Friday, April 23, 2010

Big 10 commissioner Jim Delaney said this week that his league’s plans for expansion aren’t quite as far along as media reports indicate, but he did admit that it’s something that’s going to happen. That serves official notice, especially to the Big East and the ACC that they need to do due diligence in (1) checking out the landscape for new members and (2) formulating a plan to replace any teams that may leave to join either the SEC or Big 10. SEC commissioner Mike Slive has said that he won’t wait around to see what other conferences are doing. The SEC wants to be ahead of the curve. I think they will be.

So the law-and-order NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has spoken on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The bad boy has been suspended for six games and ordered to undergo a comprehensive behavior evaluation, whatever that means. His six game sentence could be reduced to four if the player is successful in completing the evaluation. And by the way, it’ll cost Ben $2.85 million in lost salary. Is this enough punishment? Roethlisberger hasn’t been convicted of any wrong doing in a court of law, but he’s guilty in the morality department.

Here’s a new take on college football conference expansion. Matt Hayes of Sporting News Today writes that he believes the Big 10 will be unable to persuade Notre Dame to come aboard and he believes the league won’t invite anyone else. Instead, it will petition the NCAA to allow it to hold a championship game at season’s end with an 11-team league.

A new coaching lineage has appeared in basketball. Jason Capel, a former North Carolina player, has been named head coach at Appalachian State, replacing Buzz Peterson, who left for UNC-Wilmington. Capel is the brother of Jeff Capel III, head coach at Oklahoma and son of Jeff, Jr. who is an assistant with the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA.

The old ball coach, Steve Spurrier, may be getting old literally as he celebrated his 65th birthday this week. Spurrier says he plans on retiring with the distinction of never having been fired. He said if things start going bad at a job, you should step aside and walk away. His 35-28 record at South Carolina isn’t awful, but it’s not what he or the Gamecock fans expected.

The NCAA brain trust has come up with another brilliant idea. The college football governing body has banned eye black messages beginning immediately. You know - like Tim Tebow had a Bible verse written in his eye black. Really, is that the most important thing going right now?

This is Norman Arey and I take the pledge that I’ll have no messages in my eye black.