This rant will be brief. I have some “Hurricane Isabel related traveling” to do and I need to get out of here soon. Absent a weather disaster, I'll be back tomorrow.

Part of the reason that the WUSA folded is that the economy is slow and the stock market is not nearly where it was when the league was formed in 1999-2000. If you can't relate to that last statement, then you obviously don't have a 401k plan. There is less “frivolous” money available to start new ventures that may be high risk and women's soccer is unfortunately one of those things. But that economic climate has not deterred everyone from starting a high-risk venture in these times because a new niche sport has just been announced. An eight-team league called “Professional League Paintball” is about to launch. I doubt that it will be underwritten with $100M as was the WUSA, but nonetheless it will join roller hockey as a new pro sports league sometime later this year.

Before you ask, I have no idea what the rules of “professional paintball” might be. It would be very easy to wonder who “green lighted” this idea for a paintball league or to suggest that it will wind up ”in the red” pretty quickly. And since it was so easy, I availed myself of that opportunity. I suspect this sport will not become a staple of the sports books in Las Vegas any time soon. Unless, of course, one of the books offers a prop bet on whether or not the league will survive until the 4th of July next year. If the league is committed to the concept that professional players in any sport get paid and the league actually pays the players, I'll take UNDER.

Speaking of gambling and prop bets, you may have tired of the prop bets offered on sporting events or perhaps you are just looking to bet on something “different”. Even your office “Ghoul Pool” (where you pick 10 people who will die in a given calendar year and you get bonus points for picking younger people than older ones if they die) is getting blasé. Well you can now check out some of the offshore books and you will be able to wager on the outcome of the Kobe Bryant trial. Last odds I saw were from a book in Costa Rica:

Kobe found guilty of current charge +110
Acquittal or hung jury - 150

I did not find odds on the charges being dropped based on a settlement. I'm kind of surprised that it was not there because then there could be an over/under betting line on the size of the settlement. And you could parlay those two bets…

Any person making any claim whatsoever to the status of a sentient human being who bets on the Kobe Bryant trial is in need of therapy - and I do not mean therapy for a gambling problem. The therapy should be aimed at straightening out a terribly sick and twisted mind.

There was an interesting police blotter story that nudges up against the world of sports late last week. According to the AP report I saw, the San Mateo County Narcotics Unit and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating Balco, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements. According to the report, Balco is run by someone named Victor Conte who is a nutritionist and whose client list supposedly includes Bill Romanowski, Kelli White (the sprinter who tested positive for a banned stimulant at the recent World Track and Field Championships) and Marion Jones. That alone would be bad enough for the sports world in terms of confronting the issues of doping and performance enhancing substances and the like. Then the report added another name to the alleged Balco client list, Greg Anderson. Narcs and/or IRS agents searched Anderson's home presumably related to this whole matter. And the reason that name could be important is that Greg Anderson has been the personal trainer to Barry Bonds for several years. Unless this turns out to be a tax related matter and nothing else, this is a story that could be bubbling to the surface of the sports pages over the next several months. There are just enough athletes with “household names” involved to give the story legs.

About two weeks ago, there was a meeting in Chicago involving officials of the schools in the conferences that make up the BCS. One main agenda item was to hear from schools in smaller conferences who feel they are not invited to swill at the BCS money trough in a sufficiently advantageous position. According to reports, the top six BCS conferences split $108M among themselves last year while the other five – less powerful – conferences split $5.5M. As you might guess, this is a gulf that will not be bridged easily. The action item from this meeting of the minds was:

They established a committee to plan another meeting.

Some of the schools with small time athletic programs claim that they lose money on athletics. I believe they do and I don't see why that should surprise them. However, Davidson College offers an insight into what might be part of the problem. Davidson recently added a men's assistant basketball coach and a men's assistant head basketball coach. That brings the basketball coaching staff to 5 people with an “admin assistant”. Two important words come to mind here:

Cost … Containment

Finally, wouldn't it be great to see a game between the Warriors of Winona State University and the Broncs of Rider University. Who wouldn't want to wager on the Winona-Rider game?

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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