Big 10 adds USC and UCLA

     Things that cause seismic shifts in the college football world seldom arrive expectedly and the announcement that USC and UCLA were going to be entering the Big 10 and leaving the Pac 12 and their home of one hundred years in the case of USC and ninety-four years for UCLA.

BTW- I used the photo to the right because I love the tradition of both teams wearing their colored jerseys for the USC-UCLA game. 

I wish more rivalry games would consider giving that a try!

The SEC's agreement last summer that resulted in the eventual arrival of Texas and Oklahoma for their conference was a tremor that likely forced the Big 10 to look around for two more teams but it feels like this move for USC and UCLA may or may not to equal to the move of Texas and Oklahoma but it does have the feel of having the bigger effect on the rest of college football.

The Big 10 may not have wanted to expand but it almost had to and compared to their past expansion attempts, this one is surpassed only by the arrival of Penn State in the early 1990s as far as impact.

The Big 10's addition of Nebraska looked big at the time with the history of the Cornhusker program but it never played out on the field and didn't really bring in a big media market.

The expansion that brought in Rutgers and Maryland brought in the media markets in theory but hasn't helped on the field, at least in football.

Rutgers never delivered New York City as the conference (and almost no one else) expected, and while Maryland has done well in some sports, the Terrapin fan base has never really cuddled up to the Big Ten, although it could change if the ACC winds up exploding after this move and what could be sure to follow.

The questions are these-

Is the Big Ten finished adding schools?

If they aren't who could be next? Notre Dame will be the first choice but there could be interest in Oregon and/or Washington.

If Oregon and Washington leave the Pac 12, does that kill the conference? Only if the league loses any other schools.

If Oregon and Washington stay, will that be enough to keep the conference afloat?

If so, who would be the likely targets to return to twelve teams? I'd think it would be Boise State and San Diego State with Colorado State and Air Force as dark horses, should the Big 12 stay intact without defectors.

Does the Big 12 attack and try to grab some of the Pac 12? If so, I would think that the Arizona schools, Utah and Colorado make the most sense.

Does the SEC smell blood and attack the ACC for Clemson and who knows who else- N.C. State? Virginia Tech? Florida State? Miami?

If the ACC wobbles, will the Big Ten move in for a try at North Carolina? Virginia? Georgia Tech?

This move raises more questions than answers and I don't think we have seen anything close to how things settle out for the next "quiet period".

Oregon and Washington appear to be the next domino to decide which direction realignment moves next although the biggest prize awaits in Notre Dame should the Irish finally feel forced to make the leap for a real conference berth rather than the associate role that they currently hold with the ACC.

Should Oregon and Washington leave the Pac 12, things begin to crumble and the conference could be out of business within a few years but should they decide to stay for now, the race could be on to see who cannibalizes who in a death match between the Pac 12 and Big 12.

Whichever conference can grab the first handful of schools will likely be the conference that survives.

The Pac 12 could pursue Oklahoma State and a few of the Texas schools from the Big 12 while the Big 12 talks to the aforementioned Arizona duo, Colorado, and Utah.

As for the Big Ten, who is already rumored to "not be finished", I wonder who could be additions should the mentioned three decide not to join.

North Carolina would make lots of sense and some think that Virginia would be a good fit.

I'm not convinced that the same people that think Maryland hasn't worked out would think that the Cavaliers would be a good pickup.

Georgia Tech fits academically and would bring the league into the deep south but Tech doesn't bring a quarter of what Georgia would bring as far as fan interest and their football and basketball are worse than Virginia's currently.

West Virginia would bring a regional fit and the type of rabid fan base that the conference would love but lacks the academics that the conference emphasizes.

Kansas would bring a basketball power to the league but the Jayhawks football program would instantly give the league a midwestern Rutgers.

I've always thought Pittsburgh would be a good choice but Penn State will fight that tooth and nail and I'm not sure that they bring anything that the league doesn't already have.

College sports continue to change and while I'm not screaming about them being ruined for good, I will admit that there could be a risk in losing the rivalries, circumstances, and all that made college sports what it was.

In its place stands something different, and I'm not ready to claim that as a failure

Still, I'll mourn what has been lost and remember what was rather than groan about what is.

I tell ya' Herbie:

It's been a while since our last "I tell ya' Herbie", which is a weekly post based on thoughts from the college football world.

I tell ya, Herbie:
                          It's been tough getting into a season where half the teams that I follow closely (Ohio State and Boise State) aren't playing, but it's even harder when you cannot count on games from week to week to be played.
It's even tougher when you hear things about teams having Covid already as LSU coach Ed Orgeron stated earlier this week.
I'm not sure that it's a good thing for college football to be playing, mainly because it's just so hard keeping the 18-22 year olds doing the things that need to be done in order to play this game and keep healthy doing so.
The one edge that the NFL has over the college game is the money that the league has to spend to keep things as healthy as possible.
No matter the school or how much the football budget is for a school, that school doesn't have what the NFL has and there is why if I had to wager on the NFL completing their season, I'd bet yes.
And why I'd bet on some sort of stoppage, even a temporary one, for the college game.


I tell ya, Herbie:
                          The Big Ten seems to be dragging their feet on a possible return in late October.
Each of the last three days, the rumors started that the conference was planning an announcement for a return to action.
To this writing, no announcement has taken place.
I'm not sure who to blame for this mess..
Commissoner Kevin Warren doesn't want to play (although he seems to be fine with his son playing with Mississippi State) and he has some school presidents on his side.
He is opposed by the league's coaches and athletic directors and if the playing leagues manage to shove some sort of a season through and the Big Ten cannot, look for Warren  to suddenly "decide to spend more time with his family" sometime next year- No matter the amount of dollars that the league has hauled in.

Editors note: As I am writing this column, the Big Ten announced their football return for October 24.

I tell ya, Herbie:
                           As someone that likes Group of Five football, few were as tickled as I was to see the Sun Belt defeat three Big 12 teams with Louisiana (minus the Lafayette) dumping a ranked Iowa State team, Arkansas State dropping Kansas State, and Coastal Carolina pounding a hapless Kansas squad with all of those games at the Big 12 teams homes.
The Sun Belt has quite a few schools that have been playing Division I for less than two decades and you can make an argument that they have surpassed the MAC and Conference USA on the G-5 totem pole.
I would even say this- If conference realignment comes along sooner than later (which is rumored with television contracts possibly being ripped up after the pandemic "disappears"), the Sun Belt may have a choice- be a shark or a minnow.
The Sun Belt could watch some of their teams be poached- Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Louisiana (no Lafayette), Troy, and Arkansas State could all be targeted by other leagues.
The league could also go all in and build a really G-5 football league by grabbing the top CUSA teams that would be a geographic fit from a group including Marshall, Western Kentucky, UAB, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic and International, and maybe Middle Tennessee or Southern Mississppi.
You don't want your league to be too bloated, but some type of merger between the Sun Belt and CUSA would be a pretty damn good football league.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           With the floating schedule that has come with Covid-19, the Houston Cougars get a big opportunity on the national stage.
Louisiana Tech was forced to drop out of their game with Baylor and the Bears needed an opponent.
Houston jumped on the chance to renew an old SWC rivalry and national television as the main game on Fox.
If I can, I may cover this game for TRS mainly because I'd like to see a college game that I care about even a little!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           Ohio State may have helped bring the Big Ten back, but the conference's foot dragging has still damaged the Buckeyes with the losses of two All-Americans in guard Wyatt Davis and cornerback Shaun Wade.
While I wouldn't rule those two players deciding not to play anyway, the close to a week delay in announcing the league's return might have cost Ohio State the two players, both of which decided to train for the NFL draft in that time period.
                         

Big Ten postpones 2020 Season

The announcement of the Big Ten's decision to postpone the 2020 football season to the spring has rocked the sports world, and there is a very small (minuscule) chance that the decision could result in a major conference shakeup that could result in with the long-rumored "super conference" arriving.

I have no idea what to really believe as some have reported a 12-2 vote with Nebraska and Iowa voting to play the season and others noting that Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan with the other two have looked into playing the season elsewhere.
I wouldn't think that the fifty million dollars and being removed from the conference would make a departure for any school likely, but one never knows in these matters.
If someone is smelling weakness in new Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and think that the money that makes the Big Ten the top money-making conference (per team) is going to be reduced, perhaps someone would test the waters in an unlikely scenario.

Should that team exist, I would think that it would be the Cornhuskers of Nebraska.
Nebraska seemed to be a fit for the Big Ten athletically and geographically when they were admitted to the league, but it's never seemed to click for the Huskers, who haven't competed as well as expected on the gridiron and for the league, who didn't pay for the market of Omaha as their reason for adding Nebraska.
This could be something that could shake up the alignment of college football eventually, although not right away.
Nebraska wouldn't be a huge loss, but imagine if Ohio State and Penn State walked away?
And imagine the effects on recruiting as the playing conferences use this against the Big Ten that "doesn't value" football?
All of these are long shots, but long shots do occasionally connect.

I'm doubtful that spring football accounts to much, perhaps a few glorified scrimmages.
In the big scheme, the need is for a full and normal season in the fall of 2021, and should something happen in the spring, it could take its toll on the players during the fall season.

I'm not sure what to think about all of this.
If the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 all play their season without incident, the schools that postponed are going to look very bad.
It would be a better choice to buy a month or so and then see what happens, but I suppose the Big Ten and Pac 12 have their reasons for throwing in the towel a little early.
If the eventual end to this season is the three conferences that are trying to play eventually cancel, the Big Ten will be looked at as forward-thinking and ahead of the curve.
However, the prudent choice might have been waiting with the rest and the decision made on Tuesday may be one that is long regretted by many involved.

Cleaning out the inbox-Sports version

Photo credit: Unknown

It isn't often that women's basketball leads off the inbox.
It also isn't often that a women's basketball team wins 71 games in a row with a national championship and is on their way to the Final Four in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the number one team in the country.
Now, imagine how rare that it is to have that team come from my hometown and you have the Division II dominating Ashland Eagles.
Head coach Robyn Fralick has a career record of 103-2 (of this writing) and has a unique assistant coach in her husband Tim, the former head coach of Ashland High School.
Barry Fortune of the Ashland Times-Gazette writes of the unique working relationship and how coaches function with a home life built around basketball.
When I grew up, Ashland was more of a hoops school than a football school, so men or women, it's nice to see the hoops programs doing so well there.

More on Ashland basketball as Eric Musselman, the son of Ashland University (then college) legend Bill Musselman, has led Nevada to the Sweet 16 after a huge comeback to upset second seed Cincinnati.
Nevada will play Loyola-Chicago for a trip to the Elite Eight.
If I was Louisville or Pittsburgh (Especially Pittsburgh) -ACC schools with a massive rebuilding project ahead, I would be looking into Eric Musselman as an excellent choice to be their person to attempt to bring back their program to tournament status.

Surprised to see Penny Hardaway as the head coach at Memphis.
I understand that Memphis missed the tournament in both years under Tubby Smith, but in the past flashy hires of former great players without college coaching experience hasn't turned out well (Houston with Clyde Drexler and currently Georgetown with Patrick Ewing and St.John's with Chris Mullin to name just a few), but the one thing that makes me think that Hardaway has a better chance than the others is that he is a Memphis icon coaching Memphis with a built-in recruiting hotbed waiting for him.
I'm not saying Hardaway will succeed, but I like his chances better than others that attempted this in the past.

Eleven Warriors uses the tournament (and adds football) to explain just why entering the Big 10 may be a great idea for dollars, but not such a great idea for success as it looks at the adventures of Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland and of course Rutgers and their struggles with their occasional successes.
When you consider that the Big 10 likely has one more expansion left in them, future contestants may want to measure winning against the bank account...

One passing of note as Ed "the Glider" Charles passed away at the age of 84.
Charles spent most of his career with the Kansas City Athletics, but best remembered by many for his 1969 postseason heroics with many key hits for the Miracle Mets against the Braves and Orioles.
Charles saved the best for last in his career as he never played in the big leagues after the World Series victory.

We wrap with the O.J. Simpson interview,
No, not THAT O.J. Simpson interview- Simpson did one last week that he hasn't done even well before that night in Brentwood as he talked football, his career with the Buffalo Bills, USC, his potential to possibly contend with CTE and even some about his time in prison in Las Vegas.
The Buffalo News managed to get Simpson to talk about these and other things in what I thought was a very interesting piece if only to get Simpson's thoughts on topics other than the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

Cleaning out the inbox-Sports Edition

The usual cleaning out the inbox begins with whatever this is to the right.
I've written before about my go-to site for Buckeye news and analysis being Eleven Warriors (located in the links section) and they did a great look back at the history of our favorite mascot-Brutus Buckeye.
Well,rather how we got to the current lovable Brutus from the beginning in 1965 with what looks like a lump of crap,to a friendly apple to a frowning apple,back to the friendly apple until 1975 when someone thought whatever the hell this hybrid of Popeye the Sailor and the Maryland Terrapin was a good idea.
Thank the lord that this was a one year experiment before the apple returned for a year and was followed by the eventual Brutus that we know and love today with gradual refinements.
Just looking at that thing makes me shake my head!

The New York Times writes about Jim Bouton,who disclosed at a recent SABR convention that he has cerebral amyloid angiopathy,a brain disease that has been connected to people that have dementia.
Bouton did the convention to discuss Ball Four,but the article talks about the book,his post baseball career,what he battles with the disease and much of the article is done through Bouton's wife,Paula.
I bet Jim Bouton has made more appearances in the inbox than any other person or topic...

We've been a booster of the Hall of Fame chances of Dick Allen-particularly with the continuing use of advanced stats that show Allen is a better choice than many already in Cooperstown's claim to fame.
Baseball Prospectus,one of the more progressive statistical groups,writes about their take on the career of Allen and his case for the Hall in an excerpt for the new book by Jay Jaffe-Cooperstown Casebook.
The book looks really interesting and one I might be buying soon!

FanRagSports (which this is my first time reading) gives a lot of facts that I wasn't aware of on why there isn't a hockey presence in Houston (NHL or AHL).
Apparently the Rockets owner,Leslie Alexander,has a massive grudge against the NHL and the article discusses all of these factors that have kept hockey out of Houston.
Since Alexander has placed the Rockets for sale,perhaps the door has been cracked for a return to the largest city in Texas..

The Big 10 network is giving Lisa Byington,a long time sideline reporter on the network,a shot on play by play this season with the Bowling Green-Northwestern game.
Byington will be the first woman to do the play by play on the network and follows in the steps of ESPN,who has used Pam Ward in the past and currently uses Beth Mowins for college games.
I'm fine with giving Byington a chance as I've never minded Mowins,although I thought Pam Ward was really bad when she did her games.

We wrap up with a quick look back at the 20 year anniversary of the Tennessee Titans spending a year in Memphis before their move to Nashville.
It's from the Memphis perspective since it's from a Memphis based newspaper,but I understood why Memphis was so bitter at the time.
It was Memphis that sold out NFL exhibition game and was mentioned as an expansion candidate and it was Memphis,not Nashville that supported both the Southmen (WFL) and Showboats (USFL),when Nashville couldn't even rate getting teams in new leagues.
However,Memphis made a huge mistake in not making the best of the temporary arrangement like Oklahoma City did with the NBA in supporting the New Orleans (then) Hornets in their pit stop in Oklahoma after Hurricane Katrina.
Oklahoma City earned massive league goodwill for the help and proved their market value and the NBA returned the favor when the owners of the Seattle Super Sonics wanted to move there.
Memphis may have done the principled thing,but not the prudent thing and the NFL will never forget that-Memphis was one of the first cities mentioned for the NFL for years and now they are highly unlikely to get a team ever....

Maryland to the Big Ten.....

As I recover from all the work at the road office, I just didn't feel up to hammering out posts.
I do hope to review the tape of the Ohio State overtime win over Wisconsin and the overtime loss for the Browns in Dallas sometime tomorrow or so before I return to the daily grind.

The big news has to be the University of Maryland to the Big Ten.

This would have been a huge loss to me ten years ago when the Terrapins ranked evenly with Ohio State.
Ironically, it was conference expansion that led down the road of lack of interest in Maryland sports.

I might have been the biggest Maryland fan I knew growing up.
The Terps were the only local team that I rooted for, so for the first (and only ) time in my existence as a fan, I had the advantage of seeing all the games, having the games on the radio, and talking Terps (Especially hoops, ACC football was weaker then than they are now, which says A LOT) with the casual fan.
I lived and died with the Lefty Driesell Terrapins and their always close losses to North Carolina (Duke didn't really become a power until the late 1980s) and even as a grown-up, Ryan and I listened to every game on the Maryland radio network to the point to this day of remembering some of the constant commercials.
How about Nagano, Ryan? LOL!
 Hating Carolina and later Duke was a way of life and the 2002 National Championship seemed like an overdue check for long-time fans.

However, things began to change when all of these conference changes started and the ACC was the one that hit hardest.
I was eleven when Georgia Tech came in, so that was fine and despite having an odd number, I was fine with Florida State because the league kept the home and home schedule for basketball.
It was the expansion that came next that sent me careening away with the additions of Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College.
Virginia Tech made some sense, but the other two seemed a forced fit and I remember quite well a commercial for ESPN's rivalry week which featured the Terps against Boston College as a "rivalry"
That was the expansion that began to end my love affair as the home and home scheduling that had always made the ACC so great was gone.
Sure, Maryland was hooked up with Duke as their out of division partner, but it just was so different and not for the better.
Last year's announcement of Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC sealed the deal as Maryland's partner was not going to be Duke, it was going to be Pitt in another forced fake rivalry.
Combined with the expansion issues, I had real problems with Maryland's various gimmicky uniforms and football helmets that rapidly made the program a national joke, which the hiring of Randy Edsall as the football coach exacerbated.
It took a while, but Maryland and the ACC had pulled the impossible-they had managed to make the Terrapins almost indifferent to me.

So we move to Saturday and the leaked move of Maryland to the Big Ten.
I understand both sides wanting this, although I'll never figure out why Rutgers is always so targeted in these things.
In the long run, the Big 10 will regret Rutgers's admission.
I also can see Maryland wanting to leave a league run by UNC and Duke, although if that was such an issue, they really picked the wrong place to go.

Increased money and exposure?
Yes, the Big 10 will provide that and Maryland will get to revive a lopsided rivalry (on Maryland's end) with Penn State at the right time as the Nittany Lions begin to show the signs of the sanctions against their program, so it isn't all bad.
But I still cannot shake throwing fifty plus years of tradition away, although the ACC is just as liable in the situation and I think Maryland athletics would have been better off where they were.
After all, if you cannot compete in the ACC, why would you think you can in the Big 10?

There is one shining spot though-Sitting in the stands for an Ohio State visit and only driving 90 minutes to do so...