brodybuck21 said:

As of now there isn't a minimum innings pitched. Did we want to add one? If so how many? I'll leave it up to a vote.

Can select from 0 up to 80 innings

Click to expand...

No, I drafted based on the lack of one.

Bestbuck36 said:

Did I lose yet?

Click to expand...

Is your team called “the Nebraska Cornhuskers”?

Romanowski said:

Regardless, it starts and stops with O’Toole in my opinion.

Click to expand...

...And mine. And most that follow college wrestling.
Bouzakis winning round one....

Tomateaux Quinoa Gumbeaux said:

I want to have @Nutriaitch devote a segment to this league in his piscast

Click to expand...

Now that would be awesome

otisu said:

The decision to keep Diebler seemed reasonable when it was made. There weren’t many good candidates available for the cost considering Holtmann’s contact needed paid off. He had elevated the team in his interim tenure and there was excitement around an Ohio kid leading the program. Keeping the core of the team together also seemed likely, but then… Meechie is signed (not good for obvious reasons) and Gayle departs (addition by subtraction). Bradshaw signs (do we now know why UK didn’t bring him back?) and Okpara leaves (big hit to the program). Stewart signs (a 36” vertical doesn’t translate to BB skills) and Parrish signs (turns out to be the one positive from the portal). Chatman gets hurt then Glover (eh) and Njegovan sign (project). A coach that wanted to play more up-tempo ends up with a roster full of players that for the most part is better in a half-court offense. Their defensive woes primarily came down to a lack of a post presence (see Okpara). I say all this, not to defend Diebler’s coaching, but to point out that his portal decisions turned out to be pretty atrocious other than Parrish. This next portal cycle will be telling of what his future with the program will look like.

Click to expand...

This

Texas Longhorns make surprising admission amid sports betting issues that continue to rise around college sports​

The world of sports betting continues to grow as more and more states fully legalize regulated various kinds of wagering each year. Back in 2018 sports book entities handled less than $7 billion dollars in the United States. In 2024 that number was up to nearly $150 billion dollars.

There's some great fun to be had with sports wagering, but unfortunately several problems have emerged alongside the growth the industry. The latest problem? Yet another student athlete(s) scandal related to gambling. This time it was students and staff with the Texas Longhorns.

However, rather than hide the issue, the Texas Longhorns were surprisingly transparent as they self-reported five NCAA violations related to sports betting, as reported and confirmed by multiple sources on Thursday.

The five individuals involved apparently wagered somewhere around $15,000 on PrizePicks (a popular player props sports betting website). While it is legal in Texas to place bets on PrizePicks, athletes and staff on college sports teams are certainly not allowed to do so, according to the NCAA.

Login to view embedded media
According to the Austin American-Statesman (who had this report first), there was somewhere around 150 separate sports betting violations committed by the same five individuals, two of which were football players for Texas.

Others reported to be involved were not directly associated with or confirmed to be linked to the football team, but one was an athletic department employee. It's not a great look for the Longhorns on the surface, but the good news is the department went ahead and reported on themselves.

Texas (like many other universities in the sports betting era) utilized a sports wagering monitoring software calling "ProhiBet" to track down the individuals involved, and the school did not apparently delay in reporting the issues once confirmed.

One of the football players involved was required to back his wagers to the charity of his choosing. The other is no longer with the Texas program and has retired from football, so he did not face anything punitive from the university or the NCAA.
.
.
.
continued

Just sayin': Never heard of "ProhiBet" before.

NFBuck said:

"Anyway, $4 a pound."

Click to expand...

(Tips cap)

Mike80 said:

The lack of a true NHL goaltender is showing up big time tonight. The Vegas PP goal was gorgeous, the other two Elvis has given up were bad bad bad.

Click to expand...

Saw it in person.

Elvis did have one of the most beautiful saves that I have ever seen though.

As of now there isn't a minimum innings pitched. Did we want to add one? If so how many? I'll leave it up to a vote.

Can select from 0 up to 80 innings

The Toxic Trap Sinking Ohio State Basketball​

Ohio State basketball is spiraling into chaos, caught between a toxic reputation and a roster on the brink of collapse. The current Athletic Director is left cleaning up a mess years in the making, with no easy way out.



There may not be a worse place for a basketball program to be right now than Ohio State. The Buckeyes men’s basketball program is caught in the midst of bad decision-making, a toxic reputation, and a roster that is hanging in the balance of a few players.

The current Athletic Director (AD), Ross Bjork, is reaping what the previous AD, Gene Smith, sown. Jake Diebler is a first-year head coach in college basketball, and it shows. Personally, Diebler is great. He seems like a stand-up guy, a good father, and one who deeply cares about the program and his players. But he is at the center of trying to rebound from one of the worst situations in Ohio State basketball history.

The downward spiral began when the previous AD extended Chris Holtmann in the summer of 2022. Less than two years later, Holtmann would go 30-30 and be fired by Smith months before retirement. In Holtmann’s place, it was announced that the incoming AD Ross Bjork promoted Diebler to be the head coach after being an assistant from Holtmann’s staff who finished the regular season 5-1 with wins over two of the best coaches in the conference in Matt Painter and Tom Izzo.

It seemed like a feel-good story then—the young coach from Ohio stepping up to breathe life into a troubled program. But this season, that optimism has evaporated, replaced by a grim reality: Diebler’s tenure is shaping up to be a cautionary tale.

From the beginning of the offseason, Diebler’s actions raised eyebrows. He went into the portal to find unproven players with high recruiting rankings but little to show for it on the court. Although he brought back former player Meechie Johnson, he also had current players who helped him end the season well: Felix Okpara, Roddy Gayle Jr., and Scotty Middleton.

From the outside looking in, the strategy seemed flawed. Instead of building off the team, he had to assemble a roster that fit, and he chased unproven talent through the transfer portal. His top three targets turned out to be major disappointments, leaving him with freshmen who were thrust into roles way too early and players having to play out of position. The players who got him the job in the first place? He seemed to let them walk away so he could bring in guys with more national buzz.

Even through all of that, Diebler’s roster had enough juice to hover around the NCAA Tournament bubble. Led by Bruce Thornton, Devin Royal, Micah Parrish, and Evan Mahaffey, the team formed a core that, on paper, should keep Ohio State competitive in the Big Ten.

But here’s the rub: Parrish will be gone as he is out of eligibility, but if Diebler can’t hold onto the other three, the Buckeyes could plummet to the basement of the conference next season. Those three have given everything this year, only to be let down by teammates and coaching. And in the world of NIL and the transfer portal, fans can’t blame them if they decide to look around and weigh their options of where they should play next year.

The biggest problem, though, is that Ohio State can’t move on from Diebler, even if they wanted to. Diebler most likely has a future in coaching, but this program was simply not right for a first-year head coach, and it’s too unstable for a coach who is still learning and growing at the needed rate. The program’s reputation locally and nationally is anything but positive.

Locally, the fans are not pleased and haven’t been pleased for years. This helps create the national reputation that Ohio State is a pressure cooker atmosphere that few coaches will want to try and endure. Also, the home-court advantage at Value City Arena is nearly nonexistent.

The arena is too big, too far from the students, and was built more for concerts than it was for basketball. Among many, it is known as one of the weakest home-court advantages in high-major college basketball. And finally, firing a first-time head coach after one season—especially one who isn’t outright tanking—would only further increase the thought that Ohio State is a volatile, coach-killing gig.

No one worth hiring would touch it. Especially not when the team finishes as a bubble team following year one, and you could get let go at a program that has only made the tournament four times in the past nine tournaments.

In addition to all of that, the Buckeyes play tight and unconnected basketball, with only a few players showing trust in one another. The ball doesn’t move on offense, and the best players on the team are forced to have the weight of the team on their shoulders night in and night out.

Fans’ displeasure is loud, and the team hears it. But what might be even worse is that they don’t seem to disagree with it. It’s a vicious cycle: a fractured roster feeding into a toxic atmosphere, which in turn deepens the fractures.

The mess of Ohio State basketball is far more than just hiring too young of a coach. The current AD is left with upset fans, a coach floundering with roster construction, and trying to build up what was being torn down for years. The team isn’t bad enough in year one to justify a complete reset, but it’s bad enough to widen the rift between the program and fans when the program needs fan support more than ever.

No matter what happens the rest of the year, Diebler must find a way to keep Thornton, Royal, and Mobley on this team. They’re the core of the team and the difference between a salvageable season and a full-on collapse. Lose them, and Ohio State basketball could be near rock bottom in the Big Ten. The good news is that Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) exists, and The Foundation is one of the best NIL collectives in college athletics.
.
.
.
continued

Fuck that whole state...

Login to view embedded media

UNLV admits it can only afford first two years of new coach Dan Mullen's $17.5 million contract​

The Rebels' financial predicament is a sign of the new times​

UNLV athletic director Erick Harper admitted that the school can only afford to pay the first two years of new football coach Dan Mullen's five-year, $17.5 million contract.

Harper made the admission at a Board of Regents meeting last week, telling the group that the athletic department is in at least $26 million worth of debt and could only afford the first two years of a contract that pays the former Florida coach $3.5 million annually.

"We have the funds to pay the coach over the next two years," Harper said. "We have been working with our donors to assist with philanthropic dollars. We have one that has already paid their commitment, and that money is in an unrestricted line and that will be utilized in the future to help with the salaries."

UNLV hired Mullen in December to replace Barry Odom, who left for Purdue. The Big Ten school will pay UNLV $3 million to buy out Odom's contract, slated to arrive in two $1.5 million payments paid over the next two years. Mullen hadn't coached since 2021, instead working as an analyst for ESPN, after a four-year stint at Florida where he finished with a 34-15 record that included three top-15 finishes.

Mullen's contract also calls for an annual $100,000 retention bonus starting in 2027 and bonuses ranging from $25,000 for playing in the Mountain West championship game to $100,000 for participating in the College Football Playoff. Making any bowl game comes with a $75,000 bonus.

Mullen takes over a UNLV program that went 10-3 last season and is considered a preseason Group of Five favorite to make the College Football Playoff. Harper said that UNLV has sold an additional 970 season tickets since Mullen's hiring, putting the total at more than 5,000 for the Mountain West school.

Harper's admission the school can only afford two years of Mullen's five-year contract is arresting yet not without precedent. When Colorado hired Deion Sanders to a five-year, $29.5 million contract, the school's AD made a similar comment as Harper.
.
.
.

continued