College Sports

Georgia’s bulldog mascot, UGA VI, passed away last week of congestive heart failure. He died at his home in Savannah.

Now normally I would probably not write about a mascot… especially one at a rival school. But Uga is different.

Uga (the name is pronounced uhg-uh, and is a reference to Georgia’s school initials, UGa), is probably the best known mascot in the nation. He has been proclaimed the nation’s best by no less than Sports Illustrated. The lineage, English bulldog, is secure, according the the University.

Uga VI was heavier than any previous Georgia mascot at 65 pounds. He outweighed his dad by 20 pounds. He first took the field for the Bulldogs when he was less than a year old, in 1999. During his tenure, Georgia’s football team won two SEC Championships (2002 and 2005)and had a record of 87-27.

But football was not the only arena where Georgia saw success during Uga VI’s reign. All told, 19 of Georgia’s 33 national championships came during this period.

Here are some quotes on the passing of Uga VI:

“This is a very sad day for the entire Bulldog Nation. Uga has always been such a strong figure associated the University of Georgia nationwide. Uga VI was a damn good mascot and a damn good dog. He was an outstanding representative of our fine institution.” Athletic Director Damon Evans.

“Uga VI served with extraordinary courage and heart as a beloved University of Georgia mascot. He was a true symbol of the toughness and competitiveness of our athletic teams, and was a rallying figure for the entire Bulldog Nation.” University of Georgia President Dr. Michael F. Adams

“Uga VI was indeed a damn good dog. Alumni of all ages had a special relationship with him, and he always drew a crowd of alumni faithful, whether at the Sugar Bowl, the Homecoming Parade, or simply walking into Sanford Stadium before leading us to victory. We will miss him and all he stood for.” Trey Paris, President of the Georgia Alumni Association

Like all previous Uga’s, Uga VI will be buried in a marble vault in the Southwest corner of Sanford Stadium, Georgia’s football stadium, with his predecessors.

Justin Gatlin, one of the world’s fastest sprinters, has given up after losing his most recent appeal to compete at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Gatlin, the defending Olympic 100-meter champion, lost his most recent appeal on June 26, and has decided not to further the case to the Supreme Court. He will continue to seek monetary damages from the U.S. Olympic Committee, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and other defendants. He claims that his first doping violation, in 2001, was flawed because he was taking prescribed medication for attention deficit disorder.

So now Gatlin will sit out the remainder of his suspension. I’m not surprised at the result of his various lawsuits. The different committees have had to take strong stances on illegal performance enhancing drugs. The violations worldwide in all areas of sports have been massive, and in some cases have threatened to do serious harm to the sports themselves. Look at cycling. It is a shell of what it once was, due to allegations and positive drug tests.

And while I have long been a Justin Gatlin fan, I think that to allow him to run would be sending a horrible message. His argument that his first violation was due to ADD medicine may be true. But even if it is, the second violation is the one that got him suspended for the duration. He knew what would happen if he was found guilty of any sort of drug violation. He associated himself with those who pushed performance enhancing drugs, all the while maintaining he was “clean.”

It caught up with him. It’s a shame, I doubt he needed the drugs to win. But he did the crime, and now he needs to do the time.

At last, Big 10 fans living in the Big 10 states will actually be able to get the Big 10 Network (BTN).

Comcast, the leading cable provider in seven of the eight states where Big 10 schools are located, came to an agreement with the BTN that will provide access to the network beginning August 15, just in time for kickoff.

The seven states included are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Iowa, the eighth Big 10 state, does not have any Comcast subscribers.

BTN had been holding out for $1.10 per customer and wanted to be on basic cable packages. They settled for 70 cents per customer and will be on expanded basic in the seven states. Outside of that region, Comcast has the option of placing the network on it’s Sports Entertainment Network or other service tiers.

BTN is owned by the Big 10 Conference and Fox Cable Networks. It is groundbreaking in the fact that it is the first network owned by a conference, although other conferences are now looking into starting their own networks. BTN covers all sports offered on the conference level, giving broadcast views to sports that rarely get it.

As I said in a previous article (Big 10 Network: A Bad Idea Gone Worse) , this idea will probably snowball, and the sports fan will pay and pay and pay. We’ve already been priced out of the stadiums and arenas. Corporate money trumps Joe College Alum any day. But in the hunt for the $$$, the “Show me the money” mentality has taken over.

So stay tuned, America. Next up? SEC-TV. Pac10-a-vision. Big East Coast Bias TV. You name it, you’ll pay for it!

For the first time ever, the top three picks in the NBA draft are all one-and-done’rs. For the second straight year, the top overall pick is a freshman.

Chicago opened by taking Derrick Rose out of Memphis with the top pick. He was followed by Michael Beasley of Kansas State going to Miami, and USC star O.J. Mayo going to Minnesota (although the word is that he is potentially trade bait).

Ohio State’s Greg Oden was the top pick of the Portland Trailblazers last year.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Beasley said, “We actually talked about this earlier. We all grew up together and we all grew up playing against each other and we all made a pact together that we would all be here. Just to see it all fall into place and see it all happen is kind of crazy.”

In addition to the top three picks, five of the first seven were freshmen. And the Pac-10 had five of the top 11 picks.

I don’t have a problem with the kids who are one and done. I do have a problem with the rule. It seems so random. Of course, all three major sports have such random rules about the draft it is hard to keep up.

I have never quite understood why there is not just one rule governing football, basketball and baseball. Baseball’s rule has always been my favorite… you can be drafted out of high school, but if you choose to attend college, you cannot reenter the draft until following your junior season. It allows the schools to be able to build programs, rather than wonder each year what your roster needs will be.

The NBA’s draft rules seem to be the most harmful to a program in the long run. Do you recruit a player knowing he will be gone in one year? Do you hope that you can build that team chemistry quickly and then start all over the following season? Or do you bypass the players who will be “short timers” and go for project players, players you can mold to fit your system.

Tough questions. The NCAA needs to come up with some answers, instead of letting the pro leagues puppet the whole show.

Steve Detwiler had himself quite a night. The Fresno State slugger had two home runs and all six Bulldog RBI’s to lead FSU to its first-ever NCAA Division I Baseball National Championship. Fresno State took the title with a 6-1 victory over eighth-seeded Georgia.Detwiler hit a two-run shot in the second inning to give Fresno State an early lead, and followed that up in the fourth with an RBI double. He capped his night with a two-out, three run homer in the sixth that gave the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead.

Bulldog pitcher Justin Wilson did his part for FSU on the mound. In eight innings, he allowed one run on just five hits, and struck out nine. Reliever Brandon Burke took over in the ninth and got the final three outs. His game clinching performance included getting a double play with Georgia runners on first and second and no one out in the ninth.

Fresno State had quite a run to the title. It marks the first time a regional four-seed has won a national championship, and during the course of the tournament, FSU hade to beat the #2 national seed North Carolina twice, the #3 national seed Arizona State twice, the #6 national seed Rice once, and the #8 national seed Georgia twice.

All in a days work for a team that wouldn’t be denied and who gave us one of the most improbable runs in NCAA baseball tournament history.

Wilson and Detwiler were both on the MCWS all-tournament team while teammate Tommy Mendonca was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

Fresno State ends it’s season with a mark of 47-31, while Georgia ends up 45-25-1.

After a long, long college baseball season, it’s all come down to tonight’s game. Fresno State vs. Georgia. Bulldogs vs. Bulldogs. Big Red vs. Big Red.

Both teams have great stories. FSU fought through a region where it was seeded fourth, and became the first regional four seed ever to advance to the championship round. Georgia finished last year with a losing record, but won the SEC regular season, and became the first team with a losing record the prior year to advance to the championship round.

Tonight’s game is one of those classic matchups where you don’t want to see anyone lose. You know both teams are playing on heart as much as ability.

First pitch is just minutes away, on ESPN at 7 p.m. EDT. Catch it!

I was sitting in front of my computer screen, reading about the College World Series and getting a little sad that the Championship will end the college sports season until fall. My five year old was upstairs watching cartoons, when she called to me that something had happened to the TV.

Since it has been on the fritz lately, I figured, “Here we go again,” and went upstairs. But the TV was fine. TiVo had just changed the channel to begin recording something, a program it had picked up on from my list of keywords.

And that’s when I knew that college sports never really ends, it just goes into reruns.

Because there, in front of my eyes, was Peyton Manning, University of Tennessee, getting ready to take on Alabama, circa 1996.

Yes, CSTV and Tivo to the rescue!

CSTV (College Sports Television) runs old football games year round, but is starting to ramp it up to get us through the long, hot summer. And I say, Bring it on! And part of the fun of the old games on CSTV is that it is the entire original broadcast, complete with updates on scores from games that same day. OK, the commercials are current, but that is small potatoes.

Who needs to worry about the future, when you (with a little help from CSTV) can live in the past!

The College World Series has finally whittled itself down to two teams, and the best of three series begins tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN 2.

Georgia and Fresno State have both battled through to make it into the Championship series. And I don’t think anyone would have picked either team to make it into the finals.

Georgia entered the tournament as an eight seed and an average won-loss record that now stands at 44-23-1. Georgia becomes the first team to bounce back from a losing season one year and advance to the finals the next.

Fresno State entered the tournament as the fourth seed… in their region! They are the first regional fourth seed ever to make it into the Championship round, and took out national #2 seed North Carolina, a finalist the past two years, in the process.

Georgia has been here before. In 1990, Georgia won the NCAA title. That season the Bulldogs had a utility infielder by the name of David Perno. Perno now goes by the title of head coach at UGa.

Did I mention both Fresno State and Georgia go by the nickname Bulldogs? Seems appropriate.

Here’s an interesting item. Duke University just won a lawsuit against Louisville by claiming they suck at football.

They really do suck at football, too. They have a mark of 6-45 over the past five years, and are 13-90 since 1999. That is really, truly bad.

The lawsuit stems from a four game series that Duke and Louisville were set to play. The first game, played in Louisville in 2002, was won by the Cardinals by a score of 40-3.

Duke yelled “no mas” and opted out of the final three games of the contract, set to be played in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The contract called for a “good faith effort” on the part of Louisville to replace Duke if they opted out of the series, and if they couldn’t replace the game with a team of similar stature, Duke would pay a $150,000 penalty for each game.

Duke’s argument is that they are so pathetic at football, the bar is set so low when it comes to replacing them, that any team would suffice.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, Judge Phillip J. Shepherd (Franklin County, Kent., Circuit Court) agreed.
“At oral argument, Duke [with a candor perhaps more attributable to good legal strategy than to institutional modesty] persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower,” Shepherd wrote in a summary judgment issued Thursday, according to the paper. “Duke’s argument on this point cannot be reasonably disputed by Louisville.”

So now, not only does Duke claim they suck in football, but the courts have verified it.

Bet new coach David Cutcliffe is thrilled with this ruling. I can see it now… he enters the living room of a recruit. “That’s right, superstar, come to Duke. We stink it up on the football field, so it can’t get any worse!”

Louisville is looking over the case and will decide whether or not to appeal.

Can’t wait to see Duke’s next defense.

Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Paul Hewitt was listening to the Knight Commission as committee members highlighted the NCAA’s rating system that penalizes teams that don’t meet certain academic standards.

The Knight Commission is an independent group that has been pursuing academic reform in athletics for more than 20 years.

In the most recent Academic Progress Report (APR), 218 teams from 123 schools received penalties of some sort. Scores have risen steadily since the APR was introduced four years ago

APR scores have been on the rise since the standard was introduced four years ago, but not all are happy with the method used to achieve the results. Coach Hewitt’s name heads the list.

“I do have a problem with putting numbers out there, saying ‘Meet these numbers or else,” Hewitt said. “You’re turning education into a race.”

Hewitt’s fear is that coaches, pressed to keep grades up to keep from losing scholarships, will steer their athletes into easier classes, away from the hard stuff that could actually help the player move toward graduation.

Hewitt came armed with ideas for improvement. He thinks that basketball should be a one semester sport, and a move toward a shorter season and schedule. He also is smart enough to know that the money involved will keep that from ever happening.

And therein lies the rub. The NCAA, once again, wants it all. We want our student-athletes to graduate, they say. Academic progress must be met, they bellow.

Shorten the season? Lose money? Uh, nope, not gonna do it.

The NCAA may want to take the high road, but it’s hard to do when the road is paved with dollar bills. As long as TV is driving the truck, the NCAA will be at their mercy. And the coaches and athletes will keep paying the price.