroding. Memes are being drawn up, philosophies followed, anti-ladyball sentiments appearing more irrational and the movement toward the WNBA being a respected league has already begun to take root.
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This respect has formed from a) esoteric sports fans ironically liking the WNBA long enough that they just started actually liking it and b) bored NBA fans with nothing better to do over the summer but to fill the void with the WNBA. What both demographics learned is that the girls can play. They can’t jump worth a damn, but they play hard. They hustle and have a steady sense of the game’s fundamentals, spacing, ball movement and play calling … they understand everything casual fans miss.

Weird. That sounds like the reputation college ball has developed among people rationalizing why they don’t like the NBA.  What are they going to say to rationalize the dismissal of the WNBA?

The best part of college hoops. You'll notice there's nary a hoop or ball in the picture.

College hoops is a weeding-out process for the pros. A revenue churning operation for each school’s athletic program and a gathering spot for the student body. It’s also, depending on the month, the matchup or the fullness of the moon, an occasionally exciting couple of hours. What it is not, sadly, is quality basketball.

University basketball, like everything else college kids touch, is sloppy.
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I understand why college ball remains (and will continue to remain) popular and probably more popular than the WNBA. But just because I understand it, doesn’t mean it makes any sense. Does that make sense?
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So much of the average college fan’s reasons for preferring college over the pros sound good as long as you don’t think too hard about it. A consensus among NBA detractors is that the league profits from employing thugs who take five steps on their way to an uncontested dunk. This isn’t true, but let’s say it is. Let’s say sloppy play exhibited by athletes with dollar signs in their eyes is an accurate depiction of the pro game. I dare those naysayers then to explain their support of the college game.
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The college game – from a technical standpoint - is weak. Even when both teams play hard, they play poorly. With the exception of the few dozen college athletes who graduate to the pros each year, it’s like watching a squat version of the Knicks playing the Warriors … only without the massive scoring. Ugh. I just threw up a little in my mouth. I’m regretting that second helping of sausage patties. Why is this the case (the horrible play of college basketball, not the sausage patty part)? Because they’re kids. Most of college hoops’ players are only slightly above-average to begin with. On top of that, depending on the stage, they’re nervous or simply don’t have a natural head for the game. And did I mention that they’re kids?
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It’s perfectly acceptable for a newborn fawn to wobbly struggle with its first steps. Nothing wrong with it. But don’t try to sell me that somehow it’s a purer – and therefore better – form of running than a full-grown deer.
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Shot efficiency, turnover efficiency, shot selection, low-post moves; there’s a reason high draft picks come to the NBA and have to develop these things. There’s a reason only a select few rookies are NBA ready when they arrive in the league. Thousands of students play college basketball each year and fewer than 20 of them will make a significant positive impact on any of the professional teams that draft them.
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If it’s a principles thing with the NBA, a resentment that these athletes can hustle and run plays yet chose not to despite their handsome pay, fair enough. There’s points to be had there. But again, why would the college game be the answer?
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College programs thrive on the level of talent they can bring into the universities year after year. And the best programs – the ones that annually play the “best” brand of basketball, are the ones that field winners. And how many of those winning players on those winning teams do you suppose walk onto the court worried about their chemlab assignment due on Wednesday? In fact, how many of those winners do you suppose even have chemlab? The players that drive excitement, sponsorship, viewership and institutional popularity in the universities are the ones aiming for the NBA. It would be naïve to believe that because college players aren’t making money, that they’re not still playing for it.
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Let’s be honest, it would be naïve to believe some college players aren’t making money.
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The women’s game? Even the all-stars of the league are lucky to clear $60,000 a year and this is as far as a female basketball player can go. They’re not playing for anything else. Hustle, drive, teamwork, skill and this is the end of the line for them. Who’s beating the drum for them?
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In the end, I’m very capable of believing that it all comes down to the viewer’s own ego. You went to Kansas (par exemple), you were a Jayhawk. You were never a Bull or a Laker or a Mystic or a Mercury and you don’t owe them anything. You’ll root for Paul Pierce, Kirk Hinrich or Wilt Chamberlain because they were Jayhawks, but not really their pro teams. College sports, more than any other level of sport, allow us to legitimately feel a part of it all.

Whoa. College hoops fans actually gawking at Erin Andrews. I did not expect that.

And I’m not knocking that experience. Let ‘em paint their face, gawk at Erin Andrews, memorize lewd chants, co-opt their team’s glory as their own. That’s what college is there for. Live it up. This isn’t a brushback pitch against any of that. But this is a clarification that none of that is basketball. There are the naysayers who berate the pro game, ignore the women’s game and deign to call the college game the best basketball has to offer.

But those people are confused. They must be, because it’s not even close.
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Photos courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images