The Winds of Change

Well folks, let me start by saying I grossly underestimated the inertia behind this conference realignment talk. Who knows, this may all fizzle out, but it sure doesn't appear that way.

If the reports are accurate it would appear that the Pac 10 has offered "invitations" to the Big 12 South with Colorado in place of Baylor. That's quite a grab for the left coasters. And on top of that, we've got the Big 10 making a play for Notre Dame while quite a few other schools wait to see what may happen to them (hello Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, etc.).

Some thoughts...

• Financially speaking, the Pac 10 thing makes sense for the Pac 10. Acquiring six new teams from a portion of the country that could care less about Pac 10 football now forces that portion to....care about Pac 10 football. Hello network and bigger TV deal. Yes, I know, I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's not too far off.
  
• Financially this makes A TON of sense for the Big 10: they have a very successful network gig that pays each school about $22 million a year. Adding Notre Dame will bring in roughly $15-$18 million more a year with only one more school to share the added funds to. Not too shabby. Meanwhile, Notre Dame would bring in quite a bit more money itself. I know the trend is for bigger super conferences, but something tells me that adding that 12th team would be just fine with the Big 10....again, this is speaking purely from a financial perspective. I don't know what what raiding the Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburghs, etc. of the world would add - probably not a ton of more revenue, but that many more teams to share the pot with (remember, the Big 10 shares it's revenue earnings equally amongst its members).
  
• Logistically speaking? The Notre Dame to Big 10 is a no brainer. The Pac 10? That's another story. Let's look at this: now you've got schools in your conference spanning 3 time zones. And with this, you'll have the Pac 16 which would give you an 8-team east and west division. So if it's like other conferences with divisions, you play everyone in your division and then a few schools in the other division. So let's say this happens - OU would play 7 games against it's division (all of the teams they play in Big 12 anyway). If you play 3 teams from the west division that gives you 2 games to play out of conference. So know you're taking away games from out of conference play, unless you just keep the current slate of 4 out of conference games and just play 1 team from the other division. Then what's the point? Either way, it's kind of a mess....but you know what? The powers that be that are responsible for growing revenue don't care one bit. Not a bit.
  
• I think the tide seems to be turning towards four super conferences. Here's my take on how that may shake out: Big 12 dissolves. Big 10 becomes the new Big 12 . SEC and Big East gobble up the ACC. Lot of losers in this one I think.
  
• Kind of crazy....so with all of this money maybe now we can find a way to compensate these athletes in some small way.
  

We Got Us a Series.
Quite please with game 1 as I'm sure you can imagine - the Lakers came out and played inspired and aggressive ball. They had one mission in that game: make Boston understand it wasn't 2008 anymore and they would have a different fight (or one at all) on their hands.

Game 2 was another story. Of course it's not surprising - different players step up and play well at different times. Ray Allen isn't going to make eight 3 pointers and Rondo isn't going to have a triple double every night. Game 2 came down to Boston's top 2 (Rondo and Allen) outplaying the Lakers top 2 (Gasol and Bynum) which is unfortunate as size should always trump guard play...but not this time.

I do think that the officials are grossly over officiating this series - over 60 fouls called in each of the first two games. It certainly didn't favor one team over another, it's just a bit much. However I will say there were 2 plays where the refs made bad calls in the final 3 minutes of game 2 that absolutely killed the Lakers and any ounce of momentum they could have grabbed on to.

One interesting note - Gasol has essentially removed Garnett from this series. He has completely neutralized him. I still love Garnett, always have, but his age and hard miles have simply caught up with him. Still a great talent, but he's just getting up there.

I think the cross-country flight on a short turnaround will hurt Boston more than it will LA. And one more thing, Paul Pierce, to say that this "isn't coming back to LA" is absurd. What, Boston is going to beat this Laker team four straight games? Right.

With the puppet show that Ron Artest put on in game 2, you just know he's do up for some huge game/play on Tuesday.

I picked Boston in 6, but I'm starting to think this is going the distance - and based on what I've seen from the Lakers, they are more than capable of handling (to say the least) this Boston team. I can see these guys winning every other game until someone takes it all. As bad as LA played (no one stepped up when Kobe was out of sync) and as good as Rondo and Allen were (historical good), LA still almost win. That's the one silver lining...if you need one. I hope the refs just chill out a bit and let these teams play.

In Memoriam: John Wooden
"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."

"Never mistake activity for achievement."

"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It is a weakness to get caught up in either."

"Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."

10 National Titles (7 straight)
88-game winning streak
Four 30-0 seasons