GP1

It just depends on the guy. I played with guys who tore their ACL and were never the same, and I also saw guys come back from it as good as new. A lot of it depends on how hard the guy is willing to work in rehab. For a recent Zips example, Alex Allen blew out his knee and came back fine. He seems like the kind of guy who probably worked his tail off in rehab. Hix is the same kind of guy. His career isn't over, IMO. Hix is a five year veteran who played on a Super Bowl winning team. He has been a solid producer and will play again for someone.

The ABJ runs a story like this for LeAppreciation Day and you know nobody is going to show up. This is a joke and everyone involved should be ashamed. Bush League.

Get well soon. The NFL is brutal. A guy gets hurt and the last two paragraphs about the story are about his replacement. Ouch!

I've always believed the MAC would be better if it was a smaller league. We have something to look at now to see how contraction could make the MAC better. The question is this, Is the Big 12 better off without Colorado and Nebraska or worse off? I think they are better off. The OK vs. TX game has become bigger than the NE vs. OK game. NE has become a middle of the road team. CO....well, need we say more. Just a bad program. The PAC10 has been made worse by adding CO. The Big Ten may have been improved, but I think the winner in the whole thing is NE. NE will immediately compete for the conference championship. In the whole shake-up, NE is the one program that is much better off than before.

There are now two people who have voted for losing.

I like watching winners. Who in the heck voted for losing?

I don't know if I root for it or not, but I do think it is inevitable and probably good for UofA. In fact, I believe what we are seeing with Texas staying in the Big Whatever because of a huge amout of money is just a bump in the road on the way to realignment. If realignment means more money than what they are currently making, the landscape will change in the near future. If the PAC 10 says next year that a team can have their own TV network, this will all start up again. Realignment has slowed down, it will not stop. Slowing down realignment allows MAC-type schools more time to think about the future, where they want to be and what they want their part of college football to look like.

I think Texas and everyone else is at the point where they don't really care what anyone thinks.

Looks like Texas may be staying in the Big 12....Big 10..whatever, to get their $20 million in TV revenue.....errrrr, I mean, to preserve the integrity of college football. The NCAA is absolutely laughable. How much is that MAC TV contract worth again? How do we compete at the BCS level again?

The author is not looking long term. He had a UN analogy. Fine, here it goes. If everyone on the UN Security Council left the UN (the first five are permanent members): China, France, Russia, UK, US, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Gabon, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey and Uganda, what would the UN then do. There are 192 members. The UN needs the permanent members and the rest of the SC members more than they need the UN. The mega conference schools can leave the NCAA whenever they want and there is nothing the NCAA can do about it. The NCAA is run by the mega conference Security Council as it is.

They can do this now within the NCAA. All the NCAA has to do is create another division and those schools go into that division. The schools joining the mega conferences have all of the power right now. If the NCAA complains, then they can say sayonara to the NCAA and start their own association. If the non mega conference schools complain, that's fine but nobody is listening. If this mega conference plan takes off (it will, because the TV networks will make sure of it), then in 10 years, those schools should leave the NCAA and really make some money under their own rules...or lack of rules. For those of you who want it to be the 1950s, I can only say to you that your dreams are over. College football has forever changed in the past couple of weeks and they aren't ever going back to the way things were before. It may not seem like it now, but the MAC will be better off because of these changes. UofA will be better off because of these changes.

Thanks for the story CK. One thing about the story is there were so few scholarships to be had early in the Faust years, Jeff had to walk on the football team like so many others did. Another thing the story references is his baseball ability. A good football player, but a better baseball player. If I remember right, he hit a walk off HR to lead Brooke to the OVAC title. He could have played baseball at a couple of ACC schools and decided to play football at UofA. He also lettered in baseball at UofA as a walk on.

This is a good article about the goings on in college football as it relates to the Big 12. One line stuck out to me about MO, Can't State and UK going to a conference in their price range. We need to think that way as well only I-AA.

Both are terrible and boring to watch.

I've been feeling a little "off" about the program the past couple of years as well. Maybe it is the distance, but I don't think that is it....it probably has more to do with going to ACC games and seeing a little school like Wake get good at times and knowing we are miles behind them. I believe I have had a bit of an awakening the past couple of years and it goes beyond the AD and JD and everything at UofA. In fact, I think things at UofA are about as good as they have ever been...new football stadium, WBB getting better, MBB functioning at a high standard and last but not least...soccer. I hate the league we play in, but that is where we belong. I hate that we are so far behind BCS schools, but that's the way the NCAA wants it. I hate that we allow ourselves to be punching bags for BCS teams, but that is the state of college sports as well. I could go on. I just think so many things are stacked against us and we can never overcome them because college sports are designed for us to be at the back of the bus. I really hope the NCAA realigns so there is something to look forward to in terms of fair and better competition. Captain Kangaroo says being a Zips fan is "work". That's putting it mildly. I work enough and I am exhaused at the end of the week. More work is the last thing I am looking for on a Saturday.

George, What the heck are you thinking!?!? You are too smart to go back to Athletics being surrounded by morons. I hope you left the door open to go back to civilized fundraising after you realized what a huge mistake this is. Then again, if you're happy, I'm happy. Cheers, GP1

I'm not ready to crown him savior and star, but I would at least crown him starter. The raw material is there to be a good MAC player if not the best QB in the MAC. While I didn't see the spring game, my biggest concern about him last year was accuracy...second was lack of touch (maybe they go hand in hand). A player will take his biggest growth spurt in terms of body size and intellectual ability from his freshman year to his soph year. Everything sort of comes into focus. By the end of next season, we are going to see what is very close to the finished product for the kid. I certainly think there is room to improve, but at the same time, that doesn't make him a bad player. The ball is in his court so to speak and he needs to take some big steps this summer. What this kid really needs to do is win some darn games. If not, we are going to be exactly where we have been most of the past 20 odd years. He is there to win games, not to be a source of fan evaluation of whether or not he is "growing" as a player. If he can't win games, there is no reason to not evaluate options. We will know a ton about him this coming December.

This makes sense. If Nebraska goes to the PAC-10, the are middle to low level team. If they go to the Big Ten, they will compete for the conference championship next year. GP1! ??? Did you mistakenly flip your conferences above? Nebraska might be a once-in-a-while contender in the Big-10, as they were in Big-12. In the Pac-10, they are a constant threat to win it all (even if SC were allowed to compete). We are talking about American football, aren't we? Nebraska is like the Boise State of the Great Plains. Except their WBB team was awesome last year, and VB ain't bad -- that's it. I'm sure our Great One follows the LadyHuskers fortunes. IMHHO, Nebraska would not be able to put up enough points in the PAC10 to compete. They have more of a midwest style of play.....low scoring and a defense that can hold off average offenses. They will finish in the top two or three in the Big Ten their first year.....maybe even win it all.

This ship has sailed. The reputation of the MAC is going to be even worse after realignment unless it becomes part of a lower division. No self-respecting conference would invite a MAC school to join.

Actually, really smart people are rarely delivering the news. There are too many people in the mainstream media who where former staffers for various political figures. George Stephanopoulous (sp?), Bill Kristol, etc. People in politics are really stupid people. We have really stupid people talking on tv about politics. Our society is getting more stupid because we listen to stupid people. Seems simple to me. MSNBC is owned by General Electric and it is a small part of their business portfolio. They literally don't have time to care about what is said on that network.

This makes sense. If Nebraska goes to the PAC-10, the are middle to low level team. If they go to the Big Ten, they will compete for the conference championship next year.

Enjoy

The only way Can't State gets 90K total is if they give away free joints to all paying customers.

I think you are spot on. It's hard to believe the MAC could be any more irrelevant than it already is, but just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. The only way to salvage any dignity for the MAC is for it to drop to I-AA and have a team competing for a championship every year. The Zips could be that team. Instead, we are happy to get our asses kicked by BCS schools three times a year and play in a crappy conference. If realignment does not happen AND the NCAA does not accept the Great GP1's proposal of separating D-1A, the top 30 teams should leave the NCAA and start their own league. There is already an NAIA, why not another type of league? This could be a good thing for college sports as the destruction of the NCAA would be a good thing and this would destroy the NCAA.

The problem Conway has is eventually he is going to have to start talking. Once he does that, the rest of the state will realize he is a leftist. This could be as close as he gets to Paul. Very true. This election is very much about defining Rand Paul. I hope I can watch their debates this summer online. Dems have gotten pretty good during recent elections at tacking to the center and peeling away at the middle; I bet it gets much closer. The only thing the Democrats have gotten good at is keeping quiet while Republicans slouch to the left and lose public support. Democrats are as far left as they ever have been....with Republicans not far behind. KY is too Red of a state for Paul to lose this one. Democrats are in heap big trouble this year in states far more Purple than KY.