ECisGod

Hope they got some good touristy things done, because they didn't learn anything about themselves as a team. Their average margin of victory was over 73 points/game.

So the Pac12 is assumed to be done, but are they? There is no way they can raid the Mountain West with the MWC having a 32M per team buyout. What I wonder is will the MWC "dissolve" and join the four remaining Pac12 schools and become the Pac16 in hopes of staying/becoming a power 5 conference?

I ran track/cross country at a D3 school and there were professors that considered missing class for a meet an unexcused absence. Only a couple of prof's, but it was a huge pain.

Affording travel isn't the issue. The issue is that they are supposed to be students first (student-athlete) and most of them will not become professional athletes even in football and/or basketball. If you spend all your time traveling for sports, it is hard to get your degree and move into your chosen profession. I know they all have access to tutors and can take a lot of their classes online now, but there are many athletes that wouldn't be in college if it were only decided on their ability to do the schoolwork.

I say take Washington (for sports/TV market) & Stanford (for academics) at a discounted price and leave Oregon and their ugly a$$ uniforms and Phil Knight money to wither on the Pac12 vine.

Not sure how it works in the SEC, but in the B1G the vote has to be unanimous, so South Carolina could torpedo Clemson to the SEC by themselves if it works the same way.

Florida would never allow another team from Florida into the SEC. Clemson will have the same problem with South Carolina.

It's not if he bet on Iowa basketball games. If he bet on any Hawkeye sporting events, he's could permanently lose his eligibility. NCAA updates punishments for athletes who violate gambling rules - ESPN

Miami, FSU...

My vote would be "away" - let them be happy in D3 or NAIA.

Everyone will be looking to leave the Pac 12 if the rumors that Apple+ is the best TV deal their commissioner could negotiate. Sources - Pac-12 leaders presented with Apple streaming deal - ESPN

I know before they left, they said the tallest player available was 6' 7" (Brice Williams & Eli Rice) and both are wing players. I'm sure they played a lot of five out offense + not sure what kind of size the other team had or what the other two teams they will play have. The important part is they got a "W" and are bonding as a team. Keita (6' 11") is still recovering from ankle surgery, Mast (6' 10") is playing for The Netherlands national team, Allick (6' 8") is still recovering from ankle surgery too and Diop (6' 9") signed a couple of days before they left for Spain. On top of all those issues, Gary (6' 6") is only allowed to play about 10 min/game because he's recovering from shoulder surgery & Tominaga is playing with the Japanese national team. Nebraska basketball 'very short-handed' for Spain games (omaha.com)

I see Iowa as a school that is perfectly happy having a B or B+ football team and they are OK if every few years they are a C level team. Nebraska & Penn State want to be A+ teams every year, so they are more natural to be rivals from a competitive standpoint, but the B1G decided that Iowa should be Nebraska's rival because of geography. Honestly, I think the only sport Iowa wants to be great at is wrestling. Everything else they are OK with being average or slightly better.

From what I've seen there are four coaches who were hired in January including the DC who is the interim head coach. Those four probably have a chance to claim ignorance, but everyone else is hosed & should never work in coaching again (or probably anywhere that requires direct interaction with other people).

Technically that's true, but there aren't enough TV networks to show all the games unless they regionalize the games like they used to. Everyone says the point is to give the players a better chance to play in March Madness, but everyone knows the real reason is money and if all the games don't get televised the money doesn't get maximized.

The most logical way would be to have a first round of 92 games (if there were 220 teams) to get to 128 for the second round. To play 92 games would take at least 4 days because of TV wanting every game to be televised (we'd get such wonderful matchups as 10 vs 55). That would be the first weekend (Thursday- Sunday) and then you'd still have 7 more rounds and the round of 128 would probably take another full 4 day weekend to get to 64 teams that would play out just like the current tournament (3 more weeks). Because of TV it would probably take 5 weeks to get a champion and 7 or 8 wins to get there - most likely 7 because only teams seeded 10+ would play 8. Nebraska should be able to get a win in a 220 game tournament. Even if they were seeded 25th meaning they were between 97-100 on the s-curve they would end up playing a 40 seed which is the current seeding difference between 1 & 16.

There will be 82 teams that get bowl invitations this year out of 133 BCS teams. If hoops used that same percentage the NCAA tournament would have over 220 teams. Can you imagine how crazy and long the tournament would be? Bowl games have changed from a reward for a good season to a participation trophy.

It seems like this is a topic that comes up every year, but it is in the news again. What to know about the recent men's NCAA tournament expansion news - ESPN NCAA won't expand men's basketball tournament for now, committee still considering many options for future - CBSSports.com What does everyone think? The tournament went to 64 in 1985 when there was 283 D1 teams. There are now 361 (including a few that are "transitioning" to D1). To get the same percentage of teams as 1985 you would have 81-82. Since 81/82 is not a logical number, I think 80 would be a pretty good option. The "First Four" would be replaced by a first round of 16 games to get down to 64 and then it would be just like the current tournament after the "First Four".

Since I've renewed my season tix, part of the NC showing up in my account. 10/29 Doane (Exhibition) 11/6 Lindenwood 11/9 Florida A & M 11/13 Rider 11/15 Stony Brook 11/17 Oregon State (in Sioux Falls) 11/22 Duquesne 11/26 Cal State Fullerton 12/3 Creighton 12/17 at Kansas State (this is based on a post from above) 12/20 North Dakota 12/29 South Carolina State Will have a couple of conference games the week after the Creighton game (12/4-8), finals week is 12/11-15, so no games that week. Conference games should start up the first week of January. Usually find out the order early September (if my memory isn't fading).

I'd agree that Tominaga may be the best player on the team, but I don't think Allick will start. At this point I'd say the starters will be Ulis, Tominaga, Williams, Gary & Mast at the beginning of the season. Lawrence will probably be the first guy off the bench with Wilcher, Lloyd Allick & Kieta in the rotation. Hoiberg & Rice will get some minutes, but not many.

I'm cautiously optimistic that they will be better than last year. I think they have a lot of pieces to be a good team. The biggest question in my mind is how team chemistry will work out. It certainly doesn't help that Tominaga & Mast won't be on the trip to Spain and may not be back on campus at the start of the school year depending on how well their national teams do. They aren't going to be a Sweet 16 team, but they should at least be an NIT/bubble team. I agree that if they aren't better this year Hoiberg will be gone. I think the one thing he has going for him is that he changed some of his philosophy to fit the B1G instead of trying to make everyone adjust to him (unlike Frost), so as long as they show progress he will stick around.

This could be interesting for collectives... Some nonprofit NIL collectives may not qualify as tax-exempt - ESPN

With Bob Huggins retiring from West Virginia, there will probably be a few new transfers in the portal including a couple the Huskers already tried to get.

Season starts five months from today...

At this point with 2 scholarships available, I think it is time to take a couple of flyers on projects with high upside a couple of years down the line unless a true game changer comes along. I think the 11 they have on scholarship + the 3 walk-ons make up a good enough roster to have a successful season.