Forbes came out with their list of the most valuable college football programs yesterday and, as you'd expect, the SEC dominates the top ten with LSU, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and Arkansas holding down the 4th through 10th spots, respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the Texas Longhorns hold down the top spot with a net worth of $133 million while Michigan, realizing the largest one-year change in value at 28%, came in 2nd at $120 million with Notre Dame coming in 3rd at $103 million.
Paced by Michigan, the B1G landed six schools in the top 20 with the Buckeyes holding down the final spot. With a value of $63 million (2011-12 fiscal year), the Buckeyes experienced a 20% drop year over year while raking in $58 million in revenue, leading to a profit of $24 million.
Forbes had this to say about the 20% drop in value:
The Buckeyes played one fewer home game last year and saw a decline in bowl revenue, the result of playing in the Sugar Bowl in 2010 and the Gator Bowl in 2011. Ohio State went 12-0 this season but is banned from postseason play due to NCAA sanctions, meaning the team may face another drop in value next year.
With Urban at the controls, it's a safe bet to think the football program will be printing money at a much faster clip in the coming years.
DUCK YEAH! Charles Robinson, Yahoo's black angel of death, wrote yesterday that Oregon's efforts to avoid a formal hearing with the NCAA's Committee on Infractions have failed.
The Duck program is in potentially hot water over a $25,000 payment to scout/street agent Willie Lyles because while the payment to the scouting service was for a "2011 National Package", the actual 143-page report the school produced to the NCAA didn't have information for any 2011 recruit and contained mostly data on recruits from 2009.
Further, flames that Oregon was actually giving Lyles cash to steer players such as Lache Seastrunk to Eugene were fanned by Lyles himself saying Oregon paid him based on his access and influence with recruits.
The school went through the summary disposition process in which they outlined their interpretation of any violations alleged and committed, in addition to suggesting what they deemed to be appropriate sanctions. It's not uncommon that a summary disposition doesn't officially end the possibility of a school being forced to attend a former hearing with the COI, but it certainly doesn't help Oregon's chances of avoiding penalties on the harsher end of the realistic spectrum.
What will be even more interesting to watch is whether or not Chip Kelly pulls a Pete Carroll and bolts for the NFL ahead of any punishment levied by the NCAA. Such happenings wouldn't break my heart.
RANKING THE RANK. The brave soul known as Tom Dienhart took a shot at ranking the B1G bowls and all I can say is I have no idea how so many fans can watch virtually every bowl game.
Leading the slate is the Rose Bowl featuring an 8-5 Wisconsin team with Barry Alvarez at the controls. Five is kind of a magic number for this matchup as the Badgers are the first team with five losses to play in Pasadena and exactly five B1G teams finished the 2012 regular season with a better record.
Holding down the 2nd spot is the Capital One Bowl matchup between Nebraska and Georgia. This one might actually be fun to watch with Taylor Martinez and Aaron Murray under center. Murray has to be licking his chops watching film of Nebraska's defense hemorrhaging 63 points to the Buckeyes and another 70 to Wisconsin.
The 3rd matchup might be my most anticipated as Michigan takes on South Carolina in the Outback Bowl. After watching Taylor Lewan look woefully overrated against guys like Adolphus Washington in The Game, I am intrigued to see what Lewan does to his draft stock as he tries to keep Jadeveon Clowney from stealing the souls of Denard and Devin Gardner.
The bottom of the list is truly awful with Sparty taking on TCU in something called the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl and Minnesota set to play Texas Tech in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
Will Chip Kelly stick around if Oregon faces impactful sanctions?BIRMINGHAM OR BUST. You know, it's times like these that we should all pause and reflect on how lucky we are to be Buckeye fans.
Down in Oxford, on the heels of a 6-6 season, Ole Miss fans are scooping up tickets for the Compass Bowl showdown against the 6-6 Pitt Panthers at a record-setting pace.
Can you imagine being pumped about a trip to Birmingham to play a squad that somehow managed to win just six games while losing to the likes of Connecticut and Youngstown State?
So far, Ole Miss has sold 21,470 tickets to the Compass Bowl, enough for the school to boast the most bowl tickets sold of any SEC school.
Despite beating just one bowl-eligible team, the Rebels are basking in the glory following a 2011 season that ended with a 14-game losing streak against conference foes and ten losses, eight of which came by more than two touchdowns, which resulted in the dismissal of Houston Nutt and the school's athletic director.
In case you're wondering, this dandy takes place Saturday, January 5th.
IMA BALLA BABY. Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish of CBS Sports took a shot at breaking down the early top hardwood candidates for national player of the year honors and the B1G is well represented with four of the top 10.
Though Cody Zeller got most of the preseason ink, Columbus product and Michigan Wolverine Trey Burke is the top-rated B1G player at #3 on the strength of 18 points and seven dimes per contest thus far.
Zeller is still very much in the conversation and is currently ranked 6th on the CBS list thanks to 15.7 points and 8.5 boards per night.
What might be a surprise to you is Brandon Paul coming in 7th, two spots ahead of Deshaun Thomas. That said, as much as Thomas means to Ohio State's success, Paul's play might even be more important to the overall success of the Illini. Playing in Groce's system, Paul is blowing up early averaging 18.8 points, 5.1 boards and 3.5 assists a night and he's still dangerous from three, hitting 40%. I've had plenty of respect for Paul's scoring ability since he hung 43 on the Buckeyes last January, burying 8/10 triples. Dude is streaky but look out when he's on.
Similar to most other prognosticators, the clear top two players at this point are Mason Plumlee and Creighton's Doug McDermott. Plumlee is doing work to the tune of 19 points and 11 rips a night but McDermott has been insane, pouring in nearly 24 points a game on 53% from distance to go along with 6.9 rebounds.
HAPPY TRAILS, HANS. The Big East To Damn Near Far East Conference could hatch soon... The Funniest Athlete Tweets of 2012... Some shots of One World Trade Center progress... No way the poor man's Family Truckster is one of the 10 Worst Cars of All Time... The Year in YouTube... Random Wii Curling Challenge GIF.
