40 Acres Sports

They need to be buying ads telling them to trade the pick.

Disappointing. Let’s hope he can keep his head on straight for a year.

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks have an agreement for a home-and-home series beginning in 2008. No one has signed on the dotted line yet, but the two SWC rivals would meet in Austin in 2008 and in Fayettenam Fayetteville in 2009.

The two teams are also exploring the possibility of bringing the series to Dallas after the first two years if the Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma is turned into a home-and-home. According to Kirk Bohls, that is an increasingly likely situation. The new Texas-[tag]Arkansas[/tag] series would likely take place in the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington.

I’m personally I’m not a huge fan of this decision. I love that we’re scheduling bigger name opponents from a power conference instead of more Sam Houston States, but there’s very little to gain from playing the Piggies. With the current state of their program, there’s absolutely nothing to gain from playing them. It’s a huge rivalry game that if we win it was a game we were supposed to win and if we lose it’s big news. All this does is help them recruit Texas better, especially if the game is played in Dallas every year.

I’d rather schedule opponents like Cal out of the Pac 10, Penn State or Wisconsin out of the Big 10, or Boston College out of the ACC. All those games would bring big national exposure, would be exciting to watch, and expose the program to new recruiting areas. They’re also teams that would usually be tougher opponents and bring more prestige than a win over a team like Arkansas. They’re also teams that I usually think are vastly overrated by the national media.

The Texas-Arkansas matchup should be an interesting game in 2008, we’ll see what kind of team Houston Nutt and Mitch Mustain bring to Austin and if the Horns can bring the kind of fire and hatred the Razorbacks had the last two times the teams met.

I don’t see the Buckeyes, Irish, or Mountaineers deserving of this much preseason love.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Vince Young will be featured in a BET reality series titled “Next Level: Vince Young.” The show will chronicle Vince’s life as he makes the transition from college immortal to rookie NFL quarterback. No further details about when the show will air or when filming will begin.

BET unveiled a slate of new unscripted series including vehicles for football player Vince Young and rapper DMX at its upfront presentation Monday in New York.

“BET has always been known for hot music and great award shows, but now we’re moving into primetime with a broader mix of new shows than ever before,” BET president of entertainment Reginald Hudlin said.

Among the projects in the works is “Next Level: Vince Young,” a reality series that follows the quarterback as he ventures into the pro game, and “DMX: Soul of a Man,” which will take a look at the troubled rapper’s personal life.

Now I’ll have to find out what channel BET comes on with my cable.

Who says that college athletes don’t get paid? Because apparently Reggie Bush did pretty well for himself while at USC, considering that his parents were able to move from an apartment outside San Diego to a $757,000 house on Apple Lane. The Pac-10 says that they are investigating the Bush family home, but this is about as obvious as it gets. Michael Michaels (what kind of name is that anyway) is the registered owner of the house and has ties in the sports marketing world. If this violation holds up, USC would have to forfeit all games Bush played in while this infraction took place, although I am not sure how much good that really does, especially since they lost the only game that really mattered against Texas in the Rose Bowl.

What I don’t get about this whole thing is how something like this can go unnoticed for a whole year? Didn’t anyone go and visit Reggie Bush’s family and notice that they are suddenly living like royalty? It seems kind of hard to cover up a three-quarter of a million dollar home.

But honestly, I am really not all that surprised, considering they have a history of committing NCAA violations. And now that we know that Reggie Bush has no integrity, I wonder if this will affect his draft status? Probably not, but I can still hope that Vince somehow makes it to the Texans or Cowboys.

Read the story…

Maybe NetSpend could pass me a few hundred thousand to redo their website.

I don’t know what position QB/athlete recruit John Chiles will end up playing for the Longhorns, but damn that kid needs the ball in his hands somehow. The three and a half minute highlight reel shows why John is headed for 5-star status and why so many teams wanted him regardless of position. Check out the very first play, it really shows just how electric he can be from the quarterback position and why despite John Brantley’s recent commitment he’ll also get his fair shot to be the next great Longhorn QB.

Thanks to The Wizard of Odds for the tip.

IGN has the very first preview of NCAA Football 2007 for the Xbox 360 and it looks pretty damn good. Key thing in that last sentence is that it “looks” good because the article actually makes me a little worried about how the game is going to play.

This Xbox 360 version of the game was developed seperately from the current gen versions and it sounds like several features I was most excited by yesterday won’t be making it into the game. The momentum system is different, the cool Home Field Advantage feature from last year is missing, no mention of the spring game in the Dynasty mode, and the new Campus Legend mode is a no show as well. Worst of all, despite the additional capabilities of the Xbox 360 the playbooks in the game will actually be smaller. None of the work they put in to making them larger and more varied will be taken advantage of for this version. And no cool trick plays.

I hope they keep the main gameplay intact from the previous games. There’s just something about NCAA Football that feels different and makes it plays better than Madden. It’s lighter, faster, and more enjoyable. EA has had the atmosphere and everything else just right in previous games and I hope they’re able to continue that while the game improves and evolves. I don’t want to play a skinned version of Madden with college teams.

Excellent thread with some examples of what we could be in store for. Photos coming soon.