Champions Tour Quiz: This past weekend’s event in Conover, North Carolina, won by Michael Allen, was the 1,000th tournament in Champions Tour history. Golf World had a bit in the Oct. 21 issue on it all starting in Atlantic City, June 1980, an event won by Don January. So, you all should know who has won the most Champions Tour tournaments. 1) Can you guess within 2 (for a premium) exactly how many that fellow has won? 2) Who is No. 2 in career Champions Tour wins? [Hint: He is no longer active.] Answers below. [Also, the Legends of Gold was not an official Senior Tour event when they were holding it before 1980.]
College Football Review
—Top games this weekend….
No. 21 South Carolina at No. 5 Missouri…look for the Tigers to rout the Gamecocks.
No. 10 Texas Tech at No. 15 Oklahoma…Red Raiders can firmly plant themselves in the BCS picture with an impressive win.
Duke at No. 14 Virginia Tech…just a fun one to see if the 5-2 Dookies can make this a truly special season.
Penn State at No. 4 Ohio State…actually, I don’t expect this to be a close one, but ABC made it their Saturday night affair so under contract, I am required to list it.
And Wake Forest at No. 7 Miami…will the ‘Canes be looking ahead to Florida State the following week?
On the other hand, Miami should be sky high Saturday because the NCAA finally handed down its verdict on the years-long Nevin Shapiro scandal. Miami will not receive an additional bowl ban but will lose nine total scholarships over the next three years (three each season).
Miami caught a big break because it had self-imposed a bowl ban for the previous two years, as well as last season’s ACC title game.
But now they are eligible for 2013! You know what? Good for them. Miami handled it the right way, though it’s disgraceful it took this long for the NCAA to come up with a verdict; the investigation having been sidetracked by improprieties on the part of the NCAA itself.
As for Miami’s basketball program, former coach Frank Haith, now head coach at Missouri, is suspended for five games, though Miami’s basketball team will lose a scholarship in each of the next three seasons. Miami’s entire coaching staff is also under double-secret probation and the school’s athletic program is under the microscope for three years.
So let’s review the top few in the first BCS poll. It is very early as these things go, and Oregon shouldn’t be in the least bit miffed it is slightly behind Florida State in the BCS formula despite being No. 2 in all the polls. I’ll explain.
1. Alabama .9841
2. Florida State .9348
3. Oregon .9320
4. Ohio State .8553
5. Missouri .8219
6. Stanford .7414
7. Miami .7200
8. Baylor .7120
Only Stanford has a loss among these first 8 so all are in it, plus undefeated Texas Tech is No. 10 in the BCS (.6220).
The only other undefeated teams in the country are Fresno State (No. 17 BCS) and Northern Illinois (No. 18).
So back to the Ducks, their remaining five Pac-12 opponents have a combined record of 25-8. It will not be denied if it runs the table. Impossible.
Then again, if FSU manhandles Miami on Nov. 2, the Seminoles will be neck-and-neck with the Ducks the rest of the way, and, let’s face it, Oregon’s schedule is pretty brutal. After UCLA this weekend, Stanford two weeks later (following a bye), Utah, Arizona and then a highly-intriguing season-finale vs. Oregon State….a true civil war this year.
But so much can, and inevitably does, happen between now and the conference championship games to totally upset the apple cart.
Like Missouri seems destined to play Alabama in the SEC title game. Will both still be undefeated? ‘Bama’s game on Nov. 30 vs. Auburn is also suddenly very intriguing.
And while I said Ohio State doesn’t stand a chance, of course they do. The word ‘upset’ is in the dictionary for a reason.
So, as the Los Angeles Times’ Chris Dufresne puts it, “If we’re lucky, the last BCS season will end up one final train wreck. A sport with this kind of postseason system gets what it deserves.”
Next season, a 13-person selection committee (with Condi Rice on it) will replace the BCS and choose the top four teams for a playoff. Oh, you’ll still have lots of controversy, though it’s going to be obvious, I imagine, who the first two or three teams are and the controversy will be with Nos. 3-6 for the third and fourth slots, which is better than what we have now.
—Grambling players returned to the practice field after staging their boycott that forced the team to forfeit last Saturday’s game against Jackson State. Former head coach Doug Williams, who was fired last month but still commanded the respect of the players who didn’t want him canned, told them Sunday, “Go out and play football.”
During the protest, which included missing two days of practice and the removal of interim coach George Ragsdale, Grambling players complained of substandard facilities, unhealthy conditions and long bus rides.
But the clincher appears to be they felt they were disrespected after Williams was fired. Tensions boiled over last Tuesday after a meeting with university president Frank Pogue, the athletics director and Ragsdale. Pogue tried to convince the players, who were given little notice of the meeting, the school stood behind them despite a losing streak that had seen them lose 12 consecutive games and 18 of its last 19. The players, though, were upset this was the first time the president met with them after firing Williams more than a month earlier.
So why was Williams fired? He didn’t get along with Pogue and regularly tangled with the administration over private fundraising. The tipping point, according to a story in USA TODAY by George Schroeder, was the situation surrounding the weight room, which needs a new floor, among other things. [The pictures of this facility are beyond pathetic.]
Grambling has been suffering from seeing its state funding slashed and football was asked to cut its budget along with everyone else at the school.
In the end, Pogue said the boycott may have served a positive purpose. “We’ve had a chance to tell the world that we are broke….Every building needs attention,” including the football facility.
The boycott marked the first time in modern NCAA history that a Division-I football game was canceled by player protest. It’s also felt the players exposed problems found at many other schools. The football team itself is often taken advantage of – they are the money makers and the schools’ most far-reaching marketing tool. Yet as the schools ring more money out of them, the players have no say in their lives and are severely limited by NCAA rules regarding compensation.
As Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal noted, “In more prominent conferences, decadelong, multibillion-dollar TV contracts hinge on the games being played as scheduled. Players who decide to halt a nationally televised game could rattle top-division football to its foundation.”
[Meanwhile, Jackson State (Jackson, Miss.) is looking to pursue legal action against Grambling. It was to be their homecoming game and it cost the school and the city millions.]
–Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota has thrown 197 passes without an interception this season. His rating is 181.7. Mariota has now gone 265 passes without a pick, dating back to last Nov. 17 and the loss against Stanford. That’s your Heisman winner….assuming he finishes strong. [Not Jameis Winston.]
–The Washington Post’s John Feinstein reminded me that during Florida State’s first nine years in the ACC, they went 70-2 in ACC play! Good lord. “In those days,” as Feinstein writes, “it was said that the ACC consisted of Florida State, the seven dwarfs and Duke – which aspired to be a dwarf.”
–Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd denied an internet report that he has accumulated $80,000 in gambling debt, specifically from betting on NFL games. The university is investigating, and coach Dabo Swinney said, “I have no reason not to believe Tajh Boyd. He’s never lied to me before. His character and integrity from my view are impeccable, so I’m going to take his word over some website that I’ve never heard of.”
“Have you noticed the rate of criminal activity among football student-athletes of late? In recent years, you’re more likely to find these fellows in a courtroom than a weight room.
“Actually, sometimes they’re in the courtroom for stealing something from the weight room.
“I’m willing to wager that if you took the average Pacific-12 or Southeastern Conference football program and you took the average group of molecular biology majors at one of those schools, the rate of arrests would be higher per capita for the undergraduates in helmets and pads.
“Just last week, an Appalachian State wide receiver, Sean Price, was arrested in Boone, N.C., for charges including felony assault.
“Then again, Appalachian State is making the step up from Football Championship Subdivision to Football Bowl Subdivision in 2014, so in anticipation of the move to a prime-time program, it makes sense that one of the team’s stars would have a run-in with the law.
“In all fairness, I must point out that Appalachian State Coach Scott Satterfield, rather than suspend Price for the requisite game – or, in the case of Texas A&M, the requisite half – dismissed him from the team….
“In related jurisprudence, Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison was suspended for the first game this season for two arrests, including one in which he was collared for barking at a police dog.
“In his defense, I don’t know if I want to live in a world in which it’s a crime for talking to a canine in his native language.
“Come to think of it, maybe some major-college football scholars are majoring in criminal justice and earn class credits serving time in jail.”
—FCS (Div. I-AA) Coaches Poll (10/21)
1. North Dakota State 7-0
2. Eastern Illinois 6-1
3. Coastal Carolina 7-0
4. Eastern Washington 5-2 (defeated Oregon State in the opener, which is killing the Beavers)
5. Montana State 5-2
T-8. Fordham 8-0
11. Wofford 5-2
14. Maine 6-1
15. Lehigh 6-1 [Fordham beat Lehigh]
*For you casual fans, many of the losses for these schools come against FBS (Div. I-A) competition.
–We note the passing of former Washington football coach Don James, 80.
Back in 1991, James led the Huskies to a share of the national title. He was 176-78-3 in a career spanning Washington and Kent State, going 153-58-2 with Washington from 1975-92 and leading the school to six Rose Bowl appearances. It was 1991 that the Huskies went 12-0, including a defeat of Michigan in the Rose Bowl, earning the top slot in the coaches poll, but the AP voted Miami national champs.
While at Kent State, James coached Jack Lambert, as well as two current college coaches who have had pretty good runs; Alabama’s Nick Saban and Missouri’s Gary Pinkel.
–So in the aftermath of the Jets thrilling 30-27 overtime win over the Patriots on Sunday, some reflection is required. I did indeed predict, more than a couple of times, the Jets would finish 2-14. I couldn’t be more fired up that they are now 4-3, however, as it’s almost a certainty the rest of the season will be meaningful. It’s also funny how some of the talk radio guys in the area are trying to pretend they thought the Jets wouldn’t be as bad as everyone first predicted.
Heck, there was zero…zero…reason for optimism, especially after quarterback Mark Sanchez hurt his shoulder in that disastrous exhibition game against the Giants, thus handing the job to a very raw rookie, Geno Smith, who himself had been hurt in training camp. Even Sports Illustrated’s Peter King had the Jets 3-13, for crying out loud.
But now they are at Cincinnati and then home to New Orleans before their bye week. I said a few weeks ago I’d be ecstatic with 4-5 at that point. 5-4? Oh, baby. The schedule the last seven games is far easier.
But what did Rex Ryan know and when did he know it? That’s the question many are asking regarding the controversial penalty call that saved the Jets on Sunday.
“When New England defensive tackle Chris Jones violated a rule implemented before the season by pushing his teammate Will Svitek into the New Orleans Saints’ field-goal formation last week, no penalty was called; no one among the eight-man officiating crew noticed. The Jets did. On Sunday, Jones employed that same tactic, shoving Svitek forward as Folk hooked a 56-yard attempt. A penalty flag was thrown immediately by the umpire Tony Michalek, and the extra 15 yards helped Folk drill the winner from 42 yards.
“ ‘Let’s just put it this way: we watch every single play,’ said Ryan, who declined to say whether he, or a member of his staff, alerted the officials at MetLife Stadium to watch New England with increased vigilance.”
[Bill Belichick whined on Tuesday that the Jets cheated too. The video says otherwise.]
–In a Monday Night Football game that will not be part of the program’s time capsule, the Giants finally bagged their first win of the season, 23-7 over the 1-5 Vikings, as New York held Adrian Peterson to 28 yards on 13 carries. New Minnesota quarterback Josh Freeman was dreadful…20 of 53 for 190 yards and an interception. And after 15 interceptions in his first six games, Eli Manning did not throw one! [Minnesota fans are furious Peterson, the best in the game, ran just 13 times to Freeman’s 53 wildly inaccurate tosses.]
–After seven games, the season for the St. Louis Rams is officially over as quarterback Sam Bradford suffered a torn ACL on Sunday and is out for the duration.
So much for your editor’s absurd selection of the Rams to win it all this year. I’ll make it up to you…with a Pick to Click for the college basketball season!
–I missed this on Sunday…Chicago Bears receiver Devin Hester had his 19th return for a TD, tying Deion Sanders’ NFL mark. Hester returned a punt 81 yards for a score against the Redskins, extending his NFL record in that category to 13, to go with five kickoff returns for TDs and a missed field goal.
Sanders returned six punts and three kickoffs for touchdowns, but also nine interceptions and one fumble.
–We note the passing of Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams, who helped found the American Football League. He was 90.
The son of a prominent oil executive, Adams founded the Houston Oilers and moved the team to Tennessee in 1997 when he couldn’t get a new stadium he wanted in Houston.
I didn’t realize his 409 wins were the most of any current NFL owner. The franchise made the playoffs 21 times in his 53 seasons.
Adams was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the son of future Phillips Petroleum Co. CEO “Boots” Adams.
It was in the summer of 1959 that Adams joined Dallas oilman Lamar Hunt in Adams’ office to announce the AFL would begin competing with the NFL.
It’s ironic Bum Phillips also died the other day at age 90, Phillips having coached the Oilers under Adams, with Adams firing Phillips after the 1980 season, which didn’t endear Adams to Oilers fans thereafter.
–I think a lot of us would agree that some of Dodgers manager Don Mattingly’s bench decisions are, shall we say, quirky. I can see why the Dodgers may not want him back next year.
But Mattingly said on Monday that with his first-round playoff victory over the Braves, his 2014 contract option vested, yet he is unsure whether he’ll be back next season.
Mattingly was upset he was forced to manage the entire year in the final year of his contract without the team extending him.
“When you’re put in this situation, the organization basically says, ‘We don’t know if you can manage or not,” Mattingly said. “So, that’s the position I’ve been in all season long, so that’s not a great position for me as a manager. That’s the way it is, that’s the way the organization wanted it last year, that’s fine.”
General Manager Nick Colletti said the issue would be “resolved very quickly” and voiced support for Donnie Baseball.
So what did ownership do, as I write this particular bit Tuesday night? They fired Mattingly’s bench coach…Trey Hillman. That’s outrageous. Go ahead and fire Mattingly, then.
“Colletti wants Mattingly back and it makes sense he would. Mattingly’s departure would place him next in line to be fired. But Colletti also couldn’t back Mattingly completely, as doing so would amount to him questioning (team president Stan) Kasten’s policies.”
So, sitting next to Mattingly at a very uncomfortable press conference on Monday, Colletti, walking a tightrope, said:
“There’s a lot of guys that have won on one-year contracts – not one-year contracts, but the end of a contract. There’s people that have won the World Series in that situation and there’s people that haven’t.”
Then Colletti blamed the media, pointing to the 30-42 start and how the press was calling for Mattingly’s head, but how he (Colletti) stuck by him.
In the end, Colletti continued to let Mattingly twist in the wind. And within a day of the presser, Colletti fired the bench coach, whom Mattingly wanted back.
So Donnie Baseball is under contract for next year. Or Kasten fires him. [A multi-year contract seems out of the question.]
–As the Dodgers learned outfielder Matt Kemp’s second consecutive off-season surgery will prevent him from running for at least two months (ankle surgery), they signed Cuban defector Alexander Guerrero to a four-year, $28 million contract. Guerrero projects as a second baseman, so take L.A. officially out of the Robinson Cano sweepstakes. The 26-year-old Guerrero has a unique contract. After the first year of the deal, the Dodgers can’t send him to the minors without his consent, and he becomes a free agent after four years at age 30, due to a clause where the Dodgers can’t offer him salary arbitration.
–Detroit’s Jim Leyland stepped down after eight seasons managing the Tigers. Detroit made it to two World Series in that time, which it lost in 2006 and 2012, and lost in two ALCS, including this year. A pretty fair record.
But Jim Leyland is 68, and he’s managed 22 years with four teams, winning a World Series with Florida in 1997. He finishes his career at 1769-1728. 3 pennants and the one Series title.
He’s a beloved figure, a great man, but to those who say he belongs in the Hall of Fame, not quite.
–The Reds named pitching coach Bryan Price manager, replacing Dusty Baker. Price has done a good job in his four years with the Reds’ staff; Cincy finishing third and fourth the last two season in the N.L. in ERA. But Price has never managed at any level.
–The Giants signed Tim Lincecum to a two-year, $35 million contract through the 2015 season. Remarkable.
Actually, astounding. They probably could have gotten him for one year, $8 million (just a guess).
Lincecum just completed a two-year, $40.5 million contract. He’s 33-43 his last three seasons.
—Alex Rodriguez’ attorneys say they have a “whistleblower from within MLB ready to reveal what it said were damning accusations against the league’s investigative processes.” [Daniel Barbarisi / Wall Street Journal] But then the attorneys said they, or the whistleblower couldn’t speak because the arbitration panel hearing A-Rod’s appeal prevented media briefings of any kind.
—Yogi Berra received the first Bob Feller Act of Valor Award, which from here on will be awarded each year to a Hall of Famer, an active baseball player and an active-duty sailor. Feller, of course, was a World War II hero, who walked away from a $100,000 contract to join the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor, while Berra was a “rocketboat man” during the Allied invasion on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Berra said the other day upon receiving the award, “(Feller) didn’t like me. One day I asked why. He said, ‘I don’t respect people who didn’t serve their country.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about? I was at D-Day.’ After that, we became best friends.”
–Update: Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee apologized (sort of) to Tiger Woods via Twitter on Tuesday for insinuating Woods cheated this past year on tour.
“Golf is a gentleman’s game and I’m not proud of this debate. I want to apologize to Tiger for this incited discourse.”
In his earlier column on Woods for Golf.com, Chamblee gave Tiger a grade of ‘F’ for being, “how shall we say this…a little cavalier with the rules.”
Separately, Chamblee told the Associated Press in an email: “I’m paid to have and give an opinion and I work hard to form those opinions based upon facts, not agenda.”
–The following is for golf junkies only…but this past season on the PGA Tour, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, supposedly a rising star, had just one top-25 finish in 23 starts, forcing him to the Web.com Tour Finals to regain his playing status. He then recorded three top-10s in the four Web.com events to accomplish this.
Now, in this new 2013-14 PGA Tour wraparound season, Ishikawa has a T-21 and a T-2 in the first two events.
It’s hard to believe the kid is still just 22. It seems like he’s been around forever and include me in the group who had already kind of written him off. If he now has his act together, and Rory gets his game going again, and Jordan Speith doesn’t suffer from a sophomore slump (highly unlikely), the sport is all the better.
It probably doesn’t hurt Ishikawa to have 21-year-old fellow Japanese rising star Hideki Matsuyama pushing him.
–The deaths of two giant oarfish that washed up on Southern California beaches may be linked, according to one biologist in the area. Milton Love of the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara said the most likely cause “was a current that carried the weak-swimming creature from still waters into a near-shore, more turbulent area, which they aren’t adapted to surviving in.” [Samantha Schaefer / L.A. Times]
But while tissue samples are being examined for toxins, scientists said results from the research could take years to complete. Years?! Nice work, if you can find it.
“You’re home early, dear. Anything on the cause of death of those oarfish you are working on? It’s been like 1 ½ years, right?”
–So I see the headline that Kanye West proposed to Kim Kardashian, she of the big-butt-selfie, and am I the only one who thought they were already engaged? I feel so stupid. Plus no one told me her divorce to b-ball player Kris Humphries was just finalized in June. I mean I can’t keep up on Iran’s nuclear weapons’ games and Kimye at the same time.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/22/66: #1 “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (Four Tops) #2 “96 Tears” (? (Question Mark) & The Mysterians) #3 “Last Train To Clarksville” (The Monkees)…and…#4 “Cherish” (The Association) #5 “Psychotic Reaction” (Count Five…ultimate garage band…great tune…) #6 “Walk Away Renee” (The Left Banke…funny how this one has held up so well…seriously doubt the group thought it would…) #7 “Poor Side Of Town” (Johnny Rivers…love this one…and talk about an underrated artist…) #8 “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted” (Jimmy Ruffin…another great one…) #9 “Dandy” (Herman’s Hermits…perfect for these times… classic British tune…) #10 “See See Rider” (Eric Burdon & The Animals)
Champions Tour Quiz Answers: 1) Hale Irwin has won 45 Champions Tour events. 2) Lee Trevino is second with 29. In September, Irwin, now 68, bettered his age by four strokes at the Shaw Charity Classic.
