Sports

The people who sell bowl games need us to believe a few things:

• Their games are rewards for great seasons;
• They offer players and fans a much-wanted vacation;
• The bowls are non-profits, while the schools make a killing. 

These claims are nice, and would be even nicer if they were true.

Forty years ago, college football got by with just eleven bowl games.

The 22 teams they invited were truly elite, and so were the bowls – like the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and The Granddaddy of Them All, the Rose Bowl.

When your team got into a bowl game back then, you knew they’d done something special.

But the number of bowls has more than tripled, to a staggering 35, including such timeless classics as the The Meineke Car Care Bowl, the Advocare V100 Independence Bowl, and the legendary Taxslayer.com Bowl.

This time last year, Brady Hoke was the darling of Michigan football fans. 

He’d charmed everybody at his first press conference, then led a team that had averaged just five wins a year to a 10-2 regular-season record, with thrilling wins over Notre Dame, Nebraska and arch-rival Ohio State.

Then he capped it all off with an overtime victory in the Sugar Bowl. 

The man could do no wrong.

When he referred to injuries as “boo-boos” and Ohio State as “Ohio,” fans did not conclude he was an ignoramus who knew nothing about the greatest rivalry in sports, but a motivational genius, who understood exactly what the duel was all about. 

Some dream of the Powerball,  others live the Powerball.

From Crain's Detroit Business:

For winning the American League pennant, each of the Detroit Tigers will get $284,274.50 as his share of postseason revenue.

Each member of the World Series-winning San Francisco Giants, who swept the Tigers in the fall classic, will get $377,002.64.

The numbers, which are pretax, were provided this morning by Major League Baseball.

Yesterday, the University of Maryland announced that they'll join the Big Ten Conference, and there was speculation that Rutgers would follow suit.

Today it's official.

From the AP:

Rutgers is announcing that it will join the Big Ten at an afternoon news conference Tuesday on its campus in Piscataway, N.J.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany will be joined by Rutgers University President Robert Barchi and athletic director Tim Perenetti.

Rutgers will be leaving the Big East, where it has been competing since 1991. The move follows Maryland's announcement on Monday that it was departing the Atlantic Coast Conference to join the Big Ten in 2014. Rutgers will be the Big Ten's 14th member.

Rutgers also plans to join its new conference in 2014, though the Big East requires 27 months' notification for departing members. The Scarlet Knights will have to negotiate a deal with the Big East to leave early.

The Big Ten Conference will soon include 14 teams.

Michigan Radio's John U. Bacon addressed the conference's decision to bring Maryland and Rutgers into its competitive network.

“On the Michigan chat boards, it is 98% apocalyptic disgust. It should be noted, that is in great contrast to Nebraska joining last year. They are not against expansion, per se,” said Bacon.

The potential financial gains are of great interest to the conference, said Bacon.

“The whole reason why they are doing that is the Big Ten Network’s footprint. This can add up to around $200 million dollars. I can think of no other reason why they would do it,” said Bacon.

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