mad Page 99 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Sports Network Snubbed By NCAA Tournament Especially Vocal About Teams Snubbed By NCAA Tournament
Just over a year ago, ESPN lost out on the rights to broadcast the NCAA college basketball tournament after CBS and Turner Sports teamed up with $10.8 billion to secure the big dance for the next 14 years. It was a bit of a snub to the Worldwide Leader, which ultimately couldn't match the bill. A ...

They Ruined The Goddamn Bracket
I was ready for the 68-team field to fuck with the process of filling out a bracket for your NCAA office pool. But I didn't quite realize the extent of it until yesterday, when they unveiled just how this retarded new format will work....

A Longtime Holdout Joins <em>Madden</em> This Year
Soldier Field, one of the more storied venues of the National Football League, has never appeared in the Madden NFL series, or any other NFL series. It's always been a generic venue under the name "Chicago Stadium," or "Chicago… [Kotaku] ...

Here's Video Of The Princeton Men Beating The Harvard Men At The Buzzer
Deadspin's own Dicktern was at Yale today to tweet his observations as Princeton earned the automatic bid with a 63-62 win thanks to Douglas Davis's clutch buzzer-beater. It's official: Vikram wins, and Princeton is smarter than Harvard at basketball....

Nickels, Dimes, Pennants, Pennies or Points, Sports Gamers Still Get Value
Typically, these were unlockable items - prototypes of avatar awards, you might say. You earned them by accumulating points in gameplay, or found a cheat code that handed over all of it. Either way, there was some means of getting… [Kotaku] ...

MLS Wants To Give The Mets Owners A Team, For Some Unfathomable Reason
Grant Wahl of SI chatted with MLS commissioner Don Garber on Thursday, and New York's most beloved and comically destitute real estate barons came up in conversation....

Imminent NFL Lockout Does Not Threaten <em>Madden 12</em>'s Release
Though the NFL's ownership is expected to lock players out, following a breakdown in negotiations with the players' union, EA Sports repeated reassurances that will have no impact on Madden NFL 12's release or its rosters.… [Kotaku] ...

Here's Video Of UNC's Anticlimactic Buzzer-Beater
UNC came back from down 17 19 against Miami this afternoon. Their only lead of the game came at the buzzer, when Kendall Marshall drove valiantly to the hoop and... dished it off to Tyler Zeller for a lay-up. Still, a game-winning buzzer-beater is a game-winning buzzer-beater, a win is a win, and ...

On Eve Of Princeton-Harvard Championship, Vikram Spills Tiger Blood
This week we've followed the story of Harvard and Princeton, two storied crew programs, somehow stuck playing a basketball game Saturday for a spot in the NCAA tournament. You've heard from Brad and Vikram, and Jasper and Colin, all smack-talking because Greg Mankiw and Lars Svensson can't do it on ...

If March Madness Were Only About Spending Money, Syracuse Would Be National Champion
Mike Dang at Bundle calculated March Madness's most tournament-obsessed colleges, using basketball program expense and revenue, game attendance, and school spending. Syracuse wins, but not in everything: George Mason students spend 257% more at bars during the tournament. [Bundle]...

Watch Kemba Walker Shatter Multiple Ankles And Then Hit The Game-Winner Against Pitt
Kemba Walker came home to New York City to play every minute and record 24 points, 5 boards, and 5 assists in UConn's 76-74 win over Pittsburgh this afternoon. Here's a look at Walker's deadly step-back jumper. I'm willing to bet that Jim Calhoun has never before jumped so high....

Harvard-Princeton War Of SAT Words Escalates, Yale Joins The Fray
Big basketball game Saturday afternoon, folks: Harvard (23-5, 12-2 Ivy) and Princeton (24-6, 12-2 Ivy) fighting to the death on Yale's court, a neutral site, for the Ivy League's March Madness bid. Extra high stakes for Harvard, who hasn't appeared in the tourney since 1946, back when RFK was punchi...

Harvard And Princeton Will Fight Old-Fashioned Douchebag Standoff In Saturday Playoff
Big news for our high net worth contingent: Princeton defeated Penn in the Ivy League's regular-season finale tonight, meaning—you guessed it—the Tigers will battle Tommy Amaker's Harvard squad for the conference's automatic berth in a playoff at Yale on Saturday....

Giant Sculpture Of Muhammad Ali Made From Punching Bags
Three years ago, Muhammad Ali and his wife, Lonnie, approached artist (and baseball junkie) Michael Kalish to create an original sculpture. The result is what you see here, a two-story installation with 1,300 punching bags suspended from a steel frame....

Cool Never-Before-Seen Ali-Frazier Photos, 40 Years After The Fight Of The Century
On March 8, 1971, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought in what was billed as the "Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden. LIFE has put together a gallery of photos taken by a 24 year-old staff photographer named John Shearer 40 years ago; the majority of his photos were never published until...

Greg Jennings Responds To Fan's Religious Experience As Greg Jennings On Madden
Back in October in the virtual realm, Packers WR Greg Jennings scored a 99-yard touchdown on a broken leg in Madden. The gamer's voice-over went viral — it has been viewed over four million times on YouTube — but Jennings himself hadn't yet responded to the most famous play of his career. At ESPN ...

American Diplomat Calls Ahmadinejad The "George Steinbrenner Of Iran"
In a State Department document released by Wikileaks, an American diplomat is credited with referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the "George Steinbrenner of Iran." The official was referring, of course, to Ahmadinejad's dealings with the country's national soccer team, and his attempt "to use the pop...

Mets Ask For $50 Million More In Loans, Tell Mom They're Doing Fine, Just Need Some Money To Join A Gym
On Friday, we learned that the Mets had received $25 million in funding from Bud Selig's secret piggybank, on top of $75 million they'd already borrowed from Major League Baseball. Surely this meant the Wilpon family would finally have to explore selling the team. Or at the very least turn themselve...

Look, That Greg Anthony Retweet About Getting "Fucked In The Ass Or The Throat" Was Spam, OK?
It's gone now, but ESPN's Greg Anthony apparently had an interesting retweet this morning:...

Dicky Eklund Does The Ali Shuffle In Sugar Ray Leonard's Mug
Christian Bale won an Oscar last night for his portrayal in "The Fighter" of Dicky Eklund, the former New England welterweight champion who got hooked on crack, went to prison then resurrected himself as a trainer, most notably for his brother Micky Ward. During his acceptance speech, Bale ordered...