The Pennant Race

Just got done watching a Gamecast of the Yanks-Rays game and the Yanks just clinched a playoff berth. Now it's Boston's turn to completely falter and let the Rays in. This time of the year is great. Teams are scrambling for the last playoff spot and sometimes no one wants to win.

Looks like the Angels are quietly sneaking up into the both the West and the Wild Card standings. They aren't exactly someone I would want to play in the playoffs with them having Jared Weaver as their ace. They have a ton of team speed but probably don't have enough depth on the pitching staff to get through.

As usual, the Phillies are super dangerous at this point because of their three aces in Halladay, Lee, and Hamels. I don't want to see them but if the Yanks make it to the World Series, I'm sure the City of Brotherly Love will be waiting.

Now onto the Cy Young in both league. American League is easy, it's Justin Verlander. He has probably had one of the most dominant years in a long time. I certainly don't want to see him at all in the playoffs. You can count a win for the Tigers whenever he is on the mound. In the National League, it's got to go to Clayton Kershaw.  He leads the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA. Any pitcher that has ever done that has won the Cy Young. This year should be no different. I know Ian Kennedy and Roy Halladay have had great years but you can't punish Kershaw for playing on a crappy team.

Now onto the MVP award, remember this is awarded to the Most Valuable Player. A player the team would sorely miss if he wasn't there. In the American League my vote goes to...Justin Verlander. He's the most dominant player in the league and his 24 wins don't go unnoticed. The Tigers wouldn't be where they are at right now without him. Adrian Gonzalez and Curtis Ganderson are right in the mix, but both of their teams have enough firepower to withstand them being off the field. In the NL, the award goes to...Chris Sabo and his goggles, just kidding. The award goes to Jose Reyes, and yes I am serious this time. The Mets aren't good but they are even worse when Reyes isn't on the field. I would say Ryan Braun is a close second but Reyes gets my vote.

I had a good talk last night with one of buddies about conference realignment and paying college athletes. This article pretty much sums up our conversation.

Conference Realignment

After last season's movement, now comes the biggest movement of them all with universities going after spots in certain conferences. It's too bad it has to be this way but it comes down to the almighty dollar, like I have said before. I'm going to talk about the Big East first because it will be the conference most affected by the conference realignment because of the way the conference is structured.

As of last season the Big East had 16 members. It somewhat created a mega-conference for basketball. Now, the challenging part is that college football is going to ruin that conference for all. Pittsburgh and Syracuse have already jumped ship and the conference could go to shambles. The biggest problem for the conference is that several of it's schools either do not have football (Marquette, Providence, St. John's, and Seton Hall), played at the 1-AA level (was Villanova and Georgetown), or compete as an independent (Notre Dame). Football is the sport that schools get the most money because it isn't technically controlled by the NCAA. The NCAA has no control over which schools go to bowl games or the BCS rankings. The NCAA Tournament for basketball is huge money maker for the NCAA and they get a lot of the money from that while in football the conferences get the money.

I'm not sure what I will think once the Big East doesn't have it's tournament at Madison Square Garden. There have been so many memorable games there and now with Steve Lavin bringing back the Red Storm, the Mecca of Basketball is making it's way back. Who can remember Ray Allen's shot over a Georgetown defender for UConn to win at MSG? What about Da'Sean Butler making game winning shot after game winning shot leading WVU to it's first ever Big East Tournament title? What about Kemba Walker carrying the young Huskies on his back last season? What about the 19 overtime game between UConn and Syracuse a few years back? That is some of the most exciting basketball of the whole year.

I don't want to see the Big East go away. I could probably do away with Big East football. What about this idea? Why can't schools align themselves to conferences for certain sports? It would save Big East basketball. We already have a 1-AA for football, could there be another level added on to that?

Don't be surprised to see four mega-conferences with 16 teams each and then they separate from the NCAA. The NCAA is essentially a monopoly with no wiggle room for it's members, that could change quickly. The worst part of that is that it would greatly affect D3 athletics. We wouldn't get any funding to our championships.

If is this all about the student athlete then why do have college football games on Thursday and Friday nights. Why does South Florida play Marquette on a Wednesday night in hoops? Don't say it's about student athletes when money is coming in and helping the WHOLE university.

I'm Back and it's Been a Long Time

Alright, so I finally decided to make it back to blogging and hope to keep you updated on most if not all of the happenings going on with our program throughout the rest of the year. My summer was great and it didn't seem to last very long. I was able to do some traveling to Alexandria, VA then to Sandusky, OH (Cedar Point and Callahan Auto Parts). I went to Chicago for my first trip to Wrigley and then headed back to NY for a quick trip back home. Probably won't be heading home for Christmas this year, so it was good to be home and see family for a little bit. Enough of me and now onto the Pipers. Yes, school has started and we have everyone on campus as we planned. I think we have a pretty good recruiting class for this season that will once again feature a slew of out of state kids. No names at the moment because we haven't had our first practice yet. It's always great to see the guys once they get to school and then it almost gets back to 'normal.' Normal is when basketball actually starts. The guys have been playing since classes start and I can actually hear the squeak of their sneakers right now as they are playing open gym. We have a little time before we start on October 15th and I hope the guys are getting in shape. The more than get in shape now, the less we run once practice starts. I'll go over some more stuff as this week rolls on. Topics will include Conference Realignment, Baseball's Pennant Race, College Football, and my Detroit Lions