Conference Hokey-Pokey™: Big 12 Celebrity Roast

This next link is a must-click-and-read:

♦ Portraits of Conference Realignment (RockMNation.com)

ESPN, the Worldwide Leader of Sports and Sports-Like Substances
1. Create Byzantine network of conflicting media deals
2. Watch in horror as your conflicts of interest reshape the landscape of college sports
3. Suspend Bruce Feldman

♦ Realignment anonymous (Tigerboard.com)

westntiger: Hello, my name is westntigerfan and I'm a realignment-aholic. I've been hooked on realignment since December of 2009 when the big ten announced they were looking to expand. I began searching and searching the Internet for all the info I could find on it. I remember how sad I was the day they took those cornchuckers from Nebraska. I now hate the big ten...I mean mubobby said it was a done deal and we were finally away from those donkey balls down at ut....how could mubobby miss lead us...now it is 2011 and my addiction is running rampant again....I have these visions of grandeur in the SEC....I can't sleep at night, I just lie in bed all night realigning conferences and always sticking the chickenhawks in some horrible conference like the swac or the pioneer. Won't OU finally leave this conference and kill it so I can stop this addiction and move on...my god make up your mind and do it!! Well anyway that's my story in a nutshell. Thank you

novembereleven: 12 steps no longer good enough, everyone going to 16 steps . . . ...but you may have to travel about 900 miles to find a meeting.

Another great take on the mess:

♦ The Pac Trail: A GIF journey west (kegsneggsblogs.com)

Welcome to The Pac Trail, a wonderful spin-off on The Oregon Trail which taught you how to not cross deep rivers in the computer gaming world as children. If you’re not following CuppyCup on Twitter, do so. He makes expansion mania bearable, which is impressive given the madness that has ensued...

Also check out http://cuppygifs.com/


And the biggest joke of all?

♦ Timing of Big 12's demise is ironic (espn.com)

What I can't get past? The league is in the ugly, litigation-filled process of imploding. And, to think, they say football is all that matters in realignment.

On Monday, ESPN Stats & Information updated its conference rankings. For all of last season, the SEC dominated the ranking. This week?

There's a new No. 1.

This ranking, remember, comes without Nebraska, one of the nation's elite programs and one currently ranked No. 9 in both polls.

♦ And Darkow has a great cartoon in the Trib (click the LINK to see the whole thing):


♦ @trripleplay on twitter: I'd rather watch a JAYHAWK pep rally than Charlie Sheen roast

KU Baseball: Still Nepotism U

■ Former Kansas Standout Ritchie Price Named Assistant Coach (WIBW.com)

Former South Dakota State head coach – and Jayhawk standout – Ritchie Price has been named an assistant coach for the Jayhawk baseball program. Price will work with the team’s offense, infielders, handle recruiting duties and also be the team’s third base coach.
. . .
“I’m thrilled to have Ritchie returning to our program,” said Kansas head coach Ritch Price. “As the youngest Division I head coach in the country, his accomplishments at South Dakota State were amazing. I’m thrilled to have him return to the University of Kansas baseball program as an assistant coach.”

This is an appropriate time to repeat this Q&A from the 2011 Big Coaches' Pre-season Teleconferemce:

Q: What's it going to be like not coaching a Price?

A: If my wife hadn't cut me off, I'd have a lot better team.

KU Baseball gets the national attention it deserves

That wonderful video featuring the Kansas Jayhawk baseball players that we posted here a couple of weeks ago has caught the attention of none other than Sports Illustrated. Check out SI's current Extra Mustard page, which highlights the KU vid as the Embarrassing Team Video of the Day.


What were they thinking?

Thanks to the vigilant fans at Tigerboard.com for the tip.

Round 2: MU vs. Texas Tech, 3:00 PM

■ Thursday in Oklahoma City:

Texas 9, Kansas 3
Kansas State 9, Baylor 4

KSU and UT play Saturday - the winner advances to the championship game from that pool.

Today in OKC:

3:00 PM Mizzou vs. Texas Tech
7:30 PM Oklahoma vs. Texas A&M

Live video available for all games at Big12Sports.com

■ What happened the last time the Tigers and Red Raiders met this season?

Johnny Wholeteam sweeps Tech: 18-7, 9-5, 15-2

Maybe it was the field: "Missouri in general is just a tough place for an away team," said Brian Cloud, who will take the mound today for the Red Raiders. "The facilities aren't exactly what you want, the playing surface isn't what you would want it to be, but it's a place where Missouri plays good." (Daily Toreador, 4/24)

■ Sources tell me the Founder and mentor of the infamous Tech Hecklers is at the Big 12 Tournament this week. There was a great article on him this weekend at Lubbock Online: For Chris Snead, heckling more than words:

Rather than simply be another face in the crowd, Snead took fandom to the next level. The result was the birth of an organization called the Tech Hecklers. Hays said Snead and Bill Gustafson, whose son, Mike, played for the Red Raiders, should get the lion's share of credit for not just starting the group but guiding it to success.
. . .
"We bill ourselves as baseball fans, and we're baseball guys and girls," Snead said. "When someone comes into our group, they learn our rules."

Indeed, posted right there on the Heckler Web site are the "10 Commandments of Heckling," taken straight from Snead's book. The mandates include admonitions such as "Thou shalt not use profanity," "Thou shalt not cross the line," and "Thou shalt remember the children."

■ What a shame: AJ "Papi Chulo" Ramos will not likely be pitching against the Tigers, since he pitched game 1 for Tech on Wednesday (and lost). If you truly miss him, you can read about him in Ramos ready to shoulder load for Tech in tourney (redraiders.com), including a video. Or revisit his myspace page, just for laughs.

■ Kendall at Rivals.com thinks MU could be a dark horse to host a Regional:

If there's an incredibly surprising No. 1 seed or host on Selection Monday, Missouri could be the team if it continues to take care of business in the Big 12 tournament. The Tigers have been red-hot the past few weeks and finished the regular season in impressive fashion. What may hold Missouri back, though, is the fact it is 12-16 against top-50 RPI teams. That is not very good for a team hosting a regional... so I think for now that is an extremely long shot, but you never know.

■ Latest projections for NCAA Regional locations/seedings:

• The College Baseball Blog: Missouri a #2 seed at Baton Rouge, LA against #1 LSU, #3 Notre Dame, #4 Mississippi Valley State. An hilariously woeful MVSU came to Simmons Field a few years ago - they must have made huge improvements to be considered a likely conference champ.

• Rivals.com: Missouri a #2 seed at Tempe, AZ against #1 Arizona State, #3 Gonzaga and #4 New Mexico. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

• SEBaseball.com: Missouri a #2 seed at Oxford, MS against #1 Ole Miss, #3 Middle Tennessee and #4 Army. That one wouldn't be so bad.

■ Also up this weekend: Missouri softball team focused on Super Regional (Columbia Missourian):

With classes over, Allen and the other members of the No. 11 ranked Missouri softball team can focus on how to beat No. 2 UCLA in a best-of-three NCAA Super Regional series this weekend in Los Angeles. A win over DePaul on Sunday put the Tigers (48-9) in what is essentially the Sweet 16 of college softball. The winner of the matchup this weekend will advance to the NCCAA College World Series of Softball.