Check out what’s at No. 146
The past couple of weeks, the Ultimate Sports List has trickled in via e-mail. It’s a list of the world’s top 150 sports events and venues, as voted upon by those visiting at www.tusl.com. The website’s list launched June 1 and was determined by more than 25,000 votes from sports fans.
Lists are always a great conversation piece. Somebody always feels cheated or misplaced, and this list is no different. You will see it below. Events with a local flavor include the BCS National Championship game at No. 11 (too low); the OU-Texas football game at No. 55 (way too low) and the Cowboys vs. Redskins at No. 81 (too high).
But check out what’s at No. 146. A great rivalry indeed, but No. 146 in the world? Wow, who would have thought that?
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2004 AP poll won’t change, and shouldn’t
The Associated Press has determined Southern California will retain its 2004 national championship even though the NCAA declared Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush ineligible during that season.
“The 2004 poll stands,” AP sports editor Terry Taylor confirmed in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times on Friday. “The poll is intended to measure on-field performance. If teams are allowed to play, they’re allowed to be ranked and USC certainly played in 2004.”
The NCAA ruled the Trojans must vacate victories in which Bush played. As a result, former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said his Tigers should be proclaimed 2004 national champions.
“We never complained when they went by the process the last time, and they should go by the process this time,” said Tuberville, who is now at Texas Tech. “If they were ineligible, I think they should have a revote and let people vote on it and decide who they think was the best team that year. If everybody thinks it was Oklahoma, that’s fine. If everybody thinks it was Auburn, that’s fine.”
USC finished unbeaten in 2004 and destroyed Oklahoma 55-19 in the BCS Championship at the Orange Bowl. The Tigers went unbeaten and finished No. 2 in the country after defeating Virginia Tech 16-13 in the Sugar Bowl.
I was an AP voter in 2004 and had Auburn No. 2 in my weekly poll (behind USC and ahead of Oklahoma) until Nov. 21, when I swapped OU and Auburn.
Taylor is right when he says the AP poll measures on-field performance. I saw OU, USC and Auburn play in-person in 2004, and the Trojans were by far the best team. Not even close.
Taylor said declaring a different champion in 2004 would be too difficult. “It would be impractical to revote,” Taylor said, according to the Times. “It’s been six years. Memories have faded and the poll board from that year is no longer intact.”
I remember USC’s massacre of OU quite clearly.
The New Big 12
The Big 12 doesn’t have to die. It would just have to change.
If Oklahoma. Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Colorado relocate to the Pacific 10 Conference, the Big 12 could still exist with a solid cast of members and some intriguing potential.
Here’s a suggestion for the new Big 12: Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State, Baylor, Memphis, Louisville, TCU, UTEP, Houston, Rice and Tulsa.
This would have the makings of a terrific basketball conference and a solid football conference. Baseball, softball, tennis and track also would be well-represented.
You would replace the departure of three Texas schools with the arrival of four, keeping the Texas recruiting base alive. Tulsa would now represent Oklahoma. Travel would be reasonable. Only Louisville would be in a different time zone.
Just a thought. The Big 12 wouldn’t have to die, just change.
MLB: Phenom Bryce Harper revisited
One year ago this week, Las Vegas High baseball phenom Bryce Harper was playing for Westmoore’s Red Dirt team, which plays in a state-wide wood-bat league.
On Monday, the 17-year-old Harper became the No. 1 pick in this year’s amateur draft. Harper skipped his last two years of high school, got his general equivalency degree (GED) and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada rather than having to wait to become draft-eligible in 2011 as a high-school senior.
Harper became the first-ever junior college player to be drafted first and is expected to demand a contract with the Washington Nationals similar to the $15.1 million deal signed by pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who made his major-league debut with the Nationals on Tuesday night against Pittsburgh.
Harper appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated the week before coming to Oklahoma last spring. The magazine proclaimed him the LeBron James of baseball.
While Harper was in Oklahoma, he was lauded by teammates.
“He’s just a normal 16-year-old,” Westmoore first baseman Taylor Tipps said at the time. “He’s fun to be around.”
Tipps was Harper’s teammate three years ago on the Oklahoma Elite travel team. Harper resided at the Tipps’ house while in town last June.
“If you didn’t know any better, you’d have thought that kid has been with these guys their entire lives,” Westmoore coach Sean Brooks said of Harper. “He fits right in with our guys. He’s up on the rail with them, talking to the guys, picking them up. His skill level is above these guys, but it’s the same mentality, the same approach to the game. He fits right in with what we do.”
Tipps had warned teammates how good Harper was.
“People like to hear how good he is, but you don’t believe it until you see it,” Tipps said.
Westmoore third baseman/pitcher Mike Brewster was asked if there is an aspect of Harper’s game that needs work. Brewster smiled, shook his head and mumbled, “I don’t think so.”
Westmoore players hung out with Harper, ate lunch and watched movies. During one lunch, Harper signed autographs for kids at the local Chili’s.
“He’s pretty cool,” Brewster said.
Others recently have viewed Harper differently, however.
In April, Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus said of the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Harper: “It’s impossible to find any talent evaluator who isn’t blown away by Harper’s ability on the field, but it’s equally difficult to find one who doesn’t genuinely dislike the kid. One scout called him among the worst amateur players he’s ever seen from a makeup standpoint, with top-of-the-scale arrogance, a disturbingly large sense of entitlement, and on-field behavior that includes taunting opponents. ‘He’s just a bad, bad guy,’ said one front-office official. ‘He’s basically the anti-Joe Mauer.’ ”
Harper’s amateur career ended prematurely at this week’s Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. According to USA Today, Harper “nearly set off a bench-clearing brawl by spiking the opposing first baseman running to first, glared at the home-plate umpire on a called strike and
showed up the umpire by drawing a line in the dirt with his bat that prompted the ejection and an automatic two-game tournament suspension. He never played again, leaving his coach seething, fans angry and his teammates in tears.”
Still, Harper was too talented for the Nationals to ignore. “We all did things we weren’t proud of at 17,” Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said.
To expedite his rise to the majors, the Nationals have said the left-handed hitting Harper will move from catcher to right field. When, or if, Harper will sign is unknown. His longtime adviser is uber-agent Scott Boras, who has had many of the most notable contract holdouts in history.
The Nationals have until Aug. 16 to sign Harper. If negotiations falter, one option is for Harper to return to school at Southern Nevada and be re-drafted next June. Harper batted .443 with a school-record 31 home runs and 98 RBI in 66 games this season.
