Just an Update

Hey guys, I'm back. I told you I'd have a post on Friday. Probably not the Friday you were thinking but hey, it's still Friday. Anyway I don't have a KU post on here for you, I just thought I'd give you guys an update of where I've been. Well I've been home, doing my online school, and not much else. I've kind of flaked on the KU posts as of late but I'm going to try to do better in August. "But Tyler, August is weeks away?! Why so long?" Well mystery voice in my head, I am going to be helping my parents to set up my grandparents 50th anniversary, in Leavenworth. 3 1/2 hours away from Hutchinson. My current schedule looks like this

July 11th-July13th - In Leavenworth for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Concert
July 14th - 16th - Home but doing my online schooling
July 17th - 26th - In Leavenworth working to help with the Anniversary.
July 27th - Home

So as you see, I won't be here for most of the month (But all this can change if I get a job which I am trying to do) so August is the best bet for me to be back. See you then

-Tyler

The Big 12 Super-conference!

Yes, you read that title correctly. The Big 12 (if they follow my idea) could, in fact, go from looking at its demise, to being the very first super-conference!
Orangebloods.com, who has been on top of every story concerning the Big 12's unsteady future, reported yesterday that Dan Beebe (the commissioner of the Big 12) has pulled out everything he can to keep Texas, and the rest of the south, from jumping ship. Beebe has told the the 10 schools that are left that he can keep the conference a TV deal that would pay each school up to $17 million, which is what the SEC pays out. It's also reported that he told the schools they would be able to have their own TV newtorks, which Texas has been wanting for a while and if they jumped to the Pac-10 would not get. SEC, check. Pac-10, check. This deal has stopped Texas in their tracks and they appear to now be leaning to stay in the Big 12 and save it from extinction. Now Beebe has to deal with A&M, who said they would love to save the Big 12 and would stay if they didn't get much of an offer from another conference. If A&M stays, the Big 12 is saved. Now onto my plan.
Lets say the Big 12 is saved and they stay together. They now have the super-conference card in their hand. With the Big 12 staying together, the MWC won't get their BCS bid like what was expected. The Big 12 can stop this from happening again and merge with the MWC and become the first super-conference. How great would that be? This would be a HUGE slap in the face to the Pac-10 and Big 10 if the Big 12 became the first super-conference. The MWC would take up the deal to merge with the Big 12 in a heart beat. Adding Boise State has already shown that they want to be a BCS conference and merging with the Big 12 would guarantee them what they wanted. Now I'm not for sure how a 20 team conference would work, but here is what I think they could do.

Football - They could creat four sub-divisions in the conference with five teams each. They could have the North, South, North-West and South-West. Here is how these divisions would play out.

North - KU, KSU, ISU, Missouri and Wyoming
South - Texas, TTU, OU, OSU and A&M
North-West - Boise St, Colorado St, Air Force, BYU and Utah
South-West- Nevada, TCU, San Diego St, New Mexico, and Baylor

They would each play their division opponents (4 games) 2 Non-Conf opponents (6 games) then 2 teams from each of the other 3 divisions (12 games)

The Championship game opponents would be decided by #1 North vs #1 North-West and #1 South and #1 South-West. Then the winners of those two games would face each other in the Big-20 championship game.

Basketball - 30 games on a schedule would equal 19 conference games and 11 non-conference games. They would alternate home and away games every year and play every team once. Then in the tournament, they would take the top 12 teams and do the usual Big 12 conference tournament.

This is a great idea and would secure the survival of the Big 12 forever.

-Tyler (PS, I promise Wednesday I'll have something that has to do with KU and KU only)

Mountain West Super Conference

The Mountain West Conference is making its bid to become a major BCS conference. A few days removed from confirming Boise State to the Mountain West they have began another search. As we know Nebraska and Colorado are for sure gone with Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State being pursued by the Pac-10. Some North schools are getting in on the realignment and jumbling of the NCAA's major conferences. Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri may have just found a home. They are on the radar for the Mountain West Conference. Leaving Iowa State and Baylor homeless in the conference aspect of college sports. If these teams are continuely being pursued and join the MWC here is a look at what the Mountain West, Pac-10, and Big Ten could possibly look like in 2011-2012.

Mountain West:
Air Force
Brigham Young (BYU)
Colorado State
Kansas*
Kansas State*
Missouri*
New Mexico
Texas Christian (TCU)
Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV)
Utah
Wyoming

Pac-10:
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Colorado*
Oklahoma*
Oklahoma State*
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
Texas*
Texas A&M*
Texas Tech*
California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
Southern California (USC)
Washington
Washington State

Big Ten:
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska*
Northwestern
Ohio State
Pennsylvania State (Penn St.)
Purdue
Wisconsin
* possible additions to conference

KSU vs. KU rivalry if KU goes to Pac-10

The University of Kansas could quite possibly be heading to the Pac-10. What will happen to the Wildcats of Kansas State if there in state rival moves to the Pac-10? First of all if KU heads to another conference will KSU follow or head there seperate way. Kansas State has not been one of the main names mentioned in the conference shake-up. What would happen to the Sunflower Showdown if KU heads to the Pac-10?

Personally I believe the rivalry will still be there among the top rivalries in college sports. What I think will change about the rivalry is the implications put on the rivalry. For several years in both football and basketball the sunflower showdown has had national exposure and has been very important in Big 12 rankings and National rankings. For example this years basketball Big 12 championship game was between the two rivals. Kansas State was looking to end KU's streak of dominance and quite possibly earn themselves a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Lets take a look at some of the memorable sunflower showdown games. Here are some of the most important Sunflower Showdown's of the past decade:

Basketball:
2010 Big 12 Championship: Kansas 72 vs. KSU 64

January 30,2008: Kansas State 84 vs. Kansas 75

January 30, 2010: Kansas 81 vs. Kansas State 79 (OT)

Football:
1995: #14 Kansas State 41 vs. #6 Kansas 7

2004: Kansas 31 vs. Kansas State 28

1987: Tie 17 to 17

These scores show how great the sunflower showdown is. This will not change even if KU moves to Pac-10 and leaves Kansas State behind.

Wildcat Weekly Wrap-Up

In this weeks headlines you did not see much of Kansas State University being talked about in all of the Conference jumbling. What you did hear was that several of K-States long time conference foes are no longer within the Big 12.

Nebraska: Heading to the Big Ten. Will begin conference play in Big Ten in 2011-2012 academic year. Part of the original Big 8 and has been a part of the Big 12 the whole time, 14 years.

Colorado: Heading to the Pac-10. Will begin conference play in 2012 academic year.

Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State: Being pursued by the Pac-10 to form a "super conference". This decision is headed by the University of Texas based on the fact that they produce the most revenue in all of college football. It is believed that if they go the rest of the schools listed will follow. That is if A&M does not bail on there fellow Big 12 school Texas and go to the SEC.

Kansas State Fans don't worry we have one more year of Big 12 play and have solid recruits coming in for the 2010-2011 football season:

4 star:
Adam Davis DE 6'1 249 lbs. (Hutchinson CC)
DeMarcus Robinson RB 5'9 192 lbs. (Wichita Northwest High)

3 star:
Billy Cosh QB 6'2 196 lbs. (Gambrills, MD)
Kyle Klein ATH 6'5 205 lbs. (Loveland, CO)
Tre Walker LB 6'4 208 lbs. (Olathe North High)

Basketball:
*** Freddy Asprilla C 6'10 280 lbs. (Miami Dade CC)
Shane Southwell SF 6'6 220 lbs. (New York, NY)
Will Spradling PG 6'3 170 lbs. (Shawnee Mission South)

KU could be closer to finding a new home thanks to A&M

Yesterday I posted that KU had two options opening up for them if the Big 12 collapses, the Pac-10 and the MWC. I also said that the MWC was the conference that KU was likely going to end up at, and I still think that's the case, but today the Pac-10 has gained some ground.

Like I said yesterday, Texas A&M is still not sold on the Pac-10 and is still considering the SEC as their new home. While A&M isn't their first choice, the SEC is still considering adding them. The Pac-10 then came out and made it clear that if A&M didn't decide soon, that KU was going to get their invite to the Pac-10. While, geographically wise, this doesn't make much sense, KU will have to accept the invite if it comes their way, as they really don't have any other choice. They need a conference and having a firm, stable conference to go to is more important right now, sadly, than their rivalries with KSU and Missouri.

Sure the MWC seems like the better choice and if they decided to go their they could bring KSU and Missouri with them and keep the rivalries going (which they can still do if they go to seperate conferences), and they wouldnt have to face OU and Texas every year in football, but if the Pac-10 decides to offer KU an invite, they have to accept. That way they will belong to a strong conference and make the money that this conference realignment thing is all about.

Hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

-Tyler

KU Weekend Wrap Up!

Welcome to the first ever edition of the KU Weekend Wrap Up on KU vs KSU! The weekend wrap up will be about past KU events that took place that I (Tyler) didn't blog about.

KU AD Lew Perkins Retiring as KU AD In 2011 - Amid controversy coming from every angle imagined, KU Athletic Director, Lew Perkins, announced this week that he will step down from his position as AD taking affect September 4th, 2011. Lew Perkins, who has been KU's AD since June of 2003 and had a reputation of cleaning up programs who had been on probation, has had his hands full since September of 2009 when a number of fights between the Basketball team and Football team broke out. After that he had to deal with head football coach Mark Mangino after reports came out that he was mistreating players. Recently he has had to deal with the recent ticket scandal and then found himself in the middle of a blackmail scheme involving athletic equipment he had been given.

Darrell Stuckey was named Big 12 male Sportsperson of The Year - Finally some positive news for the Kansas Jayhawks, KU DB Darrell Stuckey was named Big 12 Male Sportsperson of the Year. Stuckey, a former All-Big 12 first team selection, was selected in the 3rd round by the Chargers and was one of KU's biggest contributors during his career at KU. He started every game his sophomore season and played a total of 45 games for the Jayhawks. He had a total of 295 tackles, eight interceptions and 11 TFL (tackles for loss). He also made a contribution off the field by being involved in community service and visiting local elementary schools in Lawrence and Kansas City often. He was also named male athlete of the year by the Kansas City Sports Commission.

KU Basketball Team Hurting - A Blue-Red scrimmage between the KU basketball team during Bill Self's basketball camp led to many injuries. Marcus Morris got hit by Thomas Robinson and sent Morris tumbling to the floor. Morris had to be helped off the floor with a deeply bruised tailbone. Robinson later ran into Markieff Morris at full speed. Robinson suffered a broken nose while Markieff suffered only a cut lip which needed three stitches. Two other injured Jayhawks are incoming freshmen Royce Woolridge and Josh Selby. Selby suffered a broken pinkie in a pick up game and Royce Woolridge tweaked his knee in a pick up game.

Recruits of the Week (This part will be any about any players who committed to play football or basketball for KU, but for this week, I'll cover all recruits. Click the names to see more stats.)

Football - 2011 recruits

Michael Cummings - QB, Killeen TX, 6'0/196 lbs, ***, 24th ranked QB, 4.58 40.
Jake Love - LB, Tonkawa OK, 6'0/195 lbs, ***, 58th ranked LB, 4.52 40.
Chris Robinson - CB, Lake Mary FL, 5'9/170 lbs, No ranks available, 4.43 40.
Victor Simmons - Safety, Olathe KS, 6'1/185 lbs, ***, No position rank, 4.52 40.
Dreamius Smith - RB, Wichita KS, 6'0/205 lbs, ***, 40th ranked RB, No 40 time.

Basketball - 2010, 2012

2010-
Josh Selby - PG, Baltimore Maryland, 6'2/183 lbs, *****, #1 ranked player in class and position.
Royce Woolridge - SG, Phoenix AZ, 6'3/175 lbs, ***, No position rank, 120 in class.

2012 -
Zach Peters - PF, Plano TX, 6'9/235 lbs, N/A, N/A

Round, round, round it goes, where KU will end up? Nobody knows!

This conference re-alignment thing just gets more confusing by the minute. Reports were coming out yesterday that Texas A&M were still heavily considering the SEC, and that Texas had no interest in the SEC. That means a spot could be opening for KU to sneak in and move to the SEC. The problem with that is that I don't see KU leaving KSU and splitting conferences, but that's how many felt about Texas and Texas A&M. So this little story leaves two questions. Will Pac-10 put A&M on the clock and will Texas and Texas A&M really split up? Only time will tell. You may be asking, what does this have to do with KU? Well, like I mentioned before, this could affect where KU lands up if the Big 12 goes down. If Texas A&M does decide to go to the SEC, that means the Pac-10 would need one more team to complete their plans and KU could be the final team to complete the Pac-16. But like I mentioned before, I honestly don't see KU splitting up with their in state rival, KSU.

Another big story that just came out today was Boise State is moving to the Mountain West Conference (MWC). What does this have to do with both KU and KSU you say? With the addition of Boise State, the MWC is almost guaranteed the Big 12's spot to be a BCS conference. This should be very exciting to KU and KSU fans, I know I am. I'm excited because if the Big 12 explodes, then KU and KSU will now most likely have a home. Boise State makes 10 teams in the MWC, so they will most defiantly want to expand more to compete with the other BCS schools expanding (not to mention, it makes a lot more sense geographically wise than the BE or ACC). If they do decide to expand to 12 or 14 teams, KU and KSU (and maybe Missouri, who announced they were staying in the Big 12, and Baylor) have a very good chance to find a new BCS home.

The future of the Big 12 will be discussed today by the people who hold the key to it's destruction, the Texas Board of Regents.

The Midwest Conference?

The college sports image is changing as we know it. Nebraska to the Big Ten, possibly along with Missouri. Also Colorado heading to the Pac-10, with the Pac-10 heavily looking at Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State as well. So with the Pac-10 and Big Ten creating a couple of super conferences I believe the Big 12 should have some fight to obtain their conferences name. Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, and Baylor will be without a conference. This leaves a question for the Kansans, Cyclones, and Bears fans. Where will they go?

One option would be to take a "Notre Dame" approach to things and go independent. Positives of a decision like this is that it gives more freedom with scheduling and allowing these teams to play whoever they want. Negatives of this decision would be that it would cost much more money to bring teams to Manhattan, Lawrence, Ames, and Waco to play and also be harder to find games to play on the road, due to the majority of the other D-1 teams being within a conference.

Another option would be to respond to the Pac-10 and Big Ten's decision to recruit and take teams from the Big 12 by recruiting teams from the C-USA, SEC, and Mountain West. The expansion of the Pac-10 and Big Ten has left question in the mind of 4 Big 12 teams of where will they go? and what conference will they be in? Representatives of the Big 12 understand that money is the motive for teams to move. Yes, the Big 12 has been a successful conference winning football and basketball championships within the last 5 years. Also they have the money producing football program of Texas and basketball producer, Kansas.

Football wise I believe this is a poor decision. As we speak there are several problems with the BCS system and the expansion of several of these conferences definitely changes the way the BCS must do things. With the expansion it will be much tougher to make the Top 25 polls and also to decide on the teams who will play in the BCS bowls.

Basketball, No matter how much the conferences change the 68 team field will always be there. Yes the committee for the NCAA tournament will have tougher decisions to make because of the fact that there will be less conference champions. This puts the pressure on the committee to choice more teams off of the bubble. Besides that when March rolls around you will see the same selection show and the same format to win the National Championship.

Overall my position on the expansion, being a Kansas State fan, is that it is a very poor plan. It makes the BCS recreate the system that they never even predicted in the first place. Also it makes it harder to become a national champion in both major money producing sports, which as we can tell by the expansion that money is the most important thing in college sports.

The Big...5?

Yesterday Nebraska informally announced that they were taking the Big 10's offer and ditching the Big 12. Let the dominoes fall. Since Nebraska's decision, Colorado has also announced to ditch the Big 12 for the Pac-10, the conference that is going after five other Big 12 schools (Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St.). Second domino down. So now the Big 12's future, and most likely final domino, belongs to Texas. They can either knock it down, or keep it up.

If They Knock It Down - If they knock it down, which all sources are pointing that they will do, then the Big 12 is destroyed. Texas will bring the aforementioned five schools with them to form the Pac-16. Which means they will leave KU, KSU, ISU, Baylor and Missouri (who have been getting the cold shoulder from the Big 10 leaving question to whether they will even be invited to join the conference). This leaves two options for the five schools. Rebuild or Re-locate (conference wise that is). With everyone expanding, I don't think it will be too difficult to find another conference. They could try to fit in the SEC which makes more sense geographically wise, or go to the Big East and have a super-super conference. The other option, rebuilding, makes for a more interesting story. The Des Moines Register gives the suggestion of taking in Cincinnati, Louisville, TCU, UTEP, SMU, Houston, Rice and Memphis (though one of those schools would have to be out if Missouri doesn't leave). That would leave the following divisions (if Missouri leaves) as so :

North - Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Memphis, Cincinnati and Louisville
South - Baylor, UTEP, TCU, SMU, Houston and Rice.

Now it's not the strongest conference but it could still easily work out and, if it saves the Big 12, I'm all for it. I even made a logo for the new Big 12.

If They Keep It Up - If Texas keeps the final domino of destruction up, then all of this will go away, the Big 12 will find two schools (Most likely TCU and Memphis) to replace Nebraska and Colorado, and the Big 12 is saved.

Who knows, maybe a shake up is good, but no matter what happens, the Big 12 will survive for a least another year or two, then the college sports world is in for a huge shake up.

Danielle McCray selected in WNBA draft with the 7th overall pick.

It was draft night. It was a KU player. That persons number was 4. That person was also a guard. But it wasn't KU's most winningest player in their history Sherron Collins, it was his counter-part Danielle McCray. McCray, who like Collins, is considered one of KU's all time bests in her sport, with her name all over KU's record book. She is only the fifth KU women's basketball player to be selected in the WNBA draft, with the last Jayhawk being Jaclyn Johnson was selected in 2001. She is also the highest Jayhawk selected since Lynn Pride was also selected with the 7th overall pick. She was drafted by the Connecticut Sun

KSU Football 2010

Wildcat football fans, Spring is in the air and football is right around the corner. The 'Cats are expecting big things from 4-star running back recruit Demarcus Robinson (Wichita NW) and also 3-star recruit Linebacker Tre Walker (Olathe North). K-State (6-6(4-4 in Big 12) are looking to build off of the return season of Head coach Bill Snyder. There schedule is built around a Thursday showdown with Nebraska on ESPN. They will begin their season with a home game at home against UCLA. At times the Wildcats struggle putting points on the board and this year may be similar but the 'Cats will be lead by there tough hardnosed Bill Snyder defense. On offense the quarterback position is looking like the reigns will be handed to Carson Coffman a year after he lost his starting job to Grant Gregory. The tandem of Robinson and Daniel Thomas will be a bright spot for the 'Cats this year. Look for them to carry the offense at times of struggle.
Here is the schedule for the 'Cats 2010 Football Season:
Sat, Sep 4: UCLA
Sat, Sep 11: Missouri State
Sat, Sep 18: Iowa State at Kansas City, MO
Sat, Sep 25: Central Florida
BYE
Thu, Oct 7: Nebraska
Sat, Oct 16: at Kansas
Sat, Oct 23: at Baylor
Sat, Oct 30: Oklahoma State
Sat, Nov 6: Texas
Sat, Nov 13: at Missouri
Sat, Nov 20: at Colorado
Sat, Nov 27: at North Texas
Having that many home games will benefit the Wildcats but the road games will be a good test to show where the 'Cats are at the middle of the year and then at the end of the year.
Be Proud, Be Purple. GO CATS!

KU Football.

Now that basketball season is officially over (well, the playing part that is), it is time to turn our attention to the other major sport, Football. Like this years Basketball team, last years football team came in with huge expectations. It was a down year in the North, and it looked as if KU would be able to easily win the North for the first time since the formation of the Big 12 with returning talent in Todd Reesing, Jake Sharp, Kerry Meier and Dezmon Briscoe, plus the 31st ranked recruiting class. But like this years basketball team, the season ended in disappointment. Amid controversy over head coach Mark Mangino mistreating players and injuries throughout the season, the team ended the season on a 7-game losing streak and finished the season with a 5-7(1-7) record. After the season Mark Mangino resigned(though there was a heavy chance he was going to get fired anyway). Now it's spring, and a new season has begun. Now taking orders from head coach Turner Gill, the team is hoping to flip their luck around and fight for their first Big 12 north title.

Kansas State

K-State fans it is a great time to be a Wildcat. Frank Martin has done a fantastic job getting the program to where it is now. He only looks to build off of this record-breaking season. Looking forward to next season, the Wildcats will bring back 3 of their 5 starters from this season. These players are Jacob Pullen (SR.), Dominique Sutton (SR.), and Curtis Kelly (SR.). Also look for contributions from Big XII sixth man of the year Jamar Samuels (JR.) and Wally Judge (SO.). K-State has a pretty solid recruiting class bringing in Will Spradling, Shane Southwell, and Freddy Asprilla. Look for the Wildcats to return to the NCAA Tournament and prepare for them to head back to the Elite Eight and possibly farther. Be Proud and Be Purple. GO CATS!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Go KU

Hello, I am the other writer for this blog, Tyler. After owning the Number 1 ranking for most of the season, there is no need to say that a 2nd round exit in this years NCAA tournament was a disappointment. None the less this year wasn't a bust. They won their 6th straight Big 12 Championship, got to a 33-3 record and a 15-1 Big 12 record. They were picked by many to win it all this year and were considered the most talented team in the nation. Now that the season is over, it is time for Bill Self to start getting ready for next year. KU loses two major contributers to the NBA draft in Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich (and most likely Xavier Henry), but return a lot of expierenced players in Tyshawn Taylor, Tyrel Reed, Brady Morningstar and Marcus Morris who all got major minutes on this years team, not to mention all their talented bench players in Markieff Morris, Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson, Thomas Robinson are the players expected to pick up some minutes this year. They are also trying to get at least one of some of the best recruits in their class in Knight and Selby. So don't fret KU fans, KU should be just fine.

KSU!

Hello, I am Brody. I am a major KSU fan. Kansas State had a great and historic year this year. The Wildcats had the most wins in school history (29), highest finish in BIG XII (2nd), and highest NCAA tournament seed(#2). After a successful season like this one and with the talent they are bringing in and bringing back, I can only hope to see them build off of this historic season.