Deciphering what’s really going on with the Big 10, Pac-10 and Big 12 is still in the dart-throwing phase, but at least one thing is absolutely for certain: Do not believe Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany’s public pronouncements on the subject.

(Emperor Delany Apparently Inspired By Commodus)

On April 17, Teddy Greenstein of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported on Big 10 expansion:

Remember the talk that the Big Ten would take 12-18 months to decide whether to expand?

An accelerated timetable has emerged, according to sources familiar with the process.

High-ranking Big Ten representatives will meet Sunday afternoon in Washington D.C. to discuss expansion.

If the league can emerge from the D.C. meetings with a mandate to expand, commissioner Jim Delany could take a substantial step next week at the annual BCS meetings, outside Phoenix.

On April 20, Delany said of Greenstein’s “accelerated timetable” report:

“We have not accelerated anything. We haven’t changed anything, neither the timetable nor the process that was described.”

That leads us to an email between Ohio State President Gordon Gee and Delany dated April 19 and published today by the COLUMBUS DISPATCH: Read more…

Last month, along with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and Sam Farmer of the LOS ANGELES TIMES, I reported on an intriguing new downtown Los Angeles NFL stadium plan in the works. The proposed $1 billion retractable roofed facility would be financed and built by Tim Leiweke-fronted AEG and Casey Wasserman - both serious Los Angeles sports power brokers.

My instincts at the time told me the downtown plan had a very serious chance of succeeding. Now thanks to a FOX 11 newscast this week and a recent L.A. BUSINESS JOURNAL poll, it appears my initial reax was on track.

Early this month the L.A. Business Journal ran a poll asking readers which potential L.A. NFL stadium site they preferred: The proposed new downtown site or Ed Roski’s longtime City of Industry location 25 miles east of the city center. While the Biz Journal normally gets around 100 votes for its online polls, the stadium debate elicited nearly 30,000 responses.

Alfred Lee of the LABJ noted the poll results last week:

Downtown received about 45 percent of the vote; City of Industry, 40 percent. However, 15 percent said they didn’t want a football team at all. The votes appeared to be individually cast, although multiple votes were allowed early in the process, according to the Business Journal’s tech team.

Why so many votes? Lee reports that Roski and the Leiweke-Wasserman camp each initiated email campaigns to try to pump up polling support for their sides. Though from my perspective, had Roski not pushed his people to vote in the poll, the downtown location would’ve likely won in a landslide. (15 percent who voted for no NFL team? So that explains the recent carpal tunnel outbreak in the USC football office.)

While the LABJ poll is a sign of the seriousness and popularity of the downtown Los Angeles NFL Stadium bid, a local L.A. news report Wednesday perhaps gives an even clearer indication that AEG is now actively greasing the local political machinery to facilitate the project.

Read more…

Recently Jon Weinbach of AOL FANHOUSE took a well-deserved whack at the pinata that is the McCourt’s ownership of the Dodgers.

(Speaking of money for nothing …) 

Weinbach, bless his heart, further unraveled the McCourt’s dubious financial dealings with the Dodgers by exposing money-for-nothing schemes involving the McCourt’s two sons and various shell companies designed to funnel money to a “slush fund” set up for Frank’s personal use.

Over the past 18 months, the Los Angeles Dodgers paid nearly $4 million in “consulting services” to an entity that has done virtually nothing for the club, even as the team has made a concerted effort to raise ticket prices, trim payroll and acquire players on the cheap.

Moreover, the club paid two of Frank and Jamie McCourt’s adult sons large salaries — $400,000 and $200,000 per year, respectively — for services that are undefined and could not be described by either Frank or Jamie McCourt, according to court documents filed in the couple’s divorce case.

The official club duties of Drew and Travis McCourt couldn’t be described by their parents because, from what I’ve been told by anonymous Dodger staffers, they have no formal duties with the franchise. As noted by Weinbach, “neither of the McCourts’ sons is listed on the team’s staff directory.”

I have a sneaking feeling that Drew attending business school at Stanford and Travis working at Goldman Sachs in New York might have something to do with that.

Weinbach also notes Frank’s creative way of getting around his supposedly-capped $5 million per year club salary. Read more…

In one of the strangest stories I’ve seen in a loooong time, Jacksonville high school football coach Jason Robinson has been fired from his position as coach and teacher at Mandarin high school because he sent pics and video of himself to his 20-year-old girlfriend.

(American hero.)

The girlfriend, who attends the Univ. of Central Florida, had the sexually suggestive content on her phone intercepted by her mother, who then sent the pics to the principal of Mandarin High.

In response to the photos, Principal Donna Richardson then fired Robinson and immediately banned him from the high school campus in a terse statement that was released to the media.

Dim bulb Richardson and her local school board minions may have just made Robinson a national hero. Read more…

Caller: “What do you think the chances are that Jose Reyes has the biggest cock?”

Robin Leach at VegasDeluxe.com drew the coveted assignment covering Tiger Woods alleged mistress Jamie Jungers hosting at Las Vegas club Pure last Friday night. Leach reports that Jungers, a former Las Vegas stripper, brought her mom Sharon to the nightclub to assist with her arduous duties.

(So that’s where Jamie gets her Chuck Bednarik chiseled visage)

He notes that Jungers, “stayed as far away from paparazzi as possible with her mother Sharon,” which explains their posed photo together and the former stripper’s photo shoot that night.

(Hope mom isn’t expecting her at the funeral)

Now for why Robin Leach has been able to sustain his A-list celebrity status as he gives us the real intrigue involving Jungers and her mother:

Read more…

Today is Len Dykstra’s 47th birthday, and apparently to celebrate, he’s launched another rip-off investment site to steal your money. (Masochists: find it yourself.)

(Cutter Dykstra: What did Dad Len Do With His $737,000 bonus?)

Case you don’t know, Dykstra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last July, listing fewer than $50,000 in assets against $10 to $50 million dollars in liabilities.

But three months before that filing, Dykstra told Mike Fish of ESPN.com that his net worth was, “60 million.” If that was indeed true, Dykstra succeeded in losing up to $110M in around 90 days.

Dykstra not only hoodwinked the media about his fake investment ability, he may have deceived his son. Cutter Dykstra was the 54th pick in the 2008 MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers. For signing with Milwaukee, Cutter received a $737,000 bonus from the club.

In July, 2008, Cutter did an interview with Brewers blog BrewCrewBall.com and talked about what he did with his bonus money.

Read more…

The NATIONAL ENQUIRER reports that Rachel Uchitel has moved on from Tiger Woods to a Christopher Harding of West Palm Beach:

Harding is described as “Hooters heir” and the son of a “Hooters franchisee kingpin.”

Was there ever a better match between two people. She spends her time inflating her lips, and he spends his time inflating breasts.

Read more…

John Canzano of the PORTLAND OREGONIAN introduces us to the trailblazing chap who is apparently so infatuated with Greg Oden’s penis that he thought the rest of the world should share in his obsession:

The cat goes by the name “Q” and calls himself the “CEO” of the Web site. On his outgoing voicemail message the slimeball imparts, “Give credit to God, and good things will happen for you.”

On Tuesday “Q” explained to me that he felt he was doing a public service by posting the Oden photographs. As if there was redeeming social value in embarrassing Oden and providing some wreckage for sports fans to rubberneck.

Wrote Q in an email: “They were sent to us by one of his jumpoffs. We report the entertainment news like those market aisle mags. The Tiger Woods sex scandals got more and more jump offs, mistressses and girlfriends coming out. Crazy. Celebrities cheaters watch ya’ll back.”

Congratulations certainly are in order for Mr. “Q”. Who wouldn’t want their professional identity for all time inexorably connected to a large black man’s penis?

After watching the video of Mr. “Q” linked after the jump, it all makes sense.

Read more…

The ABC-TV affiliate in Augusta (WJBF) and the Fox-TV affiliate in Atlanta (WAGA) had the unfortunate idea to run polls about the proposed latent homosexual all-white basketball league by Don “Moose” Lewis.

(Think he’ll spend the evening alone?)

The Atlanta TV poll asked viewers: “Do you think Lewis’ all-white professional basketball league is racist?” 54% responded, “no, it isn’t racist.”

Augusta’s TV poll? Don’t ask.

Read more…