The DOE complains about graduation rates in College Basketball

DOEX

This week US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan suggested that the NCAA should ban teams from the NCAA Tournament that do not maintain a minimum graduation rate for their players. WHAT?????

Don’t forget that this pinhead is the guy that was so effective as the CEO of the Chicago Public School System he was named to his current post by Obama. Forget the fact that the Chicago public schools are at the very bottom of the heap nationwide in graduation rates and standardized test scores. What it does rank at the top of the nation in is in-school violence, teen age pregnancy and dropouts. I guess he is just another “do as I say not as I do” guy in Washington.

But beyond the fact that the speaker is totally incompetent to say anything about graduation rates, there are other factors over which the NCAA and individual colleges have little or no control.

Prior to the NBA requiring that a player be 1 year out of school before applying for the NBA draft, those players (often between 20 and 40 a year) would go from high school directly into the pros. Now, those players go to college for 1 … Read more at FryingPanSports

The retired NFL players are pawns in the CBA negotiations.

GoodellSmith

Media loves to turn everything that happens into a crisis and to point out victims of our free enterprise system. If there was an asteroid headed toward Earth the headline of the New York Times would read “Earth to end tomorrow. Women and children to suffer most.” Retired players have become a hot topic in the media because most NFL fans remember the men fondly that built the league to what it has become today. But in this case, there are real victims and they are the retired players.

The salaries have come up dramatically in just the last few years. Players that were active in the 60’s through the 90’s were paid next to nothing compared to the salaries today. In the 1960’s a star might get 10K a season. By the 80’s a star might get 75K per season. To give you a feel for how much salaries have increased in recent years, here is a statistical comparison. In 2000, the average of team’s median salaries was $497,782.26 for the 31 teams in the league. By 2009 that number was $909,235.72 for the 32 teams. In just 9 seasons the average team median salaries nearly doubled. It increased Read more at FryingPanSports

The NBA: First half season review

nba

Game of the week–LA 87 @ Cleveland 93

The Cavs trailed for 3 quarters but the 4th quarter is LeBron time. LeBron scored 37 with 12 in the last period to make the difference. Bryant had 31It was an outstanding game. Varejao adds so much energy and rebounding and that was critical in this game. He hit 2 free throws with 20 seconds to go after forcing a fowl going after a miss on a free throw by LeBron. This is the kind of game that the Cavs would have lost a couple of years ago. They have now swept the Lakers in their 2 games.

Top NBA teams are struggling with injuries.

The top teams from last year are all struggling with injuries.

Cleveland (33-11) leads the Eastern Conference but will not have G Mo Williams for up to a month. They traded for Shaq but Coach Brown has not figured out yet how to make a square peg fit into a round hole. He is not playing enough minutes to have the impact the Cavs expected. The Cavs need to find a way to stay in front of Boston and Orlando to keep the home floor advantage in … Read more at FryingPanSports

What did we learn from this week in college football?

football

Goodbye Notre Dame? Not so fast my friend.

The fans are ready to move on to a new coach. It even looks like the team is ready for a new leader but neither of them matter. The only people that matter are in the administration of the school.

Far too often pinhead administrators want to prove to the fans who is the boss. The Ohio State Athletic Director was hearing demands for Coach John Cooper to be fired in part because he was beaten like a nail by hammer Michigan. Instead, he gave Cooper a significant extension. The following year both the AD and Cooper were history. But the Buckeyes still had to pay off the contract. It was the gift that keeps on giving.

Don’t bet the house that coach Weis is gone. ND doesn’t like paying ex-coaches. There is no question that the team needs a new direction and that needs to be more than just a change in the coaching staff.

The two previous ND coaches won 58% of their games. Prior to the loss Saturday, Weiss had a winning percentage of 58. That can not be a coincidence. Based on the Sporting News top 25 recruits … Read more at FryingPanSports

Niblets for September 2009

nib

Best comment of the month: The Browns lack of offense rests primarily on a defective O line.

On NFLDraftDog.com

So Will,let me get this straight once again Cleveland sports fans have coaches/gm’s, scouts, that can’t scout and review talent? WHAT is it going to take to get more then one sports team to play well in this city? The 90’s we finally had a good baseball team. The Browns had one playoff game with a not so great team. Now the Cavs are the talk of the NBA,( For being good not for having the league stop them from making trades because they were making a mockery of the league..good ole Ted Stepien),anyway back to the Browns and the Indians two “PRO “teams that can’t seem to be a good judge of talent to save themselves or the sanity of Cleveland sports teams.

Thankfully the Cavs start playing soon…C’Mon LBJ AND SHAQ!

P.S. Keep guns away from the rest of the team…for more info look up Delonte West. Thankfully we have Mo and other guards.

One of the things I have never been able to figure out is why a new regime insists on cutting every player they did … Read more at FryingPanSports

Niblets for August 2009

nib

Best comment of the month: on Tuesday morning QB. Analysis: Sanchez has all the tools except experience in the NFL

from Crime Scene Cleanup

I am very interested to see where Sanchez is in 5 years. Looks like he is a great guy, but I’m still not sold on him being a franchise QB or anywhere close to it…Time will tell

Crime: That is the beauty of Pro Football, time will definitely tell.

Updates on previous articles:

The Bengals will go as far as their O takes them. Carson Palmer is hurt already with a high ankle sprain. The team says that he will be fine for game 1. Don’t believe it. The dreaded HAS is the kind of injury that will linger all year.

Major League Baseball gets “BALCOed” right between the eyes The Federal court has ordered that the samples and test results be destroyed. Now that is a decision that would have meant a lot more to MLB 3 years ago!

Bronco Owner Bowlen shoots his team in the leg. Now the 2nd best player on the team, WR Brandon Marshall, has been suspended until Sept. 6th. He is not happy and wants to … Read more at FryingPanSports