40 Acres Sports

Should be pretty cool, let’s hope it has a happy ending.

Sports Illustrated has posted a laughable list of college football’s all-time greatest plays. In honor of this list and almost as bad top 25 moments of the year, I should compile a list of the worst lists I’ve ever seen. But that sounds like a lot of work, so I’ll just bash their work.

An illegal play amassing a single yard in the middle of the season is bigger and better than “The Play” with Stanford’s band on the field and Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary to give Boston College the upset over Miami? A twelve yard touchdown run by Iowa State’s Seneca Wallace against Texas Tech that I’ve never heard of let alone seen over a play like Tommy Lewis’ “sideline tackle” of Dicky Maegle during the 1954 Cotton Bowl? The 2005 – 06 college football season was a fantastic one (especially for Longhorn fans) but I find it very hard to believe that this season featured 20% of the game’s all-time greatest plays.

As for their number one overall play, the “Bush Push” wouldn’t even be a sane person’s top play of this year. Vince Young’s game-winning touchdown run in the Rose Bowl was a bigger moment, in a bigger game, on a bigger stage and was a much more impressive play. Plus it was legal and seven yards longer.

The media lovefest for all things Notre Dame and USC is getting a little embarassing.

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Good news for both Longhorns and Sooners today as the two universities have reached an agreement that will keep the Red River Shootout in Dallas through 2010. The lack of improvements to the Cotton Bowl had caused both UT and OU to threaten to change the matchup into a home-and-home series.

While the agreement is only through 2010, Dallas officials are poised to announce renovations to the stadium totaling $50 million next week. That money would be a big step to keeping the game in Dallas and would likely result in a long-term deal. The game brings in big time money and it was definitely in Dallas’ best interests to keep the game in the city. For the two schools, the low capacity and lack of luxury boxes in the Cotton Bowl limit the revenue brought in by the game. Hopefully the proposed renovations will create a stadium and a situation that causes all parties to want to keep the game in Dallas.

One last note, contrary to what Mayor Laura Miller (the reason we’re in this mess and the Cowboys are in Arlington) and the Dallas TV media are trying to claim, this is not a five year extension. The previous agreement would not have ended until 2008, so while this is a new five year deal it only guarantees an additional two years at the State Fair for the historic series. The city of Dallas has avoided complete disaster (for now) but they must get the $50 million bond approved or we’ll be having these same discussions in another year or so.

Kudos to Texas’ DeLoss Dodds and OU’s Joe Castiglione for getting a deal done, and to Mayor Miller for miraculously not screwing things up.

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.

ESPN’s NFL Draft Special was pretty darn entertaining last night. In addition to Merril Hoge’s idiotic opinions, they also had an excellent segment on Vince Young’s draft stock and his NFL potential.

I certainly don’t agree with everything said, but it was still really well done. Not that Vince should be compared to Alex Smith, but where was all the “takes most of his snaps in the shotgun” comments last year? Maybe it was Smith’s suckiness that made them pay attention to it with Young. I also call BS on Chris Mortensen’s claim that NFL scouts hadn’t studied Vince just because they didn’t think he was coming out this year. There was always a decent chance he’d leave early, I hope scouts put out enough effort to check in on one of the top players in the nation once in a while.

He creeps me out as an adult, I can’t imagine how scary he’ll be to elementary school kids.

ESPN analyst Merril Hoge, who has clearly taken too many hits to the head, says there’s not a single QB worth taking in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft.

“Kellen Clemens from Oregon is better than Matt Leinart and Vince Young when you study the tape.” Yikes. What tape is he watching? Compare Leinart, Young, and Clemens’ stats and it’s not even close. Maybe Hoge likes that he’s coming off a major injury or that he’s much smaller and slower than either of the two more heralded QB’s. Or maybe he’s got brain damage.

Wow, that’s one of the dumber things I’ve heard in a long time.

Update: Check out his latest idiocy.

Former Longhorn and current Oakland A’s closer Huston Street is on the cover of this week’s ESPN the Magazine Baseball Preview edition. The article focuses on the A’s and how thanks to Street, Rich Harden, and Bobby Crosby this year the team has the makeup to make a longer run into the playoffs. They pick them to win the AL West and trump the St. Louis Cardinals in five to win the World Series.

Thanks to tougher sterioid testing/penalties and no (less?) juiced up players, it should be an interesting year in Major League Baseball.

Final Four? What Final Four? The national champs will be coming to a television set near you this Saturday at 6 p.m.

FSN Southwest will televise Texas’ spring football scrimmage at 6 p.m. Saturday. The game will be carried in many of FSN’s southern markets and by KDFI in Dallas. FSN will air a replay at 1:30 p.m. on April 5.

Don’t miss your first chance to see Colt McCoy, Jevan Snead, and the rest of the 2006 Texas Longhorns. Should be the best spring game in a long time, I’m as interested to see the second and third stringers as the guys who are starting.

(Source.)

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon spent some time on yesterday’s Pardon the Interruption discussing Vince Young and his draft stock. They think it’s completely ridiculous if he’s dropping and Wilbon thinks it’s all misinformation and that he’s not dropping at all.

It’s amazing what happens when people base their opinions on ability and on-field performance instead of their preconceived notions of what an NFL quarterback should be. The last couple of seconds of the video includes a classic exchange between the two hosts:

Kornheiser: “I don’t understand how you would not want Vince Young.”
Wilbon: “You don’t want to win.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. (Which is probably why they have a TV show and I have a blog.)