There is a debate going on as to whether or not Bob Stoops and Oklahoma ran up the score on Texas A&M last weekend. The score of the game was 77-0. When one team dominates another like that, they can name the score and the score differential; Oklahoma could have kept the margin to 35 if they had wanted to or they could have won by 100 if they had wanted to. But what I find strange is that earlier this season, Texas A&M beat Baylor by a score of 73-10 and there was exactly no “national outrage” over that score. Look, the only way to prevent scores like this from happening in mismatch games is put in a “slaughter rule” and declare the game over as soon as one team leads by more than 40 points. Until there is an outcry for instituting a “slaughter rule” the rest of this is nothing more than rhetorical gum-flapping.
Another interesting slant here is that Texas A&M was 63 points better than Baylor in October and OU was 77 points better than Texas A&M last week. Baylor and OU meet this weekend and the linear combination of these scores means that OU should win by 140 points. The line in Vegas is 53 at the moment. If you think that is a betting “opportunity” you are a very sick puppy.
I really believe that the folks at Oklahoma have bought into this “border war thing” with Texas. So far this year, the combined scores of the three games between Oklahoma and schools in Texas is 179-16. They have Baylor this weekend and Texas Tech upcoming. It is not inconceivable that OU could score an aggregate of 300 points against Texas schools this season!
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on 6 November the following figures from the Athletic Department at the University of Minnesota regarding revenues and expenses for various parts of the athletic programs of the schools in fiscal year 2002/3 ending on 30 June. Here is what was reported:
| Activities | Revenue | Expenses | Profit/Loss |
| Men's basketball | $11,540,263 | $2,826,181 | $8,714,082 |
| Football | 14,652,519 | 7,565,732 | 7,086,787 |
| Men's hockey | 6,244,958 | 1,538,942 | 4,706,016 |
| All other men's sports | 657,027 | 4,899,495 | (4,242,468) |
| Women's basketball | 704,570 | 1,402,470 | ( 697,900) |
| All other women's sports | 754,199 | 6,321,402 | (5,567,203) |
I've often heard people complain that women's sports don't get as much funding as the football team at a large school and I never saw any figures to back that up. But here they are; at Minnesota women's sports in total had expenses only about $150K more than the football program. What these figures also tell me is that on the revenue side of this equation, men's sports generate 95.8% of the athletic revenues for Minnesota; yet the men's programs consume 68.5% of the expenditures. Those numbers are not "balanced" no matter what vantage point you take to examine them from. I can use these numbers to show that women's sports are not getting nearly the resources that men's sports do; I can just as easily use these numbers to argue that women's sports are parasites living off the sweat equity of the men's programs. And so, maybe the right thing for all parties to these periodic debates to do is to turn off the rhetoric and find accommodation solutions to problems.
Frank McCourt has an agreement in principle to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers; he is filing "the necessary paperwork" with the Office of the Commissioner and the deal is to be finalized by 31 December and is to close on 31 January 2004. The price is reportedly $430M and includes Dodger Stadium, Dodgertown (the spring training facility in Florida), and the club's baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. Sounds borderline reasonable until you realize that the Dodgers had one of the top 5 payrolls in MLB last year - and for the past several years - and they have not been in a playoff game for 7 years and have not won a playoff series in 15 years. The Dodgers have almost $70M committed in guaranteed contracts to 9 players next year and their star closer, Eric Gagne, is arbitration eligible and should be getting a humongous raise next year. I'm not sure this deal is a “license to print money”.
Speaking of baseball, remember last year when George Steinbrenner whined about how the schedule was stacked against the Yankees and that some functionary in the MLB office had it in for the Yankees? I guess she was the one who put the hex on the Yankee hitters in the series against the Marlins, right? Anyway, there is an old adage that says you should never ascribe to malice that which can equally be explained by stupidity. [Translation: There are more stupid people in the world than there are evil ones.] We may be onto something here because while baseball folks do some things that may seem evil, they frequently do things that are stupid and here is one of them. Next year's schedule calls for the Cubs and Cardinals – long time rivals and potentially division title combatants – to play their last game against each other in July (July 20th to be precise). Who the hell thought that was a good idea? Who is doing the "quality control" when it comes to the scheduling department?
According to the Dallas Morning News, Alex Rodriguez has incentive clauses in his contract where the base pay is $25M per year. These incentives are small amounts relative to the overall value of the contract ($250M) but according to the paper they have amounted to $1.5M in the last three years – and remember the AL MVP has not been awarded yet this year. Meanwhile, the team is reducing the scouting staff and cutting payroll. If Rangers' owner Tom Hicks plays poker with the same acumen as he negotiates contracts with Scott Boras, I think I'd like to join him in a game sometime…
Remember a month ago when Ulice Payne - CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers - said that he thought his team would be in the playoffs next year and be the 2004 version of the Chicago Cubs? Well, the team's board of directors has just told him to cut payroll from $40M to $30M. He has two players on the team – Geoff Jenkins and Richie Sexson – who will make $16.85M between them and then both will be free agents after next year's World Series, which will NOT include the Brewers. Doug Melvin is the team's GM and he is at the GM meetings in Phoenix where he tried to put a positive light on all this. He said that keeping Jenkins and Sexson this year could limit his flexibility but that he will have a lot of flexibility after 2004 because only one player on the team is signed beyond next year. Are you kidding me? That is like one of the survivors of the Titanic gushing over the fine embroidery on the linen tablecloths...
The AL Manager of the Year award will be announced today. I'll go out on a limb and guess that Grady Little will not win this year.
Butch Davis and WR, Kevin Johnson, have had difficulties for a while in Cleveland. But KJ has been the teams leading receiver over the past 4 years and leads the team in receptions and receiving yardage again this year. The team gave him a contract extension with a $3.5M signing bonus about two seasons ago. Yesterday, they released him. Unless Kevin Johnson is some kind of sociopath, this could be a steal for a team that needs a wide receiver. Is anyone paying attention in Chicago or Detroit or Philly or Denver?
After seeing Chris Redmond stink like a skunk's butt on Sunday night after Kyle Boller's injury, the Ravens had to sign a QB. They actually lead the AFC North and none of the teams behind them are the stuff legends are made of. Jeff George used to play for Brian Billick in Minnesota; in fact George actually had a winning season there under Billick. But instead, the Ravens signed Ray Lucas and not Jeff George. Does that imply to you that Billick probably figured that he had done sufficient penance in his previous season with George? Maybe Ray Lucas is not the answer but just the beginning of a long and serious QB quest for the Ravens? Let's see…Ray Lucas, Lucas McCain, John McCain, John Kerry, Kerry Collins, Tom Collins, Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett, Warren Buffett, Warren Moon... No, that's not the answer either!
Finally, Northland College in Ashland, WI got it right. Its men's teams are called the Lumberjacks and so its women's teams are called the Lumberjills. Good move.
But don't get me wrong, I love sports...
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