Delbert Mccray

As speculated earlier in the week, the WAC added the University of Texas-Arlington as a non-football member.

UTA is the second non-football member the conference has added in the past month, but the upside is that UTA has not ruled out adding a football program.

“I think today demonstrates that we definitely have a strong foundation,” Benson said. “The WAC looks much more attractive today than it did three months ago or six months ago. That’s what we’re going to play on as we go out and try to secure two football-playing schools.”

The Mavericks actually played football until 1985 season when the school decided it was not financially feasible to keep the program. However, the university does have a 12,500-seat multipurpose stadium on campus, which is mostly used for high school football during the fall. UTA president Jim Spaniolo said discussions about rekindling the football program would come after College Park Center, a $78 million, 7,000-seat special events center was finished later this year to house the basketball program.

Even though the addition of football is not definite, UTA does give the WAC one of the nation’s five largest media markets and it should appease the conference’s other central time zone teams — Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech.

WAC commissioner Karl Benson said that while he hopes UTA will look into adding football, the conference is still identifying football-playing schools in both the FBS and FCS. For the 2012 season, the WAC will have 10 members, but only seven football-playing schools.

“We definitely need to focus in on the football piece,” Benson said. “We think that this addition of UT-Arlington is one more piece of the structure and that it puts us in a position to now know that we’re two schools away from that No. 12. Without ruling anyone out, we are going to spend our time now really focusing and attempting to secure football-playing members.

“Right now, any FBS, any FCS school that is in our footprint, and the footprint is Texas, Louisiana and the states in the West, we have not ruled anyone out.”

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With their home opener versus South Florida just 46 days away, expectations seem to be rising on a daily basis for the 2011 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Year two of the Brian Kelly era promises to be a good one with All-American talent on both sides of the ball and an incoming freshman class that boasts three elite defensive ends—something we haven’t seen in South Bend since the Lou Holtz years.

The schedule is much more difficult than people will give it credit for with a number of teams that should be significantly improved over last season.

In fact, according to athlonsports.com, the Fighting Irish will face nine teams ranked in the preseason top 45—a number that is unlikely matched by any other team in the country.

On the bright side, Notre Dame only faces one truly elite team next season against Stanford—their last game of the season that will be played under the lights at Stanford stadium.

There is a good chance that the Irish will be favored in their first 11 games next year and according to the oddsmakers in Las Vegas, the 13th best chance of winning the BCS National Title.

I’m here to tell you 10 reasons why not only will Notre Dame run the table in those first 11 games next season, they will win all 13, en route to their first national championship in 23 years. 

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If Tuesday’s matchup between the United States and Lithuania is any indication, Jeremy Lamb won’t have too much trouble adjusting to his new role as Connecticut’s centerpiece next season.

Lamb sank a pull-up 17-footer with 1.8 seconds left in Tuesday’s matchup of gold medal favorites to deliver the U.S. U-19 team a dramatic 107-105 overtime victory over an opponent it lost to twice in exhibition play. The bucket served as a fitting conclusion to a brilliant 35-point, 13-of-23 shooting night from the UConn sophomore.

That Lamb came through with the game on the line should come as no surprise to anyone who watched him hit some of the biggest shots during the Huskies’ surprise run to the national title last season. The lanky guard has scored a team-high 16.8 points per game in the first four games of pool play, enabling the U.S. to emerge as the lone undefeated team in the tournament with one game remaining before the single-elimination medal round begins Friday.

Few would have expected the U.S. to be in such prime position after it dropped a pair of exhibition games against Lithuania last week by a combined 62 points. The U.S. appeared to lack the star power to defend its 2009 gold medal after standouts from North Carolina and Kentucky declined invitations to try out for the team, but a less heralded group has helped the team exceed expectations in group play.

Creighton’s Doug McDermott has averaged 12.2 points and 6.8 rebounds, solidifying that his excellent freshman season was no fluke. Florida’s Patric Young has emerged as the team’s top back-to-the-basket big man, scoring a pair of key baskets late in overtime to spearhead a U.S. comeback from a 101-95 deficit. And Memphis point guard Joe Jackson has built on his strong finish last season, though his turnover with 19 seconds left and the U.S. up four was a major reason Lithuania forced overtime.

The primary star, however, has been Lamb, which is great news for a UConn program that needs him to emerge as its go-to scorer in the absence of Kemba Walker.

Lamb looks up to the task so far. And that means the Huskies likely will again be a threat in the Big East and the national title picture.

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The U.S. had just suffered its first loss at the U-19 World Championships on Wednesday in Latvia when Florida big man Patric Young asked his Twitter followers an unlikely question.

“I would love you forever anyone that has video of my dunks today in the game,” Young tweeted. “I really wanna see them.”

Footage of only one of Young’s dunks from Wednesday has surfaced so far, but he says it’s probably the best of them. Above you’ll see him run the floor, take a pass from Michigan State point guard Keith Appling and throw down a nice one-handed transition slam over the top of a Croatian guard.

Improbably enough, Wednesday’s dunk may not have been Young’s most memorable of the tournament. In overtime of the U.S. team’s upset of gold medal favorite Lithuania on Tuesday, Young gathered an alley-oop pass from Joe Jackson underneath the rim and delivered a two-handed slam over future Toronto Rapors big man Jonas Valanciunas, the No. 5 pick in last month’s draft.

Young had high praise for Valanciunas after Tuesday’s game despite the U.S. comeback victory.

“He’s a great player,” Young said “You can see how much he loves this game because he was shaken up after the game.”

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John Cena’s showdown with CM Punk happens tomorrow night at WWE Money in the Bank.

Pro wrestling fans have been speculating on what could happen, and every possible avenue has seemingly been explored thus far.

So, it is with some trepidation that I choose to venture down the road well traveled in my own personal opinion of what may happen in the match. It’s a scenario that has been tossed around for years now, and anytime Cena’s back is against the wall, the conjecture rears its ugly head once again.

What if John Cena turns heel tomorrow night?

Before anyone begins to lose their mind, trust me, I have heard all the arguments against this theory in the past. “WWE won’t do this because of Cena’s merchandise sales. He’s too much of a hero to the younger audience, they cannot afford to jeopardize that part of the viewership. John is John, and there is no changing that.”

These statements are valid, the position is well documented, and so, there is no reason to once again argue against it, right?

Yeah, but I’ve got this cool laptop and some time on my hands.

Seriously, though, at some point, John Cena will eventually turn heel again. It is bound to happen; the pro wrestling law of averages demands it. No one stays face forever, that distinction belongs to just a handful of guys, namely Ricky Steamboat.

Ricky was the ultimate baby. He was great in the ring, he was a likeable guy and he fought with such fierce determination that he won the respect of fans all over the world. The truth is, with all he accomplished in the business, it was very hard to hate the guy.

John Cena, on the other hand, will always be debated for either his ring skill or lack thereof. In fact, that one statement probably has some readers shaking their heads in disgust or nodding in approval, as we speak.

John is a likeable guy, that much is true. But, the fact is he’s not really well liked by everyone. John’s “aw shucks” routine can grow very tired very fast, and at some point, his act does begin to feel a little rehearsed, even lazy. Fans are notorious for being able to see through someone, and at times, John comes off as very phony.

And, of course, not only is it not hard to hate Cena, for some fans it has become second nature. The Rock just thought he had it rough when he first came in, and the crowd hated him. In the case of John Cena, some folks not only wish him ill will, they would like nothing more than to see him unemployed and shoved down to the bottom of the pro wrestling barrel.

So, how could this possible heel turn go down at the pay-per-view? The most obvious answer is that Vince McMahon will somehow get involved.

Vince’s character cannot stand the thought of CM Punk walking out of Chicago with the WWE Championship. The possibility of the Bret Hart situation come to life drives him crazy, and despite the problems he has had with Cena in the past, it’s hard to believe that Vince would just sit idly by while Punk cheated to win, or won, at all.

So, Vince comes down to the ring, provides a distraction, perhaps even goes the typical route of telling the ref to end the mach early, and before you know it, Cena’s hand is being raised at the end.

If this were to happen, common sense tells us that John the baby face would refuse the victory, and demand one more match with Punk. Once again, he wears the white hat, and much to the crowd’s dismay, “does the right thing.”

John Cena, the newly transformed heel, however, not only takes the assist from Vince, he smiles, shakes the Chairman’s hand and celebrates as the Chicago fans throw trash in the ring, nWo style.

It would definitely be a twist, heeling out John and babying out Punk, all in the same night. But, it’s not impossible. Whether or not it will happen, that is another matter altogether.

The truth is, the business is at its finest when a storyline that is expected to go in one direction, suddenly changes course and veers off into another unexpected, yet incredibly dramatic, direction. This could very well be the case with John Cena versus CM Punk tomorrow night.

And, in a precursor to what may happen at Money in the Bank, consider a recent tweet from the WWE Champion himself.

“I will continue to give you everything I have. Regardless, for or against, people will talk about what happens tomorrow for years.”

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After watching the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) record yet another sensational victory in Wednesday’s semifinal victory over France, most of us in the United States are convinced that our team will triumph in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup Final against Japan.

However, I am more cautious with my assessment when considering that the United States still has some clear weaknesses which a very talented Japanese squad could exploit.

Hoping that the USWNT team once again vindicates their No. 1 ranking and returns the Women’s World Cup trophy to the States, here are five keys to a Team USA Victory.

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Part of Mid-Major Week.

When the Big East added TCU last November, many thought another team would be joining them to give the conference 10 football schools.

Eight months later, Big East expansion remains in limbo.

While schools such as Villanova and Central Florida have been bandied about as possible selections, Temple has quietly emerged as a possibility to rejoin the conference from which it was exiled after the 2004 season.

Earlier this month, three Temple recruits and a father of one of the recruits, all independently linked Temple and the Big East, stating they were hopeful the school would rejoin the conference in 2012.

New head coach Steve Addazio, who begins his first season this fall, didn’t want to address the rumors specifically, but said he thinks Temple has put itself in a better position football-wise to be an attractive prospect.

“Obviously, with the landscape of college football right now, we’re all over the lot,” Addazio said. “No one knows what’s going to happen in six months, a year. I think the goal is you want to be the best you can be, you want to put yourself in the best position you can put yourself in and that’s all you can control. Obviously, we’re the fourth-largest media market in the country here in Philadelphia and we’re a big time glorified Division I-A football team. We beat the Big East champion last year and that’s where we sit. What other people think or say, I can’t control that.”

But if Temple wants to be taken seriously as a potential member for the Big East, it’s going to have to put together a better season than it ever did under former coach Al Golden. Sure, Golden brought the Owls back from football oblivion, but in each of the past two seasons they’ve squandered opportunities to win the MAC East and in 2009, they stumbled in their first bowl game in 30 years.

“Al did a great job here and I think this program is a real program, but our goal is to keep going up,” Addazio said. “We haven’t won the East, we haven’t won the MAC, we haven’t won a bowl game — at least in recent time. What does it take to do that? How do you take that next step?”

Addazio said his goal is to make Temple a tougher team than it was under Golden. He said some of the early wins, such as bouts against Villanova and Connecticut last season, were great, but the team failed to finish when it needed a victory at the end of the year. That’s where change has to come. Temple, he said, has to be just as impressive in November as it is in September.

“Can you finish?” Addazio said. “Can you finish a practice? Can you finish a play? Can you finish a season? If you can’t finish a season, then you’re not very mentally tough. And that’s where we need to improve. We need to be a good football team in November. That’s the mark of a tough football team and that’s the mark of a well-conditioned football team. So, that’s kind of where my mind is. How do we do that?”

Addazio has pulled all the catchy football phrases off the wall and he’s gotten rid of sayings on the back of T-shirts. He’s not going to lure his team in with gimmicks. He said he didn’t want his players wearing T-shirts claiming they were something they weren’t.

But if everything goes according to plan, what Temple could be is back in the Big East after a tumultuous journey of independence, near program extinction and now becoming one of the MAC’s better squads.

“What I’m dealing with right now, I’m moving forward, I don’t really look back,” Addazio said. “I wasn’t there. I know what was done here was great. I know that Al did a great job and I respect the heck out of what he did. But I’m me.

“We’re going to put ourselves in the best position that we can possibly put ourselves in. There’s a lot of bright future here. We’re a program on the rise and there’s a lot of promise and a lot of excitement right now. And that’s what it should be.”

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Brady, Bernie. Bernie, Brady. Man, local sportscasters never die.

Bernie’s “Hoke impression” is… something.

Yes and no. Desmond Howard wants his number retired or a statue or something:

“You travel around and you see how a lot of these programs have retired jerseys of players who haven’t even accomplished some of the things on the field like myself and Woodson have accomplished,” Howard said. “It’s just a way they try to honor their players.”

At Oklahoma and Florida, for instance, Howard has seen statues of former players.

Howard says Michigan is now more receptive to change.

“You look at these things and you understand the tradition and the way Michigan has handled that in the past, but obviously, you kind of got to get into what’s happening now,” Howard said. “We’re moving in that direction. Just like … the stadium — you update your stadium to keep up with the competition.”

I’m not a fan of retiring numbers. I like seeing a guy out there rocking the #2 or #21 and being reminded of Howard or Woodson (and usually how much less good at football the current guy is than Howard or Woodson). I wouldn’t mind a Ring Of Honor bit where they have the names in the stadium. With the boxes there’s even a place to put them.

Statues are cheesy unless you are deceased, and sometimes even if you are.

Q: if there was an in-stadium commemoration thing who would be on it?

• Obvious Heisman Guys: Harmon, Howard, Woodson
• Essentially as obvious: Ford, Oosterbaan, Friedman, Carter
• Fringe-y sorts: Braylon, Jake Long, Steve Hutchinson, Dan Dierdorf (someone from 1969 is a given, no?), Tom Curtis (all time INT leader, CFBHOF), Woodley, Graham (all time sack leader), Messner, Irons

I’d probably grab one guy from the 1969 team to go with the obviously obvious ones and call it a day. Add one name per year starting with Harmon.

Tatgate du jour. Another batch of FOIA requests have been responded to by Ohio State, and the results are as embarrassing as usual. Highlights from two articles:

• Jim Tressel got an “unacceptable” on his 2006 performance review when it came to promptly informing compliance of stuff.
• Tressel was specifically admonished to pay closer attention to the cars his players were driving after the Clarett business.
• That was the last performance review Tressel got because Gene Smith started doing verbal reviews; Thad Matta continued to get written ones.
• Ohio State’s reviews that loaners were totally on the up and up were regarded as suspicious even by people in the department: ‘Greg Gillum, director of football operations, wrote to Smith and Archie that car salesman Aaron Kniffin, who once worked at Maxton and later at Auto Direct, “is supposedly working on players’ cars and sending guys to Auto Direct for loaners … Our suggestion is that someone from compliance try to investigate whether this arrangement is valid.”’
• Ohio State “heavily” redacted the documents, including blacking out the number of cars purchased from one particular dealership.
• One redacted Ohio State player was driving around a 75k vehicle.
• The investigation into ten pairs of cleats claimed stolen by Pryor, Herron, and Posey reached a dead end after a random purchase of some old-model Pryor-signed cleats.

I’m not sure if there’s any upshot here except the car stuff going further back to Clarett and the lack of reviews for Tressel. Pryor entering the supplemental draft when his stock is poisonous certainly implies the NCAA will find him ineligible for car-related hijinks Ohio State started right at and chose to ignore.

Strike while the iron is hot, which it is because you just breathed on it. The “Mankato” in Minnesota State Mankato seems likely to become useful instead of redundant, because DUCK—

Flames all up in here, all golfin’ and stuff. Also this guy:

Moorhead is a DII program with no hockey program… yet. They just announced today that they’re looking for $37 million to start one and already have 15 in soft commitments. They’re looking for the rest in the next three months; if they make it the WCHA will no doubt snap them up. And then everyone gets to play against the Dragons.

Mwahahaha. Rivals has just released its state rankings for Michigan, and Brady Hoke All Your Base Co. has secured five (RJS, Ross, Richardson, Funchess, and Godin) of the top seven. Michigan is heavily involved with the two others, Aaron Burbridge and Danny O’Brien). MSU’s first commit is #8 Jamal Lyles, and it’s a little surprising Ben Braden isn’t ahead of him—he’s been killing people at camps and I was under the impression he had a shot to move up to four stars. Maybe that was Scout.

Etc.: LSU is still oversigned by seven(!) in the middle of July. They’ve been “transparent” with the kids this time around, so at least the guys know two of them are totally screwed. Les Miles == NFW. Meanwhile, South Carolina people are upset because Spurrier didn’t renew the scholarship of a track walk-on who got one last year. I’m high on the zealotry scale when it comes to oversigning but that one fails to stoke any outrage with me.

MVictors on old-timey polls. Dodd suggests college football’s cleanup needs to start at OSU. Okay by me. Stewart Mandel’s version of “Brady Hoke poops magic.” Wojo on the open door in Ohio. Glenn Robinson hooping it up. No one closes the barn door or writes open letters like the Ohio State Buckeyes. The SBN ND blog is newly extant. Alex Massie likes the CFB blogosphere.

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Whereas Cincinnati’s lackluster non-league schedule was easy to defend a year ago since Mick Cronin’s team needed a confidence-boosting start, next season it will be a bit more difficult to stomach.

The Bearcats will begin the season as a consensus preseason top 25 team, yet the lone projected NCAA tournament team on their non-league schedule is crosstown rival Xavier. The only other potential non-conference tests are rebuilding Oklahoma, Conference USA contender Marshall and a Georgia team that must replace a pair of NBA draft picks.

By no means is that schedule an embarrassment, but it’s also not much of an improvement over the one that was met with derision a year ago. With Cronin eager to break a five-year NCAA tournament drought and potentially save his own job, Cincinnati started 15-0 but faced only one NCAA tournament team during that stretch.

It’s important to note that it’s not entirely the Bearcats’ fault that next season’s schedule isn’t ideal.

They couldn’t have known Oklahoma was about to fall off a cliff when they agreed to a home-and-home prior to the 2010-11 season. They were assigned Georgia in the SEC/Big East Challenge rather than one of half a dozen potentially more challenging opponents. And, as ESPN.com’s Andy Katz notes, it’s not always easy for them to find quality preseason tournaments.

There are 16 Big East teams eager to secure a spot in a marquee preseason event, but tournaments often only take one team per conference and are limited by rule to no more than two. As a result, Cincinnati often gets passed over since it is below the likes of UConn, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Villanova in college basketball’s TV pecking order.

Regardless of those challenges, however, Cincinnati’s schedule still feels one heavyweight opponent short. The Bearcats may again enter Big East play next season with a sparkling record but plenty to prove.

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Over the past year, Steelers linebacker James Harrison has turned plenty of heads for brutal hits he’s made both on and off the field.  Harrison made arguably the most impactful hit of the year with his mouth just a few days ago when, in an interview with Men’s Journal, he threw teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall under the bus and had some very unkind comments for everybody’s favorite commissioner, Roger Goodell.

The aftermath of Harrison’s rhetoric has created a firestorm of controversy and outrage within the pro football community, with many fans and media members calling for some kind of disciplinary action—either a release from the Steelers or a suspension.  While it’s not surprising Harrison’s antics made headline news, it is surprising to see how many people have overacted to this and are basically calling for his head.

Does anybody really believe that a first-rate organization like the Pittsburgh Steelers—one that certainly doesn’t make rash decisions regarding its players—is going to suddenly panic and release one of the cornerstones of its stout defense?  Especially over something he said?  If they are going to rid themselves of the hard-hitting linebacker, they’ll likely do it in a trade and get something back in return, like when they parted ways with troublemaker Santonio Holmes.

As appalled as some people were by Harrison’s comments, no crime was committed, as freedom of speech still exists in this country.  Granted, some disciplinary action will probably be taken thanks to Harrison’s particularly harsh words towards Goodell, when you speak out against your boss in any profession, you’re not likely to get away with it scot free. 

But any punishment harsher than a fine and brief suspension would be down right idiotic.  It’s not like Harrison stole candy from a baby or poisoned the Steel City’s drinking water.  He flapped his gums with some stupid and baseless comments.  Having to deal with Roethlisberger and Mendenhall in the wake of this tongue lashing towards them will serve as enough punishment for Harrison.

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