The Rest of College Football

[WM Wolverine]

B10's tv deal expires after '15-'16, which means they'll negotiate a year or two before that. Same time as the Big XII deal expires...

B10's media deal is expected to be significantly higher than the Pac 12's just signed deal which is $250mil/year (=$21mil per school). BTN is presently bringing in about $7.5mil/year per school but should continue to climb. B10 might get $25mil or more for its 1st/2nd tier tv deals and be able to add the $10mil plus the BTN makes on top of that.

[Wild Hoss]

I always thought the problem (or headache) with Texas was that it would not share revenue with other conference members. I thought this was a big reason for Nebraska's desire to leave the Big 12. I could be completely wrong though. Ent, can you help me out with this?

Common misperception. Texas and Nebraska pretty much voted identitically when it came to revenue, outside the issue of the conference network which was an 11th-hour deal-sealer for us leaving.

We left because it appeared all the world like UT and its merry band of South Division douchebags were going to bail on us. Its really no more complex than that.

[entropy]

I always thought the problem (or headache) with Texas was that it would not share revenue with other conference members. I thought this was a big reason for Nebraska's desire to leave the Big 12. I could be completely wrong though. Ent, can you help me out with this?

Nebraska never voted for revenue sharing, and would only give up its TV rights if Texas did as well. Frankly, UNL had zero trust in Beebe and Texas and wouldn't commit to anything unless Texas put their position in writing.

The south was shopping themselves to the Pac10. They also found out via Alverez that Texas was talking to OSU about joining the BIG.. UNL had 2 choices... Make a move or let Texas decide their fate. The BIG was a gift from the heavens.

[entropy]

Btw... The media created the idea that teams the 12 because of the lack of revenue sharing. The Angie's never voted for it... Neither did UNL... Missouri did at the end, but I think it was to strong arm Nebraska into staying. I don't believe Colorado voted for revenue sharing either. Routinely, the impression I got was only a few schools pushed for it. The rest wanted more or were scared Texas would leave


People left the conference because Texas and Beebe couldn't be trusted

[entropy]

Here is Sheridan's complete list of favorites, beginning with USC quarterback Matt Barkley and ending with Washington quarterback Keith Price. Sheridan says the odds "take into consideration: Politics of voters, playing on a good team, & School's PR Machine."

2012 Heisman Trophy favorites:

USC quarterback Matt Barkley: 5:1
Wisconsin running back Montee Ball: 6:1
Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones: 7:1
Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson: 7:1

West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith: 10:1
Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray: 12:1
South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore: 12:1
Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson: 15:1

Kansas quarterback Dayne Crist: 25:1
Oregon running back De'Anthony Thomas: 25:1
Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead: 25:1
Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins: 25:1

Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron: 30:1
Washington quarterback Keith Price: 40:1

Ball rushed for 1,954 yards last season and tied Barry Sanders' NCAA single-season record with 39 touchdowns. The 5-11, 210 pounder finished fourth in Heisman voting and decided in January to return to Wisconsin for his senior season.

Robinson changed offensive systems in his second season as a starter, but still managed to throw for 2,173 yards and 20 touchdowns while rushing for 1,176 yards and 16 touchdowns. Robinson also evaluated his NFL draft options before electing to return to Ann Arbor for his senior season.

[SeanB]

The most interesting guys to me are Lattimore and Geno Smith. If Holgersen's (or Holgerstein if your L. Holtz) offense puts up video game numbers in the weak Big East like they did in the bowl game, Smith could be a RGIII type of candidate.

If Lattimore is healthy (a big if), he'll get plenty of touches. I can't see a WR like Watkins winning the Heisman. Denard? Maybe, but he'll have to lower his turnovers as we all know. In the end, it will probably be Barkley, but who knows. Who ever thought Griffith would win the thing at the start of the year?

[iam416]

I think $40M isn't out of the question for B10 revenue-sharing. I really think you're going to see an uber-competitive bidding process for B10 football, and the Disney assclowns are going to have to pay out the ass to keep 1st/2nd tier.

Me, I've been rooting for Fox to win for years and I think they'll make a huge, huge push.

[Hannibal]

I'd love to see the BTN keep the 2nd tier.

[Wild Hoss]

That Price kid from Washington has a big future IMO. He could take UW places if they could figure out how to play defense.

[WM Wolverine]

BTN right now just shows the regional games, both ABC and ESPN get dibs before the BTN gets the leftovers...

Pac 12 made it so P12 Network gets first dibs, this was mostly due to they needed to 'build' the P12 network (which is 100% owned by its universities instead of the B10 owning just half) and that is tougher to do in Pac 12 country where the fan bases are more fickle. Broadcasting big games on their network forces people to 'fight' their cable/satellite provider to carry it...

I doubt we'll see the B10 make the same sacrifices to its 1st/2nd tier rights as the Pac12.

[entropy]

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Steve Spurrier and University of South Carolina officials will appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions in Los Angeles on Friday.

The NCAA says the school received $55,000 in improper benefits for athletes -- mostly football players -- who stayed at a hotel for a reduced rate and for South Carolina's involvement with a mentoring group in Delaware.

Spurrier, university president Harris Pastides and athletic director Eric Hyman are part of the 11-person contingent traveling for the meeting.

South Carolina agreed in its response to the NCAA in December that major rules violations did take place.

Spurrier bluntly summed up how he feels about the hearing when he said earlier this month: "Sometimes crap happens. You just have to deal with it."

[entropy]

South Carolina to face no additional penalties.
Steven A Jacquevagen

South Carolina learned that it will receive no additional penalties for admitted major violations in providing $55,000 in illegal benefits to prospective and current South Carolina football players, and for its improper relationship with a Delaware mentoring group.

NCAA spokesperson Anita Hunggman stated that "[t}he benefits, though clearly improper and a major violation, were not such to warrant probation under NCAA rules. There was no intent to break rules, because sometimes crap happens. It's not like they were given free books and asked to learn additional course material, or something similar constituting highly improper activity at an institution of lower to medium learning."


Heh...

[entropy]

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/34876036

Posted by Jerry Hinnen

The SEC is richer than it's ever been--but is it rich enough?

The Birmingham News reported Friday that according to the league's tax documents, the SEC distributed a conference record $19.5 million to each of its member schools for the 2010-2011 season, an increase of $1.2 million on both its 2009-2010 payout and its initial 2011 estimates. Thanks to the new(ish) CBS Sports/ESPN television contracts fueling the increase, those revenues also represent a whopping $6.5 million per-school bump -- a 50 percent increase -- over the league's distribution numbers just two seasons before.

That's the great news for the SEC. The less-great news is that those figures still leave them a bit behind the Joneses Mike Slive is looking to keep up with in the Big Ten and Pac-12; the Sports Business Journal recently estimated those conferences' per-member distributions* at "close to $21 million," with the growth from their respective networks expected to push those numbers even higher in the coming years. The SEC, meanwhile, is locked into its current contracts until 2023, with TV revenue only increasing 3 percent in the second year of the league's new deals.

That those revenues will be divided 14 ways rather than 12 following the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri would be another headache for Slive if those additions didn't also open up the possibility for a renegotiation of those television contracts. The ACC's ongoing expansion-triggered renegotiation is expected to net the league an additional $1 to $2 million per team per year--hardly chump change, but likely not the sort of numbers that would keep the SEC even with the Big Ten and Pac-12 come 2017 or '18, much less the tail end of its current contract (which could also be extended as part of the renegotiation).

Make no mistake: the SEC is currently swimming in money, will continue to swim in money, and has the kind of advantages that have nothing to do with money -- overwhelming fan interest, proximity to recruiting hotbeds, a firmly cemented reputation as college football's gold standard -- that will keep it at or near the top of the college football heap. Slive is hardly in crisis management mode. But "or near" may not be good enough for the SEC after its recent run, and a potential $4 or $5 million gap per-school between the league and its Midwestern/West Coast "rivals" -- sustained over a period of years -- could (or would?) eventually even (or even tilt) the playing field.

Times are no doubt very, very good for the SEC both on the field and in its checkbook. But the upcoming negotiations between the league and its TV partners will likely play a huge role in whether future times are as very good or not.

*The SBJ also estimated the SEC's distribution figure at only $17 million, which could be either a good sign or a bad one from an SEC perspective; if that figure was simply wrong while the Big Ten's and Pac-12's was accurate, then the gap isn't as wide as believed. But if the SBJ was simply being conservative across the board and the B1G's/P12's numbers are also underestimated, it would mean those leagues' networks and TV deals have established a substantial financial edge even before they really get rolling.

[WM Wolverine]

or extra stretching time...

[entropy]

The undercover Fort Worth police officer who mistakenly targeted a Dallas man in this week’s Texas Christian University drug busts possibly undermined the entire case with his “sloppy” police work, lawyers familiar with the case said Friday.

Authorities on Wednesday arrested 21 enrolled or former TCU students — including four current football players — in a highly publicized drug-trafficking case.

On Friday, a 22nd suspect, Hunter McLaughlin, 24, surrendered and was immediately released on bond. Some other suspects spent the day obtaining or meeting with attorneys. Initially, 18 people were known to have been arrested on Wednesday, but three others were taken into custody on the same day.

In sworn arrest affidavits, Officer J.C. Williams declared that “Austin Williams Carpenter” was one of the people from whom he purchased drugs three times. But the Austin Carpenter identified in the warrant, which included a photo and was released to the public, was not the person who allegedly dealt Williams the drugs.

The person erroneously named in the warrant is the great-grandson of Dallas businessman John W. Carpenter, who has a local freeway named after him. The 26-year-old’s mother is the daughter of the late Dolph Briscoe, a former Texas governor once considered the largest individual landowner in the state. The 26-year-old was not arrested, but his family has demanded a public apology from Fort Worth police for wrongly naming him a suspect.

The Austin Carpenter police really want is 19 and lives in Houston. On Friday, his Houston attorney, Joe David Wells, blasted Williams and the possible case against his client.

“In the event that the authorities in Tarrant County decide to pursue charges, I look forward to a vigorous cross-examination of the officer who swore under oath that he dealt with a different Austin Carpenter than my client,” Wells said.

He added that the use of photographs on all the arrest warrants trampled on the presumption of innocence of the suspects and could end up derailing all the cases. It is very unusual for photos of suspects to be part of an arrest warrant affidavit.

“Texas law does not require the inclusion of a photograph for the issuance of an arrest warrant,” Wells said. “The only reason for including a photograph in the warrant is for publicity. Their failed attempt at a photographic perp walk could result in acquittals of all of the students charged in this scandal.”

Terri Moore, a former prosecutor with the district attorney’s offices in Tarrant and Dallas counties, as well as the U.S. attorney’s office, agreed. She said Williams made a “major, major error” that will definitely harm Carpenter’s case and perhaps the others.

“He made a huge mistake, he stepped in it, and he’s going to have to eat it,” said Moore, now a defense attorney. “That screws up that case as far as that defendant goes.

“You sat down and looked at the photograph and you took that and swore to a judge that this was correct, and he relied on that to issue a warrant,” she said. “I’m not saying that it was a dishonest mistake, but it’s a huge mistake. And if he was sloppy then, how sloppy was he with these other cases?”

Fort Worth police Sgt. Pedro Criado on Friday characterized Williams’ error as “inadvertent” and said it was immediately corrected. He said investigators plan to revise the Carpenter warrant and pursue charges against the “correct person.”

Asked how Williams could have thought that the driver’s license photo of the 26-year-old Carpenter was that of the 19-year-old he swore he bought drugs from at least three times, Criado said: “I can’t answer what somebody was thinking at the time.” He said Williams would not be made available to explain.

Criado said Fort Worth police still intend to present the correct Carpenter’s case to the Tarrant County district attorney’s office along with those of the other suspects. That office will decide whether to take the case and, if so, whether to present the evidence to a grand jury.

According to a review by The Dallas Morning News of the 227 pages that make up the 19 arrest-warrant affidavits, Williams played a key role in all of them. A warrant was not needed for the arrest of the other suspects.

In the documents, Williams describes 47 hand-to-hand drug buys over 27 days from October through this month. In cases in which he didn’t make the buy, he accompanied the undercover officer who did. In all instances, he helped identify the suspects by looking at their driver’s license photos or license tags. He also relied on other sources for identification — for example, the online TCU football roster.

Melody McDonald, spokeswoman for the Tarrant district attorney’s office, did not directly address Williams’ credibility Friday; she said it was too soon to know how any of the cases would be dealt with.

“We are still waiting for the police to submit the case paperwork to us,” McDonald said. “We have not seen anything yet, so we can’t speculate on what is going to happen. Each case will stand on its own merits.”

Moore said that regardless of how Carpenter’s case is eventually handled — even if it’s never prosecuted — legal rules require that prosecutors inform the lawyers for all the other suspects about Williams’ misstep.

“I guarantee you the defense attorneys in the other cases will try to capitalize off the mistake the officer made in this case,” Moore said. “And if I was the prosecutor, I would be like, ‘Dude, how could you do this?’”