Athletics Page 49 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Alabama should be applauded for defying historical trends by hiring Kalen Deboer
In response to Nick Saban’s sudden retirement, the Crimson Tide hired Washington’s Kalen Deboer and averted the mistake that’s plagued program after program over the last half-century. Bravo to Alabama for expanding beyond their horizons....
Does Kalen DeBoer know what he’s getting into at Alabama?
It’d be interesting to see how many Alabama fans knew the name Kalen DeBoer before this season. Hell, I’d love to see the numbers a month and a half ago. It took all of two days for the Crimson Tide to find a replacement for Nick Saban, which feels fast, but with players diving into the transfer poo...
Jalen Hurts’ fugazi QB record is evidence that sometimes numbers do lie
The NFL’s Big Data complex, including Next Gen Stats and Pro Football Focus, would have you believe that numbers don’t lie, but the truth is that numbers can be untrustworthy little digits. They don’t explicitly generate faux stats, but accurate statistics can be framed deceptively. For instance, on...
This week in football: Aaron Rodgers finally sees the end; FSU boycotting the Orange Bowl?; Oregon hit with Title IX suit
Injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a lot going on over this first weekend in December. He turned 40 on Saturday, then stood on the sideline Sunday and watched the Jets lose to the Atlanta Falcons while scoring eight points. That could be when it dawned on Mr. Rodgers that suiting up...
Despite Deion Sanders' success, worthy HBCU coaches still aren't getting advancement opportunities
One year ago, Deion Sanders’ swift exit from Jackson State’s sideline brought a swell of attention to HBCU football that hadn’t existed in decades. What it didn’t bring were more opportunities for the coaches who are essentially lifers, no matter how much they’ve proven themselves. Before Sanders to...
Oregon just got hit with a Title IX lawsuit and the allegations are rough
On Friday, 32 members of the University of Oregon’s women’s beach volleyball and rowing teams filed a class action lawsuit in federal court that accuses the University of depriving female athletes of “equal treatment and benefits, equal athletic aid, and equal opportunities to participate in varsity...
This year’s College Football Playoff controversy is the sport at its best
Amidst all the outrage and taunting on Sunday, I hope everyone took the time to enjoy the rush. A reminder about college sports: the athletes are not as good as the pros. The game is not nearly as polished. What makes up for the majority of participants having no chance at becoming well-paid profess...
Washington is giving Pac-12 football a beautiful swan song
The finality of the Pac-12 is depressing. The Washington Huskies beat the Oregon Ducks, 34-31, on Friday night, and looked like a title contender doing it. Michael Penix had his full array of receivers, with Jalen McMillan returning to grab nine balls for 131 yards. Husky running back Dillon Johnson...
Sick, Sad World of Sports: The grim side of athletics
Hello, and welcome back to the Sick, Sad World of Sports, a reminder that sports figures are human, and as such, are no more or less prone to fallibility than the rest of us. Everyone makes mistakes, but often fans overlook a misdemeanor or even a felony, because sports are supposed to be an escape....
Dear NCAA: Let James Madison play in a bowl game
It costs nothing to be kind. The NCAA is cruel for free....
Colin Kaepernick should absolutely play in the XFL
That Colin Kaepernick will never take another NFL snap should surprise no one, not after a six-year absence, an eight-figure settlement over the league’s blatant collusion to keep him off the field and especially not at his advanced age of 35, when arguably all but the luckiest, elite QBs have begun...
Get ready for lavish sports-themed resorts in college towns, as the expense of fandom continues to increase
Since America encourages maximum luxury that is far too expensive for the average person, of course, a project combining sports and extravagance is headed for college towns. Sports Illustrated has already built a sports-themed resort in the Dominican Republic, where the 2023 Swimsuit issue was shot....
Gene Smith and the NCAA’s NIL solutions would leave athletes with nil
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith should be in his Danny Glover “I’m too old for this” stage of his career. The Buckeyes’ longtime athletic director is retiring in 2024, and presumably moving somewhere warm because Columbus is not the place. After this season, NIL isn’t his problem anymore. ...
Boston College hit with hazing scandal
Boston College has placed its men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams on an indefinite suspension after the university’s leadership found there was rampant hazing in the program, the school announced Wednesday. ...
The NBA can try all it wants, player rest is impossible to stop
Remember when the Dallas Mavericks concluded an embarrassing 2022-23 season by not dressing Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić instead of attempting to qualify for the Play-in Tournament? The Mavericks were fined $750,000, and I think that the NBA reached a breaking point in its never-ending saga of star-...
Kim Mulkey getting paid is just latest evidence that college sports is alive and well
Locking in Kim Mulkey as a Bayou Bengal for life was always a matter of when, not if, especially coming after leading LSU to a national championship in her second season on campus. No matter what you think of Mulkey off the court — and trust me, there’s plenty to criticize — she’s one heck of a bask...
College football on Labor Day has always been a sick joke
Labor Day Weekend serving as the official kickoff for college football is still the biggest oxymoron in sports. For decades, college football was the most abhorrent, openly accepted form of free labor. Unlike their basketball counterparts, NFL-caliber athletes are forced to push themselves through t...
NIL and the reckoning of college athletics
When you give someone an inch to placate their desire for a mile, don’t be surprised when they still ask for a mile. For college football players and other student-athletes, name, image, and likeness deals were not the final step in fixing the flawed system that is college athletics, but rather a fi...
The ACC is the least powerful Power 4 Conference — even with Cal, Stanford, SMU
It’s better to be proactive than reactive, right? Unless you consider what the Atlantic Coast Conference is already doing to be reactive, scraping up the leftovers from the Pac-12 Conference instead of having enough power in the college athletics landscape to attract more lucrative schools of their ...
Don’t be like Kevin Hart, especially if you’re over 40
Here’s a bit of advice for everyone. If you did not play in a professional sports league, association, or alliance, you have no business challenging former pro athletes in anything that requires athleticism. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Kevin Hart learned this lesson the hard way while hanging out w...