I trust all of the mothers who are connected to our subscribers were treated the right way on Sunday. By the way, if you live in North Texas, I really hope this drought is over. If it technically isn’t, then we need to stop using the airport as a barometer to tell us when something is or isn’t.
There’s only word needed to describe this week’s random juke box selection: Clapton
***
It’s another week and I hope this is the week where Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby can stay with the same position regarding the league’s football championship format.
Two weeks ago, he went to College Football Playoff committee’s first meeting in Irving to set the agenda for the 2015 season. He came out of the meetings beaten up like a prized fighter because both executive director Bill Hancock and committee chairman Jeff Long told him that the lack of conference championship game ultimately led to his league being left out of the National Semifinals.
So Bowlsby meets with reporters and expresses these sentiments and then discusses the possibility of the conference adding a championship game. Obviously, Bowlsby needed to be there because there was so much controversy regarding the Big 12 not being able to present “One True Champion” for the committee to select between Baylor and TCU.
Moving on, the Big 12 athletic directors and head football and men’s and women’s basketball coaches met in Phoenix last week. There was never support for the conference to add this title game because it logistically made it impossible for it to happen the right way (the waiver notwithstanding). A round robin format followed by a championship game. That gives the winner of the first meeting no advantage.
Bowlsby then emerges, meets with reporters and talks about how there wasn’t going to be support for this title game and that the conference is going to stick with the current arrangement. The tiebreaker rules just needed to be clearly defined (which they should have been last year but anyway…).
Here’s the problem with the commissioner in my view: He’s being too kneejerk about this whole process and not giving it the depth that it deserves. He’s talking before he’s thinking. The first year of this playoff process was going to be a learning experience for everybody. What you can’t do is become so reactionary that you look like you’re floating whichever way the wind blows. Bowlsby is doing this.
I don’t have a problem with Bowlsby relaying what he was told. But he should have said that these were things that the league would discuss and be non-committal. Instead, he boxed the league into a corner and made himself look a little weak. He had to have a sense from the university presidents and ADs that there wasn’t support for a championship game.
Heck, I wrote in blitz several weeks before that no one should look for a conference title game in the near future because of what I learned. Art Briles has said it best: the simple truth is that the conference will have someone in the national semifinals if a team goes undefeated.
In 2014, you had Baylor and TCU each go 8-1. Ohio State went undefeated in the Big 10 East and then dismantled Wisconsin in the championship game, 59-0. The title game didn’t give the Buckeyes the edge. Despite a perplexing loss to Virginia Tech in September, the score of that game did.
Ohio State, Baylor and TCU played on the final Saturday of the regular season. TCU played a horrible Iowa State team. Baylor probably could have made a stronger case had it blown out Kansas State but didn’t. Ohio State 59, Wisconsin LOVE did. That’s it.
Now, that the language for the tiebreakers has been cleaned up, the message to the contenders is that you better beat everybody. In case of a tie, you better beat everybody by a lot.
This is the right course for the conference to follow. But Bowlsby selling this message is going to be hard for public consumption because I think there are enough fans, alums and university officials at each of the 10 member institutions wondering if he can really do this effectively.
Bowlby’s history in college athletics is unsurpassed. Namely, he’s been the AD at two very strong P5 schools in Iowa and Stanford. But when you are a commissioner you have to have that dynamic personality where you are forward thinking and continue to take the league into new area.
With all due respect to SEC outgoing commissioner Mike Slive, two of the better commissioners in the college game are Jim Delaney of the Big 10 and Larry Scott of the Pac 12. They are doers. For instance, Delaney was the one who introduced instant replay to the college game. Scott moved the Pac 12 postseason men’s basketball tournament to Las Vegas. That move has been genius.
Bowlsby pretty much inherited the major TV package deal that is now ongoing as well as Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma and others working with FOX Sports for their own programming entities.
Maybe Bowlsby will eventually show those qualities. Right now, I don’t think this was the start the conference was looking with its commissioner.
***
Since we covered the conference championship, I’ll touch base on expansion because it is May and we’re in a dead spot in the athletics calendar. I still don’t find there to be enough evidence to support the Big 12 expanding for the sake of expanding.
Perhaps the conference had a real chance to get Louisville. Perhaps not. But at this point in time, the only chance this league is really going to be able to add is if it can cause somebody to leave its existing P5 league.
Otherwise, you’re looking at an overzealous BYU which wants to control the flow in the mandate. That’s been the case wherever BYU has been between the WAC and the Mountain West. For the Big 12 to ever entertain BYU would be a walk through a mine field. Then you have Cincinnati that wants to be big time and possibly can. But it’s hard to get on board with that market. Does Colorado State look like an option? Well, the league just lost Colorado to the Pac 12 years ago. I don’t know if the Pac 12 feels like it has seen great ROI from that.
After that, there’s really not a lot. Obviously, Houston and SMU would love to be players someday because of where each school is located. But their hope is not matched by the Big 12’s hope.
Unless you see another seismic shift, the current state of the Big 12 will look like this for the near future.
***
You saw the picture of Blake Lynch at the East Texas Sports Network camp on Sunday. He does look different. And I still believe you’re going to see him this fall. Will you see him line up at wide receiver? Shotgun at wildcat? Running back? Time will tell. But there is too much athleticism for him to wear a redshirt. I would contend that Lynch might be the best athlete on this 2015 roster.
***
So late Friday night Rivals 100 defensive back Coconut Creek (Florida) corner Trayvon Mullen reports a Baylor offer. Mullen then releases a Top 10 and has Baylor on it.
Little by little, Baylor continues to push its name through national boundaries. You can see the strategy where Baylor is picking its national spots. The program isn’t a major national name yet. But all it takes is one player from a distant land to say yes. Then watch it take off.
If that’s Chicago area safety Kenney Lyke, then it will resonate. It’s won’t be a mad dash to come to Waco. However, the potential for future Baylor recruiting classes to have kids coming from states not named Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana is realistic.
***
I’m probably in the minority on this. But I don’t care if you’re a senior and you’ve completed your degree at your institution. If you want to transfer to another school to finish your athletic eligibility, you need to sit for one year.
There needs to be one universal transfer rule. Regardless of personal circumstances, completion of degree or anything else, if you’re leaving, you’re sitting out for a year and then you’re eligible for the following season.
The NCAA learned the hard way last year that the hardship waiver rule was bogus. Too many kids were using the Juan Epstein (Thank you, Welcome Back Kotter) excuse of the sick relative requiring them to return home.
I think ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reported there were more than 600 college basketball transfers. Why is that? You have all of these kids who were told in their AAU days they were the shiznit. Then when they arrived at State U, they found out they weren’t the shiznit and weren’t starting. Then they pouted and wanted to take their toys and go elsewhere.
That’s fine. If you want to go somewhere no problem. But you’re sitting for a year.
I got this argument on twitter about the coaching side of it and how they up and leave after several years. My response was, “OK”.
In my opinion, you can’t equate the player to the coach. Coaching is a profession. Being a college athlete is not (even with a stipend).
Obviously, a lot of these kids are committing and signing with the schools because of their relationship with the coaching staff. I get that. But when you’re an athlete and not getting paid six figures, you just have to deal.
It’s called the hard knocks of life.
***
The scariest moment for a parent of an athlete is when you see your child go down on the field of play. My Mulkey class of 2019 is playing in a championship game at her 8th grade select tournament on Saturday.
It’s a physical game. We jumped up on this team by 15 at the half because we threw a 2-3 zone at them. In the second half, they made a charge and cut it to low single digits. With about two minutes to play, my daughter is driving up the floor with the ball, runs into trap and is looking for a teammate. One of the opposing girls reaches in for the ball, it becomes a major tussle to where my daughter is thrown to the floor and whacks her head on the hardwood.
I’m on the bench on the other side and my heart jumps into my throat. This happened in front of my wife who ran on to the floor (a mother’s instinct) before she gave way to our head coach (a doctor by profession). I couldn’t run out there because I was told I would cost our team a timeout (don’t even get me started). At first, we thought concussion. But she turned out OK. There was a headache but nothing that suggested concussion. Actually, she returned for the final 45 seconds and we held on to win.
But there is no helpless feeling greater than that. She seems to be doing fine. At this level of basketball, you still don’t get a lot of skill. There is still some herd ball qualities. Still, we have a good little group out there. We’re 8-2 through our first three tournaments.
***
Now, a look at the other sports
>Baylor women's golf can check another item off its to-do list. Just two weeks after winning the first conference championship in program history, Baylor won its first-ever NCAA Regional title by shooting 22-under 842 over 54 holes at Briggs Ranch Country Club to claim the San Antonio Regional championship.
By winning the regional, Baylor earned a spot in the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships, which will be held May 22-27 at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. This year will mark Baylor's third all-time NCAA Championship appearance, two of which have come under fourth-year head coach Jay Goble.
>The No. 22-ranked Baylor men's golf team has been awarded the No. 4 seed in the Bremerton (Wash.) Regional of the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship. The bracket was announced Monday on the Golf Channel's Morning Drive.
Baylor earned its 18th consecutive NCAA regional appearance, extending one of the nation's longest active streaks. The three-day, 54-hole tournament is hosted by University of Washington and runs May 14-16 at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash., which is one of six regional sites. Additional regionals will be played in Noblesville, Ind., Chapel Hill, N.C., Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., Lubbock, Texas and New Haven, Conn.
>The Baylor softball team learned Sunday evening that the Bears will be headed to Lafayette, La. for the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the program's 10th appearance in the national tournament.
Baylor, ranked No. 16 by the NFCA, finished the season at 38-15 and tied for second place in the Big 12 with a 12-6 record. The Bears travel to Lafayette along with Mississippi State and Weber State to face the hosts, Louisiana-Lafayette. Baylor and MSSU will face off Friday at 5:30 p.m. to kick things off while the Ragin' Cajuns and Weber State play at 8 p.m. at UL-Lafayette's Lamson Park.
>The second-ranked and second-seeded Baylor men's tennis team blanked No. 29 LSU, 4-0, Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship Round of 16 for a 14th-consecutive season.
The Bears (23-5) will make the program's 16th-overall appearance in the sport's Sweet 16, after winning the doubles point and taking singles victories on courts four, five and six against the Tigers (18-9).
>The ninth-ranked and eighth-seeded Baylor women's tennis team captured a spot in the NCAA Round of 16 with a 4-2 victory over No. 28 Rice Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The Bears (27-6) won their eighth-straight match overall and their 10th-straight against the Owls (17-9). Unlike the previous two matches against Rice this year, BU fell down early and had to come-from-behind to clinch the program's 11th NCAA Sweet 16 berth and 10th in the last 11 years.
Let’s make it a great week.
There’s only word needed to describe this week’s random juke box selection: Clapton
***
It’s another week and I hope this is the week where Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby can stay with the same position regarding the league’s football championship format.
Two weeks ago, he went to College Football Playoff committee’s first meeting in Irving to set the agenda for the 2015 season. He came out of the meetings beaten up like a prized fighter because both executive director Bill Hancock and committee chairman Jeff Long told him that the lack of conference championship game ultimately led to his league being left out of the National Semifinals.
So Bowlsby meets with reporters and expresses these sentiments and then discusses the possibility of the conference adding a championship game. Obviously, Bowlsby needed to be there because there was so much controversy regarding the Big 12 not being able to present “One True Champion” for the committee to select between Baylor and TCU.
Moving on, the Big 12 athletic directors and head football and men’s and women’s basketball coaches met in Phoenix last week. There was never support for the conference to add this title game because it logistically made it impossible for it to happen the right way (the waiver notwithstanding). A round robin format followed by a championship game. That gives the winner of the first meeting no advantage.
Bowlsby then emerges, meets with reporters and talks about how there wasn’t going to be support for this title game and that the conference is going to stick with the current arrangement. The tiebreaker rules just needed to be clearly defined (which they should have been last year but anyway…).
Here’s the problem with the commissioner in my view: He’s being too kneejerk about this whole process and not giving it the depth that it deserves. He’s talking before he’s thinking. The first year of this playoff process was going to be a learning experience for everybody. What you can’t do is become so reactionary that you look like you’re floating whichever way the wind blows. Bowlsby is doing this.
I don’t have a problem with Bowlsby relaying what he was told. But he should have said that these were things that the league would discuss and be non-committal. Instead, he boxed the league into a corner and made himself look a little weak. He had to have a sense from the university presidents and ADs that there wasn’t support for a championship game.
Heck, I wrote in blitz several weeks before that no one should look for a conference title game in the near future because of what I learned. Art Briles has said it best: the simple truth is that the conference will have someone in the national semifinals if a team goes undefeated.
In 2014, you had Baylor and TCU each go 8-1. Ohio State went undefeated in the Big 10 East and then dismantled Wisconsin in the championship game, 59-0. The title game didn’t give the Buckeyes the edge. Despite a perplexing loss to Virginia Tech in September, the score of that game did.
Ohio State, Baylor and TCU played on the final Saturday of the regular season. TCU played a horrible Iowa State team. Baylor probably could have made a stronger case had it blown out Kansas State but didn’t. Ohio State 59, Wisconsin LOVE did. That’s it.
Now, that the language for the tiebreakers has been cleaned up, the message to the contenders is that you better beat everybody. In case of a tie, you better beat everybody by a lot.
This is the right course for the conference to follow. But Bowlsby selling this message is going to be hard for public consumption because I think there are enough fans, alums and university officials at each of the 10 member institutions wondering if he can really do this effectively.
Bowlby’s history in college athletics is unsurpassed. Namely, he’s been the AD at two very strong P5 schools in Iowa and Stanford. But when you are a commissioner you have to have that dynamic personality where you are forward thinking and continue to take the league into new area.
With all due respect to SEC outgoing commissioner Mike Slive, two of the better commissioners in the college game are Jim Delaney of the Big 10 and Larry Scott of the Pac 12. They are doers. For instance, Delaney was the one who introduced instant replay to the college game. Scott moved the Pac 12 postseason men’s basketball tournament to Las Vegas. That move has been genius.
Bowlsby pretty much inherited the major TV package deal that is now ongoing as well as Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma and others working with FOX Sports for their own programming entities.
Maybe Bowlsby will eventually show those qualities. Right now, I don’t think this was the start the conference was looking with its commissioner.
***
Since we covered the conference championship, I’ll touch base on expansion because it is May and we’re in a dead spot in the athletics calendar. I still don’t find there to be enough evidence to support the Big 12 expanding for the sake of expanding.
Perhaps the conference had a real chance to get Louisville. Perhaps not. But at this point in time, the only chance this league is really going to be able to add is if it can cause somebody to leave its existing P5 league.
Otherwise, you’re looking at an overzealous BYU which wants to control the flow in the mandate. That’s been the case wherever BYU has been between the WAC and the Mountain West. For the Big 12 to ever entertain BYU would be a walk through a mine field. Then you have Cincinnati that wants to be big time and possibly can. But it’s hard to get on board with that market. Does Colorado State look like an option? Well, the league just lost Colorado to the Pac 12 years ago. I don’t know if the Pac 12 feels like it has seen great ROI from that.
After that, there’s really not a lot. Obviously, Houston and SMU would love to be players someday because of where each school is located. But their hope is not matched by the Big 12’s hope.
Unless you see another seismic shift, the current state of the Big 12 will look like this for the near future.
***
You saw the picture of Blake Lynch at the East Texas Sports Network camp on Sunday. He does look different. And I still believe you’re going to see him this fall. Will you see him line up at wide receiver? Shotgun at wildcat? Running back? Time will tell. But there is too much athleticism for him to wear a redshirt. I would contend that Lynch might be the best athlete on this 2015 roster.
***
So late Friday night Rivals 100 defensive back Coconut Creek (Florida) corner Trayvon Mullen reports a Baylor offer. Mullen then releases a Top 10 and has Baylor on it.
Little by little, Baylor continues to push its name through national boundaries. You can see the strategy where Baylor is picking its national spots. The program isn’t a major national name yet. But all it takes is one player from a distant land to say yes. Then watch it take off.
If that’s Chicago area safety Kenney Lyke, then it will resonate. It’s won’t be a mad dash to come to Waco. However, the potential for future Baylor recruiting classes to have kids coming from states not named Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana is realistic.
***
I’m probably in the minority on this. But I don’t care if you’re a senior and you’ve completed your degree at your institution. If you want to transfer to another school to finish your athletic eligibility, you need to sit for one year.
There needs to be one universal transfer rule. Regardless of personal circumstances, completion of degree or anything else, if you’re leaving, you’re sitting out for a year and then you’re eligible for the following season.
The NCAA learned the hard way last year that the hardship waiver rule was bogus. Too many kids were using the Juan Epstein (Thank you, Welcome Back Kotter) excuse of the sick relative requiring them to return home.
I think ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reported there were more than 600 college basketball transfers. Why is that? You have all of these kids who were told in their AAU days they were the shiznit. Then when they arrived at State U, they found out they weren’t the shiznit and weren’t starting. Then they pouted and wanted to take their toys and go elsewhere.
That’s fine. If you want to go somewhere no problem. But you’re sitting for a year.
I got this argument on twitter about the coaching side of it and how they up and leave after several years. My response was, “OK”.
In my opinion, you can’t equate the player to the coach. Coaching is a profession. Being a college athlete is not (even with a stipend).
Obviously, a lot of these kids are committing and signing with the schools because of their relationship with the coaching staff. I get that. But when you’re an athlete and not getting paid six figures, you just have to deal.
It’s called the hard knocks of life.
***
The scariest moment for a parent of an athlete is when you see your child go down on the field of play. My Mulkey class of 2019 is playing in a championship game at her 8th grade select tournament on Saturday.
It’s a physical game. We jumped up on this team by 15 at the half because we threw a 2-3 zone at them. In the second half, they made a charge and cut it to low single digits. With about two minutes to play, my daughter is driving up the floor with the ball, runs into trap and is looking for a teammate. One of the opposing girls reaches in for the ball, it becomes a major tussle to where my daughter is thrown to the floor and whacks her head on the hardwood.
I’m on the bench on the other side and my heart jumps into my throat. This happened in front of my wife who ran on to the floor (a mother’s instinct) before she gave way to our head coach (a doctor by profession). I couldn’t run out there because I was told I would cost our team a timeout (don’t even get me started). At first, we thought concussion. But she turned out OK. There was a headache but nothing that suggested concussion. Actually, she returned for the final 45 seconds and we held on to win.
But there is no helpless feeling greater than that. She seems to be doing fine. At this level of basketball, you still don’t get a lot of skill. There is still some herd ball qualities. Still, we have a good little group out there. We’re 8-2 through our first three tournaments.
***
Now, a look at the other sports
>Baylor women's golf can check another item off its to-do list. Just two weeks after winning the first conference championship in program history, Baylor won its first-ever NCAA Regional title by shooting 22-under 842 over 54 holes at Briggs Ranch Country Club to claim the San Antonio Regional championship.
By winning the regional, Baylor earned a spot in the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships, which will be held May 22-27 at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. This year will mark Baylor's third all-time NCAA Championship appearance, two of which have come under fourth-year head coach Jay Goble.
>The No. 22-ranked Baylor men's golf team has been awarded the No. 4 seed in the Bremerton (Wash.) Regional of the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship. The bracket was announced Monday on the Golf Channel's Morning Drive.
Baylor earned its 18th consecutive NCAA regional appearance, extending one of the nation's longest active streaks. The three-day, 54-hole tournament is hosted by University of Washington and runs May 14-16 at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash., which is one of six regional sites. Additional regionals will be played in Noblesville, Ind., Chapel Hill, N.C., Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., Lubbock, Texas and New Haven, Conn.
>The Baylor softball team learned Sunday evening that the Bears will be headed to Lafayette, La. for the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the program's 10th appearance in the national tournament.
Baylor, ranked No. 16 by the NFCA, finished the season at 38-15 and tied for second place in the Big 12 with a 12-6 record. The Bears travel to Lafayette along with Mississippi State and Weber State to face the hosts, Louisiana-Lafayette. Baylor and MSSU will face off Friday at 5:30 p.m. to kick things off while the Ragin' Cajuns and Weber State play at 8 p.m. at UL-Lafayette's Lamson Park.
>The second-ranked and second-seeded Baylor men's tennis team blanked No. 29 LSU, 4-0, Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship Round of 16 for a 14th-consecutive season.
The Bears (23-5) will make the program's 16th-overall appearance in the sport's Sweet 16, after winning the doubles point and taking singles victories on courts four, five and six against the Tigers (18-9).
>The ninth-ranked and eighth-seeded Baylor women's tennis team captured a spot in the NCAA Round of 16 with a 4-2 victory over No. 28 Rice Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The Bears (27-6) won their eighth-straight match overall and their 10th-straight against the Owls (17-9). Unlike the previous two matches against Rice this year, BU fell down early and had to come-from-behind to clinch the program's 11th NCAA Sweet 16 berth and 10th in the last 11 years.
Let’s make it a great week.
