Barking Carnival

10 weeks ago, Oregon played in the Rose Bowl as Pac 10 champions. Since their loss to Ohio State, the program has been in some kind of bizzaro parallel universe where every headline concerns a player arrest, a firing, or now a resignation. Mike Bellotti, the Duck AD and former head coach earlier this week fired basketball coach Ernie Kent, the winningest coach in school history. Then today, in a slighly surreal press conference, Bellotti,

Perhaps as soon as next year. The NCAA has an "opt out" clause in its $6 Billion contract with CBS this summer and they have already asked for a Request For Proposal from any and all networks interested. The current contract with CBS is backloaded -- the network owes the NCAA $2.3 Billion over the next three years. CBS kept the contract last time around by bidding up the rights to all platforms --including video

All the recent talk about proposed conference expansion has centered around Texas being a prime target for either the Pac 10 or Big 10. Now the biggest domino in the BCS is indicating that maybe they are ready to look to make a safe fall. Touchdown Jesus may send the signal that Notre Dame is willing to play nice with others. The talk of the Big East basketball tournament is that the Fighting Irish

Since reaching the World Series in 2005, the Houston Astros have played losing baseball (315-332), but Fox Sports Houston is in a battle to keep the regional rights to Astros broadcasts, and the competition is coming from cable providers. Comcast and AT&T have been attempting to lure the Astros -- and the Houston Rockets -- away from FSN to start their own Regional Sports Networks. The Astros have an out clause in their long-term

As hard as Tiger Woods and Nike try to contain and control the spin on Woods' return to golf, the tighter the controls, the more rabid the media will become. Woods will "speak to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates," Friday morning at 10:00 central time, and it will be carried live by every broadcast network with the possible exception of The Soap Opera Network. Woods won't take any questions, won't

That is what the talk of Conference Realignment is about. Protecting the brand name that has led to a revenue stream that is the envy of College Athletics. As recently as last December, Forbes Magazine listed the Texas football program as the most valuable college football team/business in the nation. Forbes ranked the programs on three basic after-expenses "dividends": what's left to help fund other athletic department sports, what's left to help the University,

Here's a little pop culture crap to take our minds off of the Great Roundball Abortion of 2010.

In a move that surely elicited a deep belly laugh from Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne announced Thursday that should the Big Ten decide that the Huskers and the greater Omaha area's 37 television sets are just too lucrative to pass up they might possibly be willing to entertain the notion of teaming up with those fellows and their $270 million yearly television revenues and prestigious and lucrative

I think so, but it will take more vision than we are used to seeing from the current Big 12 leadership.

“What starts here changes the world.”