Jaybird

If that is true about the Big 12 then it looks like they take the place of the ACC as one of the 4 that survives. It is looking like the 4 major conferences to survive will be the Big 12, SEC, Pac 12 and the B1G. where as before it was looking like the ACC would make it and the Big 12 would not. We will see. I not sure what I think about 16 team super conferences overall but I am all for more games matching 2 big time teams. I don't like the money games, so if we had bigger conferences along with alliances maybe we would have less of the directional schools and more big boy football.

Agreed, we need another solid start out of Hander and hopefully the offense can keep up the pace. Lets get the series today and go for the sweep tomorrow. Since we won 15-2 yesterday too bad we couldn't have applied some of those points to the Football matchup from last fall so we could have made it a little closer!

There is no mercy rule in the B1G. 10-2 good guys. 13 hits through 4 innings is pretty impressive so far. I realize the offense was not typically one of our major issues!

Way to settle down Kubat. Keep it rolling! Unfortunately with the up and down nature of our pitching staff I don't think we can score too many runs. No lead is safe. Lets keep adding to the lead guys!

It really looks like we are just continuing the game with the Shockers. Errors, mental mistakes, allowing stolen bases and wild pitches. Not playing with very good focus and urgency early on in Ann Arbor against one of the lower teams in the conference!

Just gotta get to the 4th inning then we will break out and score 7 runs. It seems that is our big inning. Hope we can hold them down until then!

Stranded him at 3rd. 2 to 1 Meechigan going B2.

Obviously I am not watching it but a couple stolen bases and a wild pitch to put runners in scoring position is not a way you go about winning baseball games. Come on guys get your head in the game and focus. Gotta get this series. Don't be messing around with the 11th place team in the conference. Beat them and beat them soundly!

The game is about to start. Lets get that first win out of the way today. Lets play some smart and disciplined baseball. Lets not be giving them extra outs. Come on guys come out these next 3 games and make us proud, how about we get on a nice winning streak to build confidence going in to the B1G tourney!

I guess you just have to look at motivations and expectations. If the B1G wants to honestly compete with the SEC and Big 12-4+2 then there is one course of action. If the B1G is just stuck in the past and wants to maintain past traditions and live off of that then this isn't that bad of an idea I guess. This seems to fall in line with the MN baseball coach who wants to separate baseball off and just basically play as a club team in the summer with no chance of competing at the NCAA level. I personally feel that the B1G could be very competitive in all sports with the right decisions being made up above. If your goal is to compete for national titles in all sports then that needs to be more of a focus and rules and decisions need to reflect that commitment to excellence. Rules like the recruiting rule in baseball really hinder the conference's ability to compete. Ultimately I just think the conference needs to sit down and decide what it's ultimate goals are. If they want to truly compete then do so, if they want to be on their own then do that. I am not saying that the B1G should turn into the former SWC and cheat and cut corners to win but I do think they can put rules in place to maximize success and then lobby for the rest of college football to come up to their standards in terms of academics and the like.

What even makes it more impressive is that we have done this with the addition of the new facilities etc but we are not even getting a full share of the B1G money yet. If I am not mistaken we don't get our full share until 2017 but are still making more than we did in the Big 12-4+2=10

From what I am hearing we need 1 win to make the B1G tourney but if we were to sweep and other things fall into place we have a shot at the number 2 seed for the tourney which would mean a bye. I just hope this change in starting pitching holds up as we really need quality starts out of the starters. Come on Kubat, Hander and whoever takes the mound on Sunday we need you to be solid on the mound. The stat that John Nyatawa came out with showing how many runs we have given up with 2 outs is sickening somewhere around 41% of total runs allowed have been given up with 2 outs this year (or something crazy like that). We can't really be too upset about the performance of the offense or the defense, I think pitching is the one area I am pretty disappointed about this year. We really need to get things turned around there to be where we all feel we should be, competing for conference championships and regularly making the ncaa tourney.

This is the video you can see at the stadium on days other than gamedays. If you go to the Tom Osborne Statue and go into the offices there you can watch this video and another one highlighting the heisman winners. It is really cool if you have not seen it!

Oh I wish I could be a fly on the wall in some of these talks. It would be really interesting to see what all possibilities have been thrown around as to who wants to do what and why. I never really get too excited until moves are actually made as there has been too much throwing stuff against the wall and a lot of it is not sticking. I will say it is interesting to follow and discuss the possibilities. When are we supposed to find out more about the BCS changes? I have a feeling once that is finalized it may have an impact on the realignment issue for some schools.

Come on guys we definitely need a series win but a sweep would go a long way to ensuring a spot in the conference tourney! Lets go out and play smart baseball. Don't try to do too much. Make their starter work, battle at the plate and get your pitch to drive. We sure could use 3 quality starts. Kubat has looked pretty good as of late so hopefully that keeps up against their ace. From the stats I see MN doesn't have much for power at all so we gotta play good defense! We have beaten them already this year so go out there and get it done guys. GBR!

the only problem with this theory is that the message for not announcing the vote until 3 eastern time today, was up their all day yesterday even before it ended. Anyways back to what you said about them purposly making it close to attract pub wouldn't surprise me, thats was being discussed on texags a bunch too. How easy would it be for a guy to switch the live board a few times just to mess with people, when the whole time aggy was leading by a landslide. I doubt it happened but you never know. Unfortunately, this is what ESPN has done to both fanbases. We have both been shat on so much by that damn network that we all can't help but feel there is SOME sort of manipulation going on behind the scenes and wondering who's going to get screwed. I know it got WAY worse when ESPN jumped into bed with texas. They are the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network for a reason. They are in bed with enough people they cannot be looked at as a news organization, has been this way for a long time. I would never watch if they didn't have so many games on! They are responsible for too many contrived stories to fill air time that the rest of their content is almost un-watchable imho. Only time I watch sportscenter anymore is when I am up in the middle of the night because I can't sleep and nothing else is on which is pretty typical.

I do think going south is obviously the way to go partly because of many obvious reasons. I see teams like Virginia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Duke, North Carolina etc as teams that would be good academic schools as well as bringing in some kind of athletic success to the table. Whether or not those teams would be "fits" into the conference or would even be interested it another story. Another team that could be interested that fit those criteria would be Kansas.

I realize he is basically an administrator, that the University Presidents etc make the decisions and that of course he is going to say things that put what he represents in a good light but why lie about it? We all know that is not true. I found it a bit humorous that the first question the local radio guys asked him was how did he feel about the fact that if most college football fans had their way he wouldn't have a job. He just laughed it off.

Bill Hancock also said that in the current system 95% of the BCS championship game stadium is taken by fans of the teams having vested interested in who wins, which I don't believe for a second. I find it hard to believe that games like that have a much higher percentage of people going because of their affiliation with a sponsor and the like. I would much rather have a stadium full of true fans watching the game even if that meant having to go on the road to play in the semifinals. I guess I don't really mind the bowl system but I think they really need to do away with the conference ties and just try to place teams in bowls to provide the best match ups and interesting games. Who really wants to watch Oklahoma against Connecticut from a couple years ago. I would be for a top 4 playing for the championship and then the rest of the teams could play in bowls, but make the bowls interesting to watch. I love football and will watch almost any game that is on tv but in recent years there have been a lot of bowls that are really boring. I want to see traditional powers squaring off, I want to see great offenses matched against great defenses, I mean if the bowls don't really mean anything in terms of deciding the championship (which they don't now) make it the best entertainment possible!

Nope "parity" is where I was going I just can't type and since I typed it wrong but it was a correct word myself and the spell check didn't catch it. My bad. At least I get the words: there, their and they're as well as the proper use of than and then- if that means anything!

Things have gotten a bit out of hand as I don't feel the need to pick one sport early on and only concentrate on that one sport year round. I liked the days where you could have a well rounded athlete who maybe played football in the fall, wrestled or played basketball or ran track as well. I have always held the idea that these other sports taught skills that would be applicable in other sports. If you have and offensive lineman that used to wrestle he has a better understanding of his center of gravity and leverage etc or a tight end that played basketball, these are just a couple of examples. Adding martial arts and other skills to the mix make for better athletes. Take Suh playing soccer. No matter the sport it just seems to be too involved as there are year round baseball, basketball and soccer academies as well. For my children, I guess I would prefer them to be allowed to be children a little bit longer and not be forced into choosing a specific sport to focus on quite so early. Not sure if issues like this can even be fixed but I would sure be on board to try!

Interesting. Well if that is the case at most major Universities, and I would assume it is, then I could see the on campus thing being an issue in terms of this topic. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. I personally would like to see a leveling of the playing field as I seem to gravitate toward the idea that more parody is better for the game. If you have a larger pool of teams that realistically have a chance to win the title it is better for the sport. I would like to see more southern teams playing up north in weather, spreading out the bowls/post season etc what ever it takes to level the playing field as much as possible. Maybe this is not possible but it would be nice to have a different team from a different conference winning the title every year!

What percentage of Memorial Stadium is used by Season Ticket holders? The reason I ask is Bill Hancock was on Omaha radio this morning and he was saying that some of the reasons that on-campus sites may not work are infrastructure shortcomings in host communities (hotel and other accommodations to support such a large event), Stadium size and press box size to support the increased demand for coverage and attendance, the home field advantage, as well as the fact that there would be a requirement to have more than a normal allotment of tickets for visiting fans and this would possibly require some season ticket holders to have to give up their seats for the postseason games. I guess I just don't understand why the need to cater to the least qualified teams making it into the top 2 which rarely happens rather than just setting minimum requirements that would be need to be met in order to host. If you didn't meet these requirements ( X number of seats, hotel rooms etc within a certain radius of the campus) then you would be charged with setting up alternate arrangements to host. For example if Northwestern were to host a semifinal game they would try to get it in Soldier field, or if Boise hosted they could look to Seattle or Denver. I personally am for the on campus type sites as it rewards regular season success and has the potential to make some of the southern schools come and play in the weather if we can get a northern team into the top 2. What do you say Husker Nation?

Barry Tramell from the Daily Oklahoman was on Unsportsmanlike Conduct this afternoon and he talked like there is a split even between the state of OK as to whether the Big 12 should expand or not. If they did he made it sound like Louisville would be the team they would go after as the 11th team after that he made it sound like there was a big drop off after them in terms of quality of who would be interested. They threw the name Pitt at him and he said the Big 12 got in touch with Pitt before and that ship had sailed. Another name they threw out was UConn. FSU and Clemson were not mentioned at all. He has been following the conference for quite a while so I would assume he is pretty connected. Another interesting note he talked about is when he talked about the commish. He said the new guy would like to be a leader and visionary like Scott and Delaney but he did not know if the conference would let him as they Big12/8/ as well as the SWC all had administrators as commissioners and they really did not stand up to the Presidents at all. It sure will be interesting to see how it works out.

I still have a feeling once this is all said and done we will have 14 or 16 team conferences. We will see. I think the BCS stuff needs to be sorted out before there is a lot of movement but I am sure the conference realignment will get fired up gain soon.