Conference expansion dismissed as silly and ill-conceived.
First, it was the Big Ten that made national news (and news not related to one of its teams being destroyed in a BCS game) by announcing it planned to explore the studio space of conference expansion. Names like Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers and Syracuse were all mentioned as potential invitees, but so far only Texas has been confirmed to be a serious candidate (Although, to be fair, I'm pretty sure Notre Dame gets a written offer every May to join the conference.).
Now, the Pac-10 has decided this game sounds like fun. A story broke on Friday that the conference was prepared to offer invitations to Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado. And on Sunday, the presidents/chancellors of the Pac-10 gave commissioner Larry Scott the authority to extend said invitations, although no one is certain which schools will be receiving a hand-crafted invitation with a personal note from Scott (I'm hoping they send physical invitations though the mail, complete with RSVP cards). If the invitations do go out and are accepted, the Big 12 is dead, soon to be followed by the Big East. The leftover Big 12 teams will melt away into the Mountain West or, in the case of a team like Nebraska or Missouri, be picked up by the Big Ten. Then the Big Ten will take its pick of Big East teams, leaving the leftovers to, well, I don't know. Join Conference USA and create the most bad-to-mediocre conference in the history of college football?
One figures the SEC will respond in some way, which could mean the death of the ACC, leaving college football with three real conferences and everyone else hoping to survive. But, like most things, expansion probably won't go as expected. What will go as expected, from now until the end of time, is that when it comes to sports, anyone and everyone will do anything to make more money. Fans and the players who drive this billion-dollar machine be damned. And I, for one, welcome the sweet taste of millions of dollars pumping straight into my school's bank account. Granted, I will never see any of this money, and more than likely those in charge of that money will use it in the most inefficient way possible, but the chance that one day someone (or hopefully multiple someones) who knows what they're doing deals with that money and uses it properly has me on board with the idea of expansion.
USC slammed with the swift and painful hammer of NCAA justice.
Like all things associated with the NCAA infractions committee, it takes way too damn long to find out anything. The Trojans are still awaiting the vicious finger-wagging that is sure to come after they cheated their way to a national title and Heisman trophies. Although, now that media-beloved Pete Carroll is no longer overseeing the football program, penalties will probably not be any lighter, strictly because of a universal hatred for Lane Kiffin.
The NHL operated like a successful organ-eye-zation.
The league currently keeping Major League Baseball out of last place for most incompetently run padded that lead on Sunday night. Instead of scheduling the Stanley Cup Finals for Saturday night or even Monday night, Gary Bettman chose to have his finals go head-to-head with the NBA Finals. One aired on ABC, the other on Versus. Well done, sir. Do you know what I sporting events I watched on Saturday night? An inning of the Cubs/Astros game and the last 20 minutes of an MLS game involving teams from Dallas and San Jose (I think). If I'm watching both of those, I could almost guarantee I would have watched the Stanley Cup game, assuming I could have figured out whatever channel Versus is. Do I need an extra satellite dish to pick up that channel? Not that I care, BUT HOW IN THE HELL DOES HE STILL HAVE A JOB?
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