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Weekly briefing for Monday, May 12, 2008 |
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May 12, 2008 |
≡ 7 Days ≡
 Mayo: good cash flow in high school! |
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. We’re delighted that Al Brooks Tickets is continuing as a sponsor; their support and that of others will help keep this site alive. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: ESPN reported that USC’s star guard O.J. Mayo received perhaps $30,000 in support payments from what is now his representative beginning as early as his ninth-grade year.
A lengthy report appeared on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program on Sunday with Kelly Naqi interviewing Louis Johnson, who worked with Mayo and his “adviser” Rodney Guillory for several years before a falling-out with Guillory prior to Mayo beginning his term at USC. Guillory had previously gotten a USC player suspended: Jeff Trepagnier in 2000 because of airfare purchased by Guillory for him.
Johnson told Naqi that Guillory received as much as $250,000 from Bill Duffy Associates (“BDA Sports”), a sports representation firm in Northern California. Of that, Mayo received as much as $30,000 in cash, clothes, cell-phone service, a flat-screen television and travel expenses, either directly or through friends to whom the money was actually given. Johnson said there was a verbal agreement that Mayo would be represented by BDA Sports when he turned pro and Mayo announced that he had, in fact, signed with BDA Sports for representation during his news conference when he declared that he would make himself eligible for the NBA Draft.
According to Johnson, BDA stopped funding Guillory (and Mayo) last year because of the expense involved, but Guillory continued to support Mayo, charging items to a credit card belonging to a group called “The National Association of Sickle Cell Prevention and Awareness Foundation.” The head of the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of California said she had never heard of that organization.
Mayo, USC and BDA all issued statements to ESPN. Mayo said that “I have not engaged in any wrongdoing” and USC noted that Mayo had been cleared as to eligibility by the Pac-10 Conference and the NCAA. However, BDA’s statement also stated that “Developing a rapport with Rodney Guillory was a prerequisite for the multiple agencies attempting to recruit O.J. Mayo.”
At the very least, the story is a red flag for the Internal Revenue Service, which would have grounds to at least interview Johnson and then check for unreported income for Guillory, Mayo and Mayo’s friends who acted as middlemen for the money that was sent through them to the player. For USC, this is a headache they don’t need.
The Reggie Bush situation is heating up due to the civil case filed by Lloyd Lake, who alleges that he provided $300,000 to Bush and his family in a failed attempt to use Bush as the cornerstone of a new sports marketing agency. The NCAA is monitoring the case.
If the Bush and Mayo cases both come down badly for USC, sanctions are sure to follow. The university will be sure to defend itself, but the key player to watch is not Trojan athletic director Mike Garrett, but USC president Steve Sample. He’s been the engine behind a remarkable climb in academic standing – especially in undergraduate classes – at University Park; how will he involve himself in the outcome of these athletic issues that stand to injure what he has created there?
= The National Pastime =
>> New York. N.Y.: Why is the lawyer for Roger Clemens’ former personal trainer Brian McNamee, spearheading the release of details of Clemens’ personal life?
It’s about Clemens’ lawsuit against McNamee for defamation over McNamee’s accusations that Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. The legal bind for Clemens is that in order to win a defamation case, he has to show that his reputation has been damaged.
Thus, if his reputation is in the dumpster, he can’t win in court. Good work by McNamee’s attorneys; that’s what they get paid for.
= The NFL =
>> New York, N.Y.: “I believe Belichick should now be barred from coaching the Patriots for one season, on top of the $750,000 in fines and the forfeiture of a first-round draft pick levied on him and the Patriots by Goodell last fall.”
That’s the view of New York Times columnist Harvey Araton on Friday, ripping New England coach Bill Belichick after eight more tapes of stealing signals from 2000-2002 were made available to the NFL office and commissioner Roger Goodell by former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh.
Araton notes that, taken collectively, the evidence points to Belichick taping opponent’s signals starting with his first season in 2000. That poses a problem for Goodell, who Araton says “has fashioned himself the zero-tolerance commissioner, cracking down hard on those – players, that is – who would compromise the runaway popularity of the league with antisocial acts.”
If Fox commentator Terry Bradshaw is right and the NFL’s popularity is largely based on betting, can Goodell do less than ban Belichick for life? After all, who’s going to bet on games in which one side is thought to have an unfair advantage? Then, again, aren’t there lines – at least in London – on some of the matches in Wrestlemania? Never mind.
>> New York, N.Y.: Competition for NFL roster spots is going to get even tougher, noted Don Banks of SI.com last Friday, because of the demise of NFL Europe. Although the number of players a team can invite to camp remains at 80, there will be no exemptions for up to six additional players who were part of the European program.
“The league’s football people are already up in arms about the owners’ strictly financial decision this spring to limit the size of rosters and by August, the issue is expected to come to a full summertime boil,” wrote Banks. “One prime example of the difficult internal roster decisions that are now unfolding revolves around the issue of how many specialists teams can afford to bring to camp. Before this year, standard operating procedure was to bring two kickers, two punters and two long-snappers to camp. That’s a luxury not likely to continue at the 80-man limit. Rather than necessarily searching for the best available talent at those positions, teams are prizing versatility above all else. If you’re a punter who can also kick off, or a kicker who can handle some punting duties at least in the preseason, your chances to receive an invite to an NFL camp have risen significantly.”
If so, how long before college coaches will have to promise kicker recruits that they’ll be able to do more than one thing?
= The NBA =
>> Seattle, Wa.: A U.S. District Judge in Seattle turned down a motion by the owners of the SuperSonics asking for a ruling on how much the city would be paid if the team wins its suit and is able to break its lease and leave for Oklahoma City to play there next season.
Thus, a trial on whether the Sonics can leave will start June 16 and take six days. If the team prevails, a second trial would be needed to determine what the damages are and the city could appeal that verdict, asking for an injunction that would put the move on hold and potentially keep the team in Seattle for the 2008-09 season. Stay tuned.
>> Miami, Fl.: Very little went right for the Miami Heat, who ended the season with the worst record in the NBA at 15-67. The D. Wade Sports Grill in Boca Raton had it much worse, however.
The restaurant opened in mid-February and closed at the end of April. It’s the second D. Wade’s (the other is in Ft. Lauderdale) and the Palm Beach Post said Wade himself ate there just once. A third D. Wade’s is planned to open in Aventura.
= On Campus =
>> Palo Alto, Ca.: UCLA continued its mastery of the national women’s water polo scene with a 6-3 over USC yesterday at Stanford to finish the season 33-0, win its fourth straight national championship and its 101st national title, the most of any school.
It means that the three top schools in total national titles each have one NCAA championship this academic season, all in women’s sports: Stanford (95), which won in women’s cross country and USC (85), which won the women’s soccer title.
The Bruins still have a few other chances this season in men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf and softball while USC also has a shot in men’s and women’s golf and men’s tennis while Stanford is one of the top teams in women’s tennis.
>> Indianapolis, In.: Grades have been posted and 123 Division I schools had at least one failure as the NCAA released its Academic Progress Report (APR) scores. A total of 218 individual teams out of 6,272 (3.5%) were penalized for having APRs of less than 925, which has been reported to equate with about a 60% graduation rate.
The big “losers” meaning those schools who were punished include several recognizable names in the major sports of football and basketball:
In basketball, scholarship reduction penalties were handed out against, among others, Alabama-Birmingham (2 scholarships), College of Charleston (1), Colorado State (2), East Carolina (1), Florida International (1), Fresno State (1), Idaho (1), Kansas State (1), Liberty (2), Louisiana Tech (1), Mercer (1), New Mexico (1), New Mexico State (1), Purdue (1), Sacramento State (1), San Jose State (2), Seton Hall (1), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), USC (2), USF (1), UTEP (1) and Wyoming (1).
In football, scholarship reductions were even stiffer against some name schools: Akron (5), Alabama-Birmingham (9), Buffalo (2), Central Michigan (2), Florida Atlantic (3), Florida International (3), Hawaii (1), Idaho (8), Kansas (2), New Mexico (3), North Texas (5), San Diego State (6), San Jose State (9), Temple (2), Toledo (6), UNLV (1) and Washington State (8).
Three schools – Alabama-Birmingham (9), Idaho and Washington State (8) – lost about 10% of their available football scholarships for the 2008 season! In fact, UAB led the nation in penalties with 11.45 scholarships reduced in three sports, plus warnings in another three.
The NCAA said that the average APR for all athletes is 961: 951 for men and 969 for women. The teams with the highest average APRs across all schools are fencing (977), water polo (975) and gymnastics (973) for men and rowing (985), lacrosse (984) and field hockey (983) for women. The sports with the lowest APRs are baseball (938), football (934) and basketball (928) for men and bowling (941) for women.
Wrote Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Art Thiel:
In trading John Deere caps for dunce caps, the Washington State football program suffered more than a fashion gaffe.
The Cougars became some of the first of many refugees after the earthquake that just hit big-time college sports.
. . .
A massive culture change is under way in college sports. Or at least until the crooks figure a way around it.
Thiel quoted ex-Washington athletic director Todd Turner, who said “This will do more to change coaches’ behavior than anything done with a rulebook. For the first time, the NCAA has tied competitive to academic performance.”
>> Tempe, Az.: Two years ago, six members of Arizona State’s cheerleading squad appeared at a party in their underwear – covering more than you would see at the beach – and photos of the event led to the disbanding of the 16-member squad.
Fox News reported that ASU athletic director Lisa Love eliminated the cheer squad in its entirety after the pictures appeared on a campus blog site. Coincidentally, ASU has rearranged its oversight of the spirit squad and has fused what were two different cheer teams into a single unit which will be part of the Marching Band from now on. Fox News reported that some of the cheerleaders said that the decision to disband their squad had been “in the works” for some time and this was simply a convenient way to do it.
>> Seattle, Wa.: Washington is looking for a new alma mater. The current school song is hardly recognized by fans or students, as compared to the school’s well-known fight song, “Bow Down to Washington.”
So a contest – with a $1,000 reward – has been arranged for anyone to write two verses and a chorus that will be put to music by LSU grad Bill Conti, who also wrote the “We are the Mighty Bruins” fight song for UCLA. Three finalist songs will be chosen by a University of Washington committee and then Conti will pick his favorite. The final song is due in September, just in time for the football season.
= College Football =
>> Colfax, Wa.: In addition to losing eight scholarships because of academic problems, Washington State has a law-and-order problem on its hands in safety Xavier Hicks.
The projected starter next season, Hicks has been sentenced to up to 45 days in jail and a fine of $2,350 after pleading guilty to third-degree theft and third-degree attempted assault. He pled guilty to stealing a credit card and pouring alcohol on the contact lenses of former roommate Grady Maxwell. Hicks is now the fifth WSU football player – four of whom are from California – to be arrested since December. The number of arrests equals the number of Cougar victories in 2007 as they went 5-7. Good luck to new coach Paul Wulff.
>> South Bend, In.: Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis has been widely criticized for last season’s 3-9 record. He’s also been grilled by Fighting Irish fans about his recruiting choices, but Weis had an answer for that last week in a speech to boosters last week: “I could get hoodlums and thugs and win tomorrow. I won’t do it that way.”
Not only that, but the Notre Dame admissions office won’t let him.
>> Cyberspace: At the top of the weekly rankings on CoachesHotSeat.com: (1) Tyrone Willingham, Washington; (2) Joe Glenn, Wyoming; (3) Kirk Ferentz, Iowa; (4) Mike Stoops, Arizona; (5) Greg Robinson, Syracuse.
The site lists 31 of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches as “on the hot seat” with another 16 on the “edge.” The three “safest” coaches as of now are, predictably, Les Miles of LSU, Mark Richt of Georgia and Pete Carroll of USC.
>> Cyberspace: An interesting analysis on Sunday Morning Quarterback.com showed that five-star recruits out of high school remain more attractive to the NFL on Draft day.
The study showed that five-stars (by Rivals.com) in the 2003 and 2004 classes had a 27.7% chance of being picked by an NFL team; four-stars had an 11.4% chance, three-stars had a 4.6% chance, and two-stars or lower had a 3.0% chance. But the story also noted: “Very few make it to the league and many fewer stick. This is the case across the board.”
= College Basketball =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: UCLA fans have enjoyed three straight trips to the Final Four, albeit with a loss in the 2006 finals and two semifinal losses in a row. With the almost-certain jump of Kevin Love to the NBA, a lot of attention is being paid to what’s happening in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The subject of interest is 6-10, 275-pound South Oak Cliff (Dallas, Tx.) HS senior J’Mison Morgan. He considered UCLA, but committed to John Brady and signed with LSU. Since then, Brady has been excused and former Stanford coach Trent Johnson is now in charge in Baton Rouge.
So Morgan is reconsidering what to do, but LSU says they won’t release him from his letter of intent . . . yet. Thus, a Bruin fan has started a ReleaseMorgan.com Web site for fans to send pre-written e-mails to the LSU athletic department. Morgan told the Dallas Morning News that “My comfort level was at LSU, but I felt like UCLA was a better fit for me as far as exposure,” and added “Coach Johnson is a good coach, but I didn’t feel all that comfortable with him.”
UCLA has its own problems with the number of scholarships available, but will find a way to make room for Morgan to add to a thin corps at center next season.
>> Bloomington, In.: In what appears to be a staged move, former Indiana center Eli Holman threw a temper tantrum in the office of new Hoosiers coach Tom Crean and was released from his scholarship on May 2. Holman told Crean that he wanted to transfer to be closer to his family in California.
So, of course, Holman announced on Thursday that he would be transferring to the University of Detroit, with new coach Ray McCallum, most recently an Indiana assistant not retained by Crean. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that there was a certain amount of orchestrating going on,” said Crean. Ya think?
Contact between an athletic department staff member and an athlete from another school is prohibited unless the athlete’s original school grants a release. Holman, from Richmond, California, has to sit out a year. What are the odds he even plays for Detroit?
>> Morgantown, W.V.: Details of West Virginia’s contract with basketball coach Bob Huggins were released last Tuesday and showed that the university can fire him for “substance abuse or habitual intoxication” that affects his job performance. Huggins left Cincinnati after the university refused to extend his contract after a conviction for drunken driving. He took one year off from coaching, coached at Kansas State for one season and then headed for his alma mater in April 2007.
Alcohol had nothing to do with the header that the 54-year-old took on Thursday afternoon, tripping on a cone on an airport tarmac in Charlotte, N.C. and falling to the ground face-first. He was reportedly checking his cell phone for messages and fell, but was not seriously hurt.
= Soccer =
>> Zurich, Switzerland: Over his long career as general secretary and now FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has been accused of being a meddler. Now he proved it, speaking last week as reported by The Sun of London:
“The Champions League has been very successful financially , but it has also favored national inequality. That’s why, being in charge of football, I have to bring this item to the attention of the FIFA Congress.”
Blatter is upset that English teams Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are too dominant in the European Champions League, using primarily foreign-grown talent. “This season,” he said, “there were four English teams in the last eight, three in the semi-finals and two in the final.” So what?
If these clubs are willing to spend the money, they can assemble the best talent. Rather than taking the approach to competitiveness which has been used in the U.S. – the salary cap – Blatter proposed a solution in which five of the 11 players on the field must be from the nation in which the club is located, a so-called “6+5" rule.
It didn’t take but one day for the European Parliament to vote down, by 518 to 49, such a suggestion as “direct discrimination based on nationality.” It noted the conflict with the EU’s rules on the free movement of workers. The EU would prefer the current UEFA rule which has a minimum number of players on each team should be trained by that club or within their league.
>> Lisbon, Portugal: Even for soccer, this is unbelievable. FC Porto, leading the Portuguese League by 20 points with a 24-3-3 record, was penalized six points for trying to bribe two referees during the 2003-04 season.
The penalty is obviously not going to change this season’s results, but two other first-division teams were hit, Boavista and Leiria. Five referees were also charged with corruption and were suspended for terms ranging from 2 1/2 to six years.
This isn’t over, either. The charges were taken from a prosecution against Porto chairman Jorge Pinto da Costa for attempted bribery and that trial is still upcoming.
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Doha, Qatar: Inside a windy stadium in the Middle East, the likely heroine of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing served notice that she is ready to go.
Southern Californian Allyson Felix, already the World Champion in the 200 meters, served notice that she is hunting four gold medals this summer after her performance at the Doha Grand Prix meet last Friday.
She stormed to a personal-best win in the 100 meters in 10.93, a huge 0.16 ahead of Jamaica’s Sherone Simpson, ranked no. 1 in the world in 2006, and we’re barely into May. She’ll run the 100 and 200 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials and will undoubtedly be – as she was at the World Championships last year – on both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400-meter relays.
Felix’s best events might be the 200 and 400, but the Beijing schedule makes such a double impossible. But the 100/200 should be no trouble as the 100 meters takes place on August 16 and 17 and the 200 will be held from August 19-21. The relays will take place on August 21-22-23 and Felix will likely not even run in the relay heats, meaning she would have just one race per day on those last three days.
The 22-year-old Felix speaks well, is part of a special, continuous program of drug testing to ensure that she is clean and has graduated from USC. With a little media coaching, she will be the female star of the 2008 Games alongside male swimmer Michael Phelps.
>> Beijing, China: Think the sport of beach volleyball is too much show and too little sport? Here’s a comment from the English-language China Daily:
While no one doubts the athletic abilities of beach volleyball’s players we all know what sells. Beach volleyball is the most visible attempt of a movement to package sports attractively in order to draw ratings, sell apparel and make more money.
Part of the International Olympic Committee’s function is to make sports more accessible. As such it tinkers with regulations to boost audience interest (introducing race-offs in sailing), will listen to proposals for putting paddlers into short skirts and encourages beach volleyball competitions to be like raves.
Cynics like convicted BALCO founder Victor Conte will say that the Olympics are like raves: they’re the center of a widespread drug culture. Does that mean the IOC has finally caught up with pop culture?
>> London, England: In case you care, the granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will compete for Britain in Beijing.
Zara Phillips is the daughter of Princess Anne (a 1976 equestrian Olympian) and Mark Phillips (a 1972 equestrian three-day event gold medalist) and was herself a gold-medal winner in the three-day-event at the World Equestrian Championships in 2007. She was selected last Friday and will ride Toytown in Beijing.
>> Atlanta, Ga.: The world’s leading Olympic sponsor, Coca-Cola, will begin distributing Olympic-themed packaging on May 19. The cans, bottles and packaging will have the famous Coca-Cola name in languages other than English on items sold in the U.S. for the first time: Ethiopian, Russian, Thai and Mandarin on cans and fridge packs and Arabic, Bangla (from Bangladesh), Chinese, Georgian, Hebrew, Korean, Nepali and Sinhala (Sri Lanka) on 20-ounce bottles. Oh, yes, there will be English versions, too!
~ Rich Perelman
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