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Posted On 07/10/2011 04:41:10
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Jim Leyland has looked at life from both sides now, as Joni Mitchell wrote. He’s been ahead going into the ninth inning of a deciding game, and he’s been behind in the ninth inning of a deciding game, and has seen both of them turn around, shockingly. These sudden shifts enabled Leyland to approach 传世私服 传奇世界私服 Thursday night’s latest deciding game with his zest intact after a life in baseball. His Tigers were playing in Yankee Stadium for the right to meet the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series. It was the major leagues. What was not to like? “It’s amazing the up and down of what goes on,” Leyland said three and a half hours before game time. “It’s exciting, it’s all that stuff, but that’s just the way this game is. Something like that could happen tonight. I don’t know.” It’s just the way they are made, but Leyland, at 66, was able 传奇私服 传奇sf to display a joy of competition a bit better than his counterpart, Joe Girardi of the Yankees, who is 46 and a bit more tightly wound. Leyland arrived at the pregame news conference, bussed Phyllis Merhige, a Major League Baseball executive, and addressed the writers, who do not expect comic riffs at this normally stilted event. “I have an announcement to make,” he said in a deep voice made more gravelly by a career full of cigarettes. “This will explain why you think I’m so old and grumpy and messed up. I got a telegram today from a professor from a prominent university. These are my instructions for tonight. I won’t tell you the university because I don’t want the place to empty out tomorrow, but I will tell you I am supposed to pitch Valverde the first five innings tonight, then Cheap NFL Jerseys NFL Jerseys I’m supposed to pitch Verlander the last three, quote, the seventh and eighth. So that’s where we’re at. Are there any questions?” The shtick had the reporters laughing. The professor was proposing that the closer, Jose Valverde, pitch five innings — about four more than normal — and the star pitcher, Justin Verlander, whom Leyland had already declared too arm-weary and valuable to be pitched in this deciding game, was supposed to pitch the next three. By definition, if there was a bottom of the ninth, the Yankees would have won. Leyland enjoyed dropping his A material on the writers. He has been showing his respect and love of the sport since the final day of the 1986 season against the Mets, who were about to hop a plane for their league championship series. In last place, Leyland sent out a skinny left-handed rookie, Hippolito Pena, who nearly beaned Lenny Dykstra NHL Jerseys MLB Jerseys and then inadvertently hit Keith Hernandez in the back. Leyland sent somebody else out for the second inning. “Shoot, they were going to Houston,” Leyland said the other day. “I didn’t want to see them get hurt.” Four years later, the Pirates became a contender — hard to remember, but true. They lost the championship series in six games in 1990 and seven games in 1991. The next year it was clear that the slender young superstar, Barry Bonds, was gone. The Pirates had a 2-0 lead going into the ninth inning of the seventh game in Atlanta, only to give up three runs, the last on a hit by the relatively unknown Francisco Cabrera. Afterward, Leyland asked the writers to be kind to a team that nfl jerseys cheap NBA Jerseys Cheap had given him everything it had, and clearly was coming apart because of free agency. On Thursday, Leyland was asked what he had learned about deciding games. He skipped the Pittsburgh years and fast-forwarded to 1997, when he was managing the Marlins in the seventh game of the World Series against Cleveland. “It’s amazing, the emotional ups and downs of one of those games,” he rumbled, recalling being down, 2-1, in the ninth, only to tie the score. Then he recalled the 11th, when the Marlins loaded the bases and he was hoping for a fly ball, only to have Devon White hit into a force play for the out at home. Leyland described himself “scratching and looking for my pitcher, and all of a sudden, boom, a base hit to center field and we won the World Series.” • His feel for the turns of the game have been evident in this series. He may have been sick at not getting to A. J. Burnett early in the fourth game, but he would not let it show. Instead, he anticipated a decisive fifth game. “I think that’s great,” Leyland said. “There’s no question about it. Yankee Stadium, it’s going to be hopping.” He paused to thank Detroit fans for their support and then said: “It’s a great place, Yankee Stadium. This new stadium doesn’t have the history, obviously, that the old one did, but still it’s going to be a great atmosphere. We’ll see what happens.” Leyland and Girardi both exuded a sense that odd things can happen, early or late. Leyland suggested he would probably disregard the professor’s advice.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. Admit it, Texas Rangers fans. After your team clinched its second straight American League Championship Series berth, the thought crossed your minds. Thank you, Cliff Lee, for signing somewhere else. After Lee chose Philadelphia over Texas and New York last December, the Rangers found themselves with some leftover cash. They used $80 million of it to sign Adrian Beltre to a five-year contract. 传奇私服 英雄合击 Their payoff came Tuesday afternoon, in one of the greatest home-run hitting feats in postseason history. It went something like this. 传奇私服 传奇sf Swing No. 1: Second inning. A four-seamer from Jeremy Hellickson. Inside corner. Thwack. Home run to left. Swing No. 2: Fourth inning. Another four-seamer from Hellickson. Outside corner. Wham. Home run to right. Swing No. 3: Seventh inning. A heater from rookie sensation Matt Moore. Up, over the plate. Boom. Home run to left. There were no foul balls in between. There were no swings-and-misses. cheap nfl jersey nfl jerseys wholesale There was, as it turned out, no margin for error, either. The Rangers led Game 4 of the AL Division Series from the second pitch to the last, but the Tampa Bay Rays made a late, frantic comeback — as they are known to do. As closer Neftali Feliz reached back to throw the final fastball, the Rays had the tying run on base and winning run standing in the batter’s box. But an instant after Ian Kinsler flipped to Elvis Andrus for the last out of a pulsating 4-3 victory, Beltre sprinted across the diamond and embraced first baseman Mitch Moreland behind the mound. For the Rangers who were part of last year’s World Series team, the experience was blissfully familiar. For Beltre, it was not. Over his 14 years as a big leaguer — from the Dodgers, to the Mariners, to the Red Sox, and now the Rangers — this was Beltre’s first postseason series win. In fact, this is just the second playoff appearance of Beltre’s career. The only other occasion came with Los Angeles in 2004, when the Dodgers’ rotation included Odalis Perez, Jeff nhl jerseys jerseys for cheap Weaver, and the late Jose Lima. “You don’t play to go home,” Beltre said afterward. “You are trying to get to the postseason. Unfortunately for me, it’s been, what, seven years? But I’m here (now), and we want to finish what we start.” Beltre, 32, is a younger (and better) player than many realize. He was 19 when he debuted with the Dodgers in 1998 and is now the youngest active player who has appeared in at least 1,900 games. Beltre reached the 2,000-hit benchmark earlier this year and is china wholesale jerseys mlb jerseys barely more than 100 behind where Derek Jeter was during the season in which he turned 32. But team success has always eluded him. The Mariners were rarely competitive during his five seasons in Seattle, and injuries decimated the Red Sox roster during his only year in Boston. But he has found a home in Texas. Even though this is the largest contract of his career, Beltre doesn’t have the same burden he did in Seattle, where the left-field fence was far away and lineup protection cheap nba jerseys nba jerseys negligible. He was just 26 during the first year of his megadeal with the Mariners. Since then, he has broadened his perspective while maintaining his skills. “I think he felt more pressure when he was with the Mariners,” said Texas catcher Yorvit Torrealba, who played in Seattle during Beltre’s first season there. “He was younger then, and people were complaining about (his power numbers at Safeco Field). He seems more comfortable now. This is like a family, in this clubhouse. He’s got more experience, and you can see that he feels really confident now.”
PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Phillies' starting rotation has gotten the hype, stolen the headlines, and lived up to the lofty aspirations.
That mattered little to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals, who evened the National League Division Series 1-game apiece with a 5-4 victory Sunday, have battered the Phillies' pitching staff for 20 hits and 11 runs in two games, stunning a record crowd of 46,575 at Citizens Bank Park.
PHOTOS: Division Series gallery
MORE: Tigers 5, Yankees 3
MORE: Brewers 9, Diamondbacks 4
They're proving that no one is invincible. 传世私服
传奇世界私服 They spotted Cliff Lee a 4-0 lead by two innings, and still survived to talk about it.
Lee, who entered the game with a 4-0 record with a 1.11 ERA in five division series starts, gave up five runs six innings - two more than his entire postseason career of division series play, spanning 32 innings. Lee yielded 12 hits and five earned runs in six innings, surrendered his highest hit total since May 3, 2009, when he pitched for the Cleveland Indians.
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"If you watch us play,'' Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said, "it happens so often that you expect it. That's one of our assets. I know we had a good year hitting this year as far as runs scored, and the reason is we have eight tough outs.''
While Lee was getting pummeled, the Cardinals' bullpen Cheap NFL Jerseys
NFL Jerseys was uncanny, yielding just one hit in six innings. The Phillies produced five hits and four runs in the first 10 batters of the game, but just got one hit after the second inning, spanning 21 at-bats.
The Cardinals' pen had no choice but to be superb after Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter lasted just three innings. Carpenter, pitching on short rest for the first time in his career, gave up five hits and four earned runs alone in the first two innings.
Certainly, it appeared it would be enough for Lee. He had given up only five runs to the Cardinals in his entire career, and hadn't given four runs in any game since July 30, spanning 10 starts.
"We felt real good about ourselves,'' Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of the 4-0 lead. "We got Carpenter out of the game early, and we were trying to get into their bullpen. The big problem was their bullpen held us.''
The Cardinals, who recovered from a 10 1/2-game deficit on Aug. 25 just to reach the postseason, refused to succumb. They kept chiseling away, and knocked Lee out of the game in the seventh NHL Jerseys
MLB Jerseys after Albert Pujols' run-scoring single gave the Cardinals a 5-4 lead, followed by another single by Lance Berkman.
It was the second time in as many nights that the Cardinals bruised one of the Phillies' aces. Roy Halladay gave up a three-run homer to Berkman in the first inning in Game 1 of the Phillies' 11-6 victory. It was the first time he had given up a three-run homer since 2008, and the first one in the first inning dating back to 2006. Halladay calmly retired the next 21 batters he faced, but the Cardinals scored three more runs in the ninth inning of Game 1, at least proved nfl jerseys cheap to themselves the Phillies' staff can be vulnerable.
"We've got to beat one of them if we're going to win the series,'' Berkman said. "They're the best 1-2 punch in the game. I can't heap enough accolades on them, but they're also human, and susceptible to making a few mistakes.''
And, don't forget, these are the Cardinals, who led the National League in nine differnet offensive categories, including a .273 batting average with 762 runs.
"Obviously, they've been hot,'' Lee said. "That's a team that you've got to be careful with. I mean, really any team in the postseason, but especially a team that's been having to fight as long as they have to get there can be dangerous.''
Lesson learned. The Cardinals are not planning to go away any time soon.
"We are making it a series, which is fun for all of us,'' La Russa said. "I hope it comes down to Halladay and Carpenter. That would be an experience of a lifetime, for all of us.''
It was March Madness on the diamond, four elimination games taking place simultaneously. In Major League Baseball on Wednesday, a six-month schedule came down to one frantic, interwoven scramble. In a spellbinding frenzy of baseball at its unpredictable, unforgiving best, a labyrinth of twists took place across 4 hours 55 minutes at ballparks in Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Houston. Only one game was tidy — the St. Louis Cardinals’ 8-0 victory over the Houston Astros. In each of the other games, a team lost the lead with two outs in the ninth inning, and never got it back. “One of the greatest days in the history 传奇私服 英雄合击 of baseball,” Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leyland said on Thursday at Yankee Stadium. “It had to be.” The postseason opens on Friday with games in the Bronx and in Arlington, Tex., but those contests have a tough act to follow. The sport, it seemed, needed its collective off-day Thursday simply to process the slightly riotous events that concluded at 12:05 a.m. Thursday. “We have been playing with this kind of emotion, that’s almost like three weeks, I guess,” Rays Manager Joe Maddon said at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. “But last night, really, that rips everything else apart. That is so unthinkable to do what we did.” The Rays’ Dan Johnson, a .119 hitter, hit a game-tying homer with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Yankees. Down to his last strike in Baltimore, Nolan Reimold — the last hitter in the order for the last-place Orioles — tied the game off Jonathan Papelbon, the intense, hard-throwing closer for the Boston Red Sox. In Atlanta, the Braves’ Craig Kimbrel, a strikeout artist cheap nfl jersey nfl jerseys wholesale who set the rookie record for saves this season, blew his most important chance of the year. The Philadelphia Phillies, who already owned the best record in the majors, got their winning hit from Hunter Pence, a player the Braves had tried to trade for in July. So the Red Sox and the Braves, who held comfortable leads for playoff spots almost all summer, are out. The Rays and the Cardinals chased them off the cliff, completing their dogged pursuits just in time. The Rays had trailed the Yankees by seven runs in the middle innings Wednesday. But Evan Longoria, the team’s marquee star, completed a comeback within a comeback by lining a pitch just over the short fence down the left-field corner in the 12th inning. The 8-7 victory clinched a wild-card berth for the Rays, the team with the second-lowest payroll in the American League, and eliminated the Red Sox, the team with the second-highest. The Rays became the first team to overcome a nine-game nhl jerseys jerseys for cheapSeptember deficit and reach the postseason. Just 25 minutes earlier, at 11:40 p.m. Eastern, the Cardinals had matched the previous record of eight and a half games when the Phillies ousted the Braves. The most harrowing collapse, arguably, belonged to the Red Sox. Two championships in the last decade had seemed, at last, to wring the fatalism out of Boston’s fans. Instead of expecting epic failure, they had come to demand championships. The events of Wednesday may have restored the natural order. The Red Sox, ahead, 3-2, in the ninth inning, had been 77-0 this season when leading through eight innings, and Papelbon struck out the first two Orioles hitters. Two outs and the bases empty, bottom of the 10th. That was the enviable position the Red Sox had against the Mets in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. One more out would have clinched the title, but three hits immediately followed. So it was against Papelbon, the third straight hit coming china wholesale jerseys mlb jerseys when Robert Andino, who had punctured Papelbon last week with a go-ahead three-run double at Fenway Park, lashed a hit to left, just under the glove of left fielder Carl Crawford, Boston’s $142 million free-agent flop. The Orioles had won a 4-3 thriller, and, perhaps, became the first 93-loss team to end its season with a dog pile in the infield. “I don’t think I’ve ever been part of something like this,” Crawford said. “It will go down as one of the worst collapses in history.” There will be playoff baseball for the Rays, who ranked 13th of 14 A.L. teams in attendance and play beneath the slanted roof of a park named for orange juice. In Boston, the Red Sox’ 99-year-old red-brick shrine on Yawkey Way will go dark, thanks largely to catastrophic pitching. The earned run average of Boston starters in September was a ghastly 7.08. The team went 7-20, unable to win consecutive games all month. They gave nine starts to the unlikely trio of Andrew Miller, a failed top prospect; Tim Wakefield, a 45-year-old knuckleballer; and Kyle Weiland, a rookie wearing No. 70. Not once did those pitchers meet the fairly forgiving minimum standards for a quality start: pitch at least six innings and allow no more than three earned runs. The Cardinals, meanwhile, trailed Atlanta by 10 ½ games cheap nba jerseys nba jerseys on Aug. 25, when their thoughts could have drifted to the fate of Albert Pujols, the premier slugger who is facing free agency. Instead, they won 23 of their final 31 games as the Braves faded, undone by injuries to veteran starters and an overworked bullpen. Still, the Braves could have forced a playoff by holding off the Phillies, who have sharpened their focus after an eight-game losing streak that followed their clinching of home-field advantage throughout October. The Phillies had a chance to set a single-season franchise record for victories with 102, and Charlie Manuel needed one more win to establish the career record for a Phillies manager. Yet Manuel, like the Yankees’ Joe Girardi, was more concerned with preparing for the playoffs. He used his starter, Joe Blanton, for only two innings, and one of his aces, Cole Hamels, for a three-inning tuneup in the middle. The Braves had the game where they wanted it, with a lead in the hands of their rookie star. But Kimbrel, perhaps, got caught up in the moment. He walked three, and told reporters after the 13-inning, 4-3 loss that his head “started moving too fast.” After a mind-bending night, all of the baseball world could relate. Even those in uniform turned into fans again. “You can’t explain this to people, the emotions in baseball,” Leyland said, adding later: “I don’t know how it all happened. I still don’t. But it was amazing.”
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Posted On 27/09/2011 04:39:55
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Boston Red Sox fans were already making their presence felt by midafternoon Monday, in the bars across the street from Camden Yards, or circling the ballpark perimeter, red-shirted and red-faced over their sad September state of affairs. Dan Skiba of Stoughton, Mass., had driven down with four friends, fellow Patriots ticket-holders and Red Sox loyalists, a one-day getaway planned long before the ghost of the Bambino — thought to be permanently busted — began reacquainting itself with Fenway Park. “We didn’t think we’d be seeing a meaningful game,” he said. “Now there’s all this anxiety.” “And what’s worse is that we have to root for the Yankees,” said Gina Targhetta of Framingham, Mass. A third member of the group, Steve Bruno of Brimfield, Mass., summed up the feelings of Red Sox Nation by wearing a promotional T-shirt for a surf shop on Cape Cod. On the back, it said, “Sick Day.” On the front was a small illustration of a person hunched over a toilet bowl. 传奇世界私服 传世私服 传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传世私服 传奇世界私服 传奇私服新开传奇私服 传奇sf 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇私服 变态传奇私服 传奇私服 英雄合击 魔域私服 传世私服 cheap nba jerseys nba jerseys 传奇sfWelcome to the final series of the regular season, in which where the Red Sox are flirting with flushing away a season that once brimmed with championship optimism, one that found them with a nine-game lead over Tampa Bay in the American League wild-card race as recently as Sept. 4. Now they are tied after Josh Beckett and the Sox were beaten by the Orioles, 6-3, while the Rays beat the Yankees, 5-2, in St. Petersburg. The wave of nausea that has swept across New England only got worse Monday night. For those hoping the Yankees would ease the burden on the Sox by taking care of the resurgent Rays, Boston Manager Terry Francona suggested the Sox and their fans refrain scoreboard watching. A good suggestion considering the Yankees started a rookie, Hector Noesi, against the Rays, a clear demonstration of priorities. “They’re a professional team, they’re good,” Francona said. “Saying that, they can do whatever they want. They played themselves into that position. I wish we had done that. They have an obligation to do what’s in their best interests.” Inside the Red Sox’ clubhouse, the Yankees’ best interests were a matter of some debate, or wishful thinking. Cheap NFL Jerseys NFL Jerseys MLB Jerseys nfl jerseys cheap cheap nfl jersey nfl jerseys wholesale nhl jerseys jerseys for cheap china wholesale jerseys mlb jerseysAdrian Gonzalez went far enough to say that the Yankees would be “playing with fire” if they “let up on the gas pedal,” even for the final three games after clinching the American League East and home field in the playoffs during the last week. “If any team goes into a series and plays not to win, it can hurt you,” he said. “All ballplayers know that. You go into the playoffs and you may not be able to just turn it on again.” Hoping to yet make lemonade from the steady drip of dreadful baseball the Red Sox have played since the start of the month, Gonzalez maintained that they might even be better for it if they manage to survive the week to start all over again Friday in the division series. “It always helps going into the postseason to have played meaningful games, intense games,” he said. “We’ve done that now for the last 7-10 days. We haven’t won many of them. But what we’ve got to remember over these last three games is that we played great baseball for most of the season, and that’s what got us in this position to get into the playoffs.” Down the row from Gonzalez, shortstop Marco Scutaro said he expected the Sox to draw renewed strength from their late 14-inning victory Sunday in New York. “If we had lost that game after playing so long, it would have been terrible, especially in the situation we’re in,” Scutaro said. “But we won it. It put us in the position where all we have to do is win our games and not worry about the Yankees.” Not any more. Not after Beckett surrendered two home runs — the back-breaker a three-run inside-the-park drive to dead center by the Orioles’ ninth-place hitter, Robert Andino, to cap a four-run sixth. Distress now follows the Red Sox like a bad soap opera. Monday night’s pregame meeting with reporters brought the following news from Francona: Jason Varitek was scratched from the lineup after being banged up Sunday. The chances of Kevin Youkilis returning this season after injuring his back was an “uphill battle.” And about those helpful Yankees? Even in the one game the Sox managed to win in New York, they had to stretch out an already exhausted bullpen. At least they had a noisy contingent of supporting fans, the majority of whom settled in the stands behind Boston’s third-base dugout, praying for the Sox to snap out of it and for a little help from their new friends on the west coast of Florida. They got neither. One bad omen follows another. For the Patriots fans who traveled here, it was the Brady bunch’s loss at Buffalo on Sunday afternoon. “How do you blow a 21-0 lead?” Gina Targhetta said. To which Dan Skiba said, “How do you blow a nine-game lead in September?” The Sox have blown all of it now. Two games to redemption, or death.
The Big 12 Conference began working Thursday to steady itself after 15 months of turmoil and defections, beginning with a change at the top. Dan Beebe, commissioner for a little more than four years, is out, a victim of the dysfunction that cost it Nebraska and Colorado as members a year ago and soon will cost Texas A&M, which is headed for the Southeastern Conference. Former Big Eight commissioner Chuck Neinas will replace him on an interim basis. 传奇世界私服 传世私服 传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传世私服 传奇世界私服 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇sf 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇私服 变态传奇私服University CEOs who make up the Big 12's board of directors also moved toward a major concession involving TV rights, granting the league irrevocable control of each institution's first- and second-tier rights - covering the high-dollar football and basketball games most coveted by national and regional networks - for six years. The grant-of-rights measure is seen as a key, leaving the league in control of a school's TV rights even if the institution moves to another conference and lowering the likelihood that any would. "That … really has teeth in it," Oklahoma President David Boren said. BLOG: Dan Beebe departs as Big 12 commissioner MORE: Neinas tabbed as interim commissioner NFL Jerseys NHL JerseysSTORY: Many conferences still have work to do Boren portrayed the move as done. But Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton, who heads the Big 12's board of directors, merely said it is being pursued. It wouldn't affect Texas' Longhorn Network, which carries third-tier events bypassed by the networks. The action follows a tumultuous few weeks in which Oklahoma pursued a move to the Pacific 12, along with Oklahoma State. Texas also was weighing options as the Big 12 threatened to crumble. That threat abated when the Pac-12 opted not to expand and, Boren said, when OU almost simultaneously chose not to jump. But relief was accompanied by insistence that the league find long-term stability. And there was evidence Thursday that that remains a challenge. While Missouri's Deaton talked of working out the Big 12's issues with co-members, when pressed during a press conference about the school's dedication to the league, both he and athletics director Mike Alden repeatedly were noncommital. Deaton acknowledged that Missouri, like other schools, has been exploring alternatives, and the Tigers have been linked to the SEC. Boren was more positive. "We're seeing … steps taken that convince us that we can achieve stability and we're not going to have annual problems like we've had," he said. Additionally during its more than one-hour meeting via teleconference, the Big 12 board resumed league efforts to expand - at least back to 10 members, possibly to 12. Texas A&M's departure will pare it to nine. Beebe's ouster came as no surprise, sought by Oklahoma among others. Neinas, meanwhile, is a known and respected figure across college athletics and particularly the Big 12. He was assistant executive director of the NCAA for a decade before becoming commissioner of the Big Eight - which later folded into the Big 12 - in 1971. He ran the league for nine years, leaving in 1980 to head the College Football Association, a now-defunct alliance of the nation's top 60-plus football-playing schools. He now operates one of college athletics' top consulting firms from his home in Boulder, Colo., among other things conducting searches for coaches and administrators. Beebe, 54, exits after a total of eight years with the conference. A former college linebacker at Cal Poly-Pomona, he spent 14 years as commissioner of the lower-division Ohio Valley Conference and, in the '80s, was an NCAA enforcement director. His departure from the Big 12 - less than a year after Beebe received a contract extension through 2015 - throws a second curve at the committee that oversees the NCAA's Division I men's basketball tournament, on which he sits. Jeff Hathaway, who just took over as chairman of the 10-person panel, recently resigned under pressure as Connecticut's athletics director. The NCAA is weighing "the best approach regarding the balance of his term," it said.
Though the conference carousel has seemingly stopped spinning in the West, the music plays on in the East and Southwest. The Big East will look to add at least two members to replace Syracuse and Pittsburgh, which are headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The league plans to target Navy and Air Force, according to an official in the Big East who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the discussions. East Carolina formally applied to the Big East, but the Pirates aren't considered a primary candidate. The Southeastern Conference might also look to add a team once Texas A&M's move to the SEC is finalized. With the Aggies, the SEC is a 13-team league. The SEC probably will add a 14th team at some point so it will have two seven-team divisions. COLUMN: Colleges shameless in game of conference musical chairs The ACC, which will have 14 members once Pitt and Syracuse join, could look to expand to 16. Adding Rutgers and Connecticut would further extend its reach along the Atlantic seaboard. 传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇私服发布网 传世私服 传奇世界私服 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇sf 传奇私服 新开传奇私服 传奇私服 变态传奇私服After a meeting Tuesday night in New York with the football members of the Big East, Commissioner John Marinatto said, "We are committed as a conference to recruit top level BCS-caliber institutions." However, in a 14-minute interview with news reporters, he took that level of commitment a step further. USA TODAY Sports on Twitter! To get the latest sports news from USA TODAY, including game results, columns and features, follow us on Twitter at @USATODAYSports. "Our schools basically went around the table and pledged to each other that they are committed to move forward together," Marinatto said. One official in the Big East who requested anonymity said that was not an accurate assessment of the sentiment in the room. The official said league schools are committed to recruiting more schools but did not make any pledge to remaining in the league until it's clear what the league will look like. NFL Jerseys NHL JerseysThe official also said four or five of the Big East schools are committed to keeping the league together, but the other two or three need to know where the league is headed before a firm commitment is made. A day after the Pacific-12 said it does not intend to expand, the Big 12 started mending fences. Oklahoma had pursued membership in the Pac-12 with Oklahoma State coming along in a package deal. Though Texas had stated a preference for keeping the Big 12 together, the school had talked with the Pac-12 and ACC — likely taking Texas Tech along and dealing the 15-year-old Big 12 a death blow. Now comes the job of steadying the Big 12, which teetered similarly more than a year ago when Colorado (Pac-12) and Nebraska (Big Ten) opted to leave. With Texas A&M about to head to the SEC, Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said a Big 12 expansion committee on which he sits will resume its search for one or more replacements. "We could do it with nine (schools). I'm a 10-team guy," Dodds said. "If the majority want to go to 12, we're amenable to that, but … I think the majority will stay with 10." Brigham Young is considered a prime target, but Dodds said BYU is not the only school under consideration. The future of Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe is also in question, given the recent criticism from OU President David Boren, who said Monday "it is not a strong vote of confidence in the conference office that this (departure of three schools) has happened in such a short period of time." Last November Beebe received a contract extension through 2015. According to the Big 12 tax records from 2009, the most recent available, Beebe's base salary was $778,000 with another $219,000 in benefits and bonuses. "If there have been issues about my leadership," Beebe said. "I trust that the board will raise those with me and give me the consideration to address them." Asked if he felt his job were in peril, he said, "These are very challenging jobs, and I think I've had one of the most challenging jobs in terms of an effort to try to stabilize a conference that has always had some instability. I think we're all at risk in this business, but it's part of what I signed on for, and I'm certainly willing to accept it. At the end of the day, the main thing is that this conference survives."
NFL JerseysBig East Commissioner John Marinatto says all the members of his conference are committed to staying together. The presidents and athletic directors from the Big East football schools met for 3 hours at a Manhattan hotel Tuesday. NHL Jerseys 传奇私服 传奇私服Marinatto says each member pledged to remain in the conference and the league is aggressively searching for replacements for Pittsburgh and Syracuse. He says the non-football members also are on board. UConn president Susan Herbst was not attending the meeting, sources told ESPN's Joe Schad, as the school focuses on lobbying for entry to the ACC. Herbst was expected to send a school official to the meeting as the representative. 传奇私服 传奇世界私服 传世私服 魔域私服A source with direct knowledge of the meeting told ESPN.com's Andy Katz that UConn didn't commit to remain in the league and is still actively pursuing membership in the ACC. But the source said that with the Big 12 likely staying together at least nine schools other than the Huskies may have to wait for the ACC to decide if it will act on adding two more schools from its recent jump to 14, with the addition of Big East members Pitt and Syracuse. 传世私服 传奇世界私服The source said that if Big East football is to stay together then the league will look to add at least two military academies, likely Navy and Air Force. "The ACC is the preferred place for (Connecticut)," the source said. "That hasn't changed."
NFL JerseysOklahoma and Texas positioned themselves to make the next potential moves in college athletics' makeover, empowering their presidents Monday to choose their respective conference homes. Those decisions, officials in multiple leagues said, could come in the next few days. Emerging from closed-session discussions, Oklahoma's board of regents unanimously gave OU President David Boren authority "to take any and all actions appropriate and necessary" on OU's conference affiliation. Not long afterward, Texas' board authorized President Bill Powers to negotiate a move pending final approval by the regents. BLOG: Oklahoma, Texas presidents get OK to choose new conference Oklahoma State's board is scheduled to meet Wednesday. All three schools, along with Texas Tech, potentially could fold into an enlarged, 16-team Pacific-12. Officials with knowledge of the schools' and leagues' deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of their sensitivity, NHL Jerseys 传奇私服 传奇私服reiterated Monday that Oklahoma is prepared to jump along with OSU from the already-downsized Big 12 to the Pac-12. The Sooners, however, are holding off on formal action while Texas weighs its options, the officials said. A Texas move probably would be in tandem with Texas Tech. The Longhorns, while maintaining their preference for Big 12 preservation, continue to talk with the Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference. 传奇私服 传奇世界私服 传世私服 魔域私服Merging their new statewide Longhorn Network into the Pac-12's leaguewide network remains a complication, and officials said those details are far from being worked out. Nor can Oklahoma or Texas be certain yet of the Pac-12's readiness to expand barely a year after adding Colorado and Utah. There is sentiment among member schools' presidents to remain at 12. "It's kind of funny, the stuff that's being reported. Right now, there is no desire to expand the conference," said Michael Crow, Arizona State president and outgoing chair of the Pac-12 CEO Group. "There are orbital shifts that might get our attention, but we just put this thing together and we'd like to see it work." USA TODAY Sports on Twitter! 传世私服 传奇世界私服To get the latest sports news from USA TODAY, including game results, columns and features, follow us on Twitter at @USATODAYSports. Immediately after the Oklahoma regents' meeting Monday, Boren told reporters it's not inevitable OU will move. But alluding to Texas' TV network, for which it struck a 20-year, $300-million deal with ESPN, he said it would take a Big 12 move to equalize revenue sharing to keep OU. "Our goal is to be an equal partner in any network, and we think it ought to be the goal of every other member of any conference that we're a part of to be an equal member of that conference," Boren said. "We all ought to value each other - every single member of that conference - and none of us should seek to play a stronger leadership role than anyone else." Texas' Powers declined comment after its regents met beyond saying the process is "ongoing." In a statement, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said the OU and Texas regents' action Monday was anticipated, adding, "We continue to apply all effort and resources toward assuring our members that maintaining the Big 12 is in the best interest for their institutions." The Big 12 already has lost Nebraska along with Colorado and soon, it appears, will lose Texas A&M to the Southeastern Conference. The Big East has been similarly staggered by Sunday's announcement that Pittsburgh and Syracuse are en route - in 27 months or less - to the ACC. At Notre Dame, where Big East membership in basketball and lower-profile sports has helped the Irish remain independent in football, AD Jack Swarbrick told USA TODAY that remaining Big East and Big 12 schools could merge. "In some version," he said, "whether it's a formal conference merger or some derivation of that. We'll see. … I'd say there's another alternative, which is the Big 12 holds (together) and the Big East finds suitable replacements." The Associated Press, citing a person involved in the discussion, reported the leagues have begun talks.
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