40 Acres Sports

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 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.

It looks like the [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] Sooner basketball program is about to be hit with some serious NCAA sanctions for their many infractions dealing with various recruiting violations. The NCAA isn’t exactly an observant organization, but 550 illegal phone calls is sure to draw some interest:

OU broke rules recruiting James

By Berry Tramel
The Oklahoman

We don’t know what the NCAA’s infractions committee asked the Oklahoma basketball brigade Friday. The door to the principal’s office was closed.

But here’s what the NCAA jurists should have asked everyone wearing Sooner lapels: Explain why Damion James should be eligible to play for your school.

OU was in Park City, Utah, on Friday not because of a misunderstanding. Not because of a gray area in the rules. Not because they kept missing recruits on the phone and piled up too many calls.

OU was in Park City, Utah, because it cheated. Kelvin Sampson and his staff broke the rules.

Not a few times. Many times.

Not by accident. Purposely and unquestionably.

Not insignificantly. Significantly.

OU basketball broke the rules and profited, most recently in the form of James, the 6-foot-8 schoolboy star from Nacogdoches, Texas. Transcripts of the NCAA’s investigation show that Sooner coaches began calling James during his junior season.

You can’t call juniors. Not from a box and not with a fox. Not in a house and not with a mouse. You cannot call them here or there, you cannot call them anywhere.

If you call a junior, it had better be to tell him his house is on fire. Otherwise, it’s cheating. Flagrant, blatant cheating. No less cheating than if you handed him $20,000 in cash.

The NCAA found OU guilty of more than 550 impermissible phone calls, including 98 to juniors, over the last several years.

We don’t know who all the recipients were, but we know James was among them.

So how can the NCAA’s enforcement wing possibly allow James to play for the Sooners? Is James not ill-gotten gain?

Every coach in America will tell you that recruiting is about relationships. Building relationships. Nurturing relationships.

How could it possibly not have been a major advantage for OU to be quick on the draw with James? The Sooners jumped the gun and, just like their namesakes in 1889, reaped the bounty.

How can the NCAA pretend to be serious about rules when it asks Texas and Kansas and OSU to compete the next few years against a Sooner team that has James on the roster?

And Sampson’s departure for Indiana should cut OU no slack, for the same reasoning that holds recruits to their letters of intent (ala Scottie Reynolds) even when a coach leaves. Sometimes it’s hard to remember, with the crazy system college basketball has constructed, but the program and the school are bigger than the coach.

In the NCAA transcripts, OU coaches talk of how they thought the phone calls were just a way to outwork opponents. Sampson talks about who turned OU in.

That doesn’t sound like a lesson learned.

None of this is fair to new Sooner coach Jeff Capel. But no one in crimson is in position to talk about fair. And Capel took this job with eyes wide open.

It’s also not fair to James. He was just a kid – a junior, remember – answering the phone. But if the NCAA ruled James ineligible at OU, he would have options and plenty of them (see Reynolds).

And cheating will have gone unrewarded.

I can’t imagine that Kelvin Sampson will escape this without some sort of penalty. He was the one directly responsible for the cheating, he doesn’t deserve to escape punishment just because he skipped town for Indiana. He and his new team should receive equal punishment and Indiana should immediately show him the door. The Hoosiers had to know this was going down, what a terrible hire.

The interesting part of all this for Longhorn fans is that [tag]Damion James[/tag] is an elite small forward who will probably looking for a new school attend soon. The 5-star out of Nacogdoches had Texas on his list of schools before he committed to OU last year and would certainly get a good look from James if he does in fact decide to ask out of his letter of intent. He and Kevin Durant both are best suited for the 3 but could split time at that position and the power forward slot and give the Horns a ridiculously long and athletic team. With LaMarcus Aldridge off to the NBA, PJ Tucker possibly following him, and Craig Winder a transfer possibility, Texas probably would have a scholarship available for Jones if he’s interested.

I have always enjoyed their “Never Graduate” series of commercials…

This is so funny because it is so true.

McNamara looked tired/hurt/crappy. Aggies pull upset, Sooners get upset.

Kelvin Sampson says it’s the NCAA’s fault for not catching him doing it earlier.

Well, we definitely found out that they do some weird stuff down in College Station. And apparently the Aggies’ musical prowess does not stop at singing old chick music…they can also rap.

Seriously, what can be going through your head to produce something like this?

As if deciding to attend Texas A&M wasn’t bad enough, Aggie forward Chris Walker and his friends decided to film themselves singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in their dorm room.

If they weren’t shirtless, it would only be really ghey but three shirtless dudes and puka shell necklaces put it over the top. Nice work guys but you have a long way to go to match these guys.

Update: And don’t worry, apparently Aggies can also rap. Hilarious.

Update 2: Holy crap, I should have clicked “More from this user” before. There’s a total of six videos from Chris and his friends including “Till I Collapse” and “Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong.” Their version of “What a Wonderful World” looks like it took way too much prep time but does prove they own shirts. I really think this all would’ve been okay if they had just worn shirts.

(Hat tip to Bradthehorn on Orangebloods)

Someone ought to tell A&M signee Terrence McCoy that Dennis Franchione gave him that wad of cash in a plain envelope under the table for a reason:

McCoy, who said he’s been looking forward to Wednesday since he watched Jaime sign his letter of intent a year ago, has received positive reports from his brother about A&M and the football program.

“They take care of you down there,” McCoy said. “I know from my brother they keep your pockets full, give you plenty of money, keep feeding you meals. Besides that all the help they give you with football. They keep you on your grades with private tutoring. Just good all-around.”

I know you’re not on campus yet Terrence, but I’m pretty sure you should know that’s the kind of thing you have to keep on the down low. I guess the Aggies have never been too good at this cheating stuff, but that sure hasn’t stopped them from trying.

Coach Franchione posted a clarification of McCoy’s comments, here’s an excerpt:

To explain in detail what a football scholarship provides for a student-athlete would take more time and space than either you or I have. Frankly, I doubt you could grasp the numbers. The meal plan alone costs hundreds–hundreds!–of dollars. But basically, they receive tuition, fees, books, room and meals. In addition, under certain specified conditions they are entitled to meal stipends – such as when the place they eat on their meal plan isn’t open, usually a modestly priced restaurant tab plus unlimited alcohol, which comes to around $200 a meal – or sometimes meal per diems when we’re traveling in our gold leaf painted, hot-tub equipped Aggie Land Cruiser with the twenty-sixes spinning. It ought to be a crime to be this hood! That kind of rhyme dropping keeps the street cred flowing like water, wodi.

Aggies are taking a beating nationwide for this. Jim Rome railed on them pretty good today.