A few years ago, the scene Thursday night in Baton Rouge would have been unimaginable.

ESPN’s College Basketball Game Day crew was broadcasting “live” from inside of LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center an hour before the tip-off of a top ten basketball match-up.  The PMAC was already packed with a standing room only crowd of more than 13,000 loud and rowdy fans.

No, this scene was not because the Kentucky Wildcats were in town to play the LSU men’s basketball team.

Thursday night’s sell-out crowd was on-hand a full hour early to get fired up to cheer on the defending national champion LSU women’s basketball team as they would take on this year’s #1 team, the University of South Carolina.  Ticket entrepreneurs were getting up to $150 for a seat at Thursday night’s regular season SEC battle in Baton Rouge.

Carolina came into the contest as the nation’s last remaining unbeaten team (men or women) at 17-0.  LSU was ranked #9 and featured a record of 18-2.  The Tigers were trying to protect a 29-game home court winning streak.

Remembering Pistol Pete

All of the excitement for LSU basketball reminded me of the period in the late 1960’s when LSU basketball fans showed up hours before men’s games to have the chance to watch and cheer for Pete Maravich.  Pistol Pete helped to transform Louisiana’s football-obsessed university into having a better appreciation and love for the sport of basketball, too.

From 1968-1970, Pistol Pete Maravich became the greatest scorer and one of the top showmen in the history of college basketball.  Playing during the period without a three-point line, Pete Maravich averaged an incredible 44.2 points per game in his three varsity seasons at LSU.  He would have easily averaged more than 50 points per game with today’s three-point line.

In addition to his ability to score baskets with ease, Pete Maravich was an incredible showman with a basketball in his hands.   He looked the part, too.

Pistol Pete Maravich wore a pair of floppy gray socks (for good luck) over his white basketball socks.  His hair was long and straight and bounced up and down as Maravich dribbled down the court.  Pete’s uncanny dribbling and passing skills were legendary, too.  His ability to deliver timely behind-the-back passes to his LSU teammates kept everyone (on the court or in the stands) paying close attention whenever Maravich had the basketball.

The popularity of Pete Maravich during that era at LSU created the momentum to construct a new basketball arena.   Opened in 1972, LSU’s Assembly Center was called “The House that Pete Built”.  The arena was later renamed the Pete Maravich Assembly Center after his tragic death in 1988 at age 40 from a previously undetected heart condition.

For 51 years after the basketball facility’s opening, there was one item noticeably missing from Pistol Pete’s Palace.

During that span, two of LSU’s long-time basketball coaches had enough success that their names now adorn the Tigers’ basketball court.  Though men’s coach Dale Brown and women’s coach Sue Gunter took teams to the NCAA Final Four, neither was able to win a national title for the Bayou Bengals.

That all changed in March, 2023.

There is finally a national championship banner hanging above LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center.  That honor belongs to the 2023 NCAA women’s national championship team coached by Louisiana’s own Kim Mulkey.

From Tickfaw, Louisiana to the Hall-of-Fame

As Pistol Pete Maravich was wowing fans and playing to sellout crowds at LSU’s antiquated John Parker Ag Center arena (jokingly known as “The Cow Palace”) during the late 1960’s, a little girl living in a small town less than an hour away was likely taking notice, too.

Born in 1962, Kim Mulkey was in elementary school when Pistol Pete was playing college ball 40 miles to the west down I-12 at LSU.

Decades ago when I was in junior high school, I would retreat to my bedroom to listen to the radio on weeknights for a local show called, “Stars Collide.”

The evening DJ would pit a popular hit song against an up and coming record.  He would play each song back to back and then give the listeners the next 20 minutes to call the radio station to vote for their favorite song.

The winning song would be announced and played once again as a victory celebration.  The next hour, another record would be introduced in an effort to knock-off last hour’s winner.

It was brilliant marketing!  It kept a younger audience intently listening and returning nightly.

Somehow, my grades didn’t seem to suffer (well, not too much) during my weeknight distraction.

Why do so many people feel like the sky is falling in Alabama? 

Returning to 2024, I listened to a few hours of a show from the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum radio podcast last week.  On that particular day, he interviewed the new football coach at the University of Alabama, Kalen DeBoer.

The former head coach for the University of Washington is the lucky (?) gentleman tasked with following in the footsteps of America’s football coaching legend, Nick Saban.  When your predecessor owns the record of seven national championships (one at LSU and six at Alabama), it is imperative that the new coach exhibit a strong belief in his own coaching abilities.

During this ten minute discussion, the new football coach came across as relaxed and confident.  He assured Bama fans that the program will continue to strive to win the national championship each season just like it did under Coach Saban.

Kalen DeBoer checked all of my boxes.  I was impressed.

The former Huskies coach, whose team went 13-1 and lost in the national championship game to Michigan, was as cool as Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character sitting down for a cup of coffee at a San Francisco corner café.

The new head football coach cannot project that he has any fear of failure.  Alabama football fans don’t want to hear excuses, either.  They want to compete for the national championship trophy every season.

Of course, Bama fans have become spoiled and are rather intense.  They are also incredibly loyal to their school.

As soon as the radio interview ended with Coach Kalen DeBoer, a legion of Alabama fans started to call the Paul Finebaum show to express their concerns about the new coach.

Why are they worried?  This man has been on the job in Tuscaloosa for little more than a week.

That’s because the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide football team had lost three of their so-called 5-star football players into the NCAA’s evil Transfer Portal after Nick Saban’s retirement announcement.

One caller after another lamented the loss of these three players as if the world was coming to an end.  Why would the loss of three football players cause such panic for Bama fans?

What determines a 5-star high school football player?

First, let’s go inside the numbers.  Here is the breakdown for high school football recruits:

5 Stars – considered to be one of the top 25-30 high school football players nationwide

4 Stars – one of the top 250-300 high school players nationwide

3 Stars – one of the top 750 high school players in the US

2 Stars – considered to be a “mid-major” prospect (smaller conference schools love him)

1 Star – not on the national radar but a good enough prospect for some schools to sign

It’s math time!  (Check my work as I may have been listening to the radio too much that particular night)
...

The recent week of cold weather in the Deep South became a frigid reminder that the city of Houston, Texas still does not have a National Hockey League team.

This issue surfaces nearly every year, but nothing seems to change.  Let’s take a refresher course and dive into this subject.

If Dallas has a successful NHL team, why not Houston?

The fourth largest city in America has never had a National Hockey League franchise.  Meanwhile, the Dallas (9th largest city) and Fort Worth (13th largest city) metroplex has a very successful long-term relationship with the NHL’s Dallas Stars.

The former Minnesota North Stars moved to Big D thirty years ago in 1993.  The renamed Dallas Stars would win the Stanley Cup in 1999.  The team has been a competitive factor in the league in most seasons.

Fan support in Dallas has not been a problem.  In the 2022-2023 season, the Dallas Stars showed an average home attendance of 18,371 per game.   That’s nearly 100% of the arena’s capacity and good enough for 10th place in the 32-team National Hockey League.

According to one source, the NHL’s Dallas Stars were valued at around $1 billion as of a year ago.  That’s less than half of the two most valuable franchises – the Toronto Maple Leafs (2.8 billion) and New York Rangers ($2.6 billion).

On the other hand, the same source valued the woeful Arizona Coyotes (Phoenix) franchise at less than $500 million.  That team has been the subject of relocation rumors (including to Houston) for several years.   Other NHL franchises could be relocated to Houston, but only if the price is right.

Where would an NHL team play their games in Houston?

The now 20-year old Toyota Center in downtown Houston is home to the Houston Rockets NBA franchise.  The 18,000 seat facility is owned by Harris County, but the arena is currently operated by a company affiliated with the NBA’s Houston Rockets.

Most NHL franchises are playing their home games in the same facility as the local NBA team.  The New York Rangers skate on the ice in Madison Square Garden one night, while the NBA’s New York Knicks put down the basketball court on top of that surface the next night to play basketball games.

It’s the same way in Boston for the NBA’s Celtics and NHL’s Bruins.  And, yes, it is the same in Dallas for the NBA’s Mavericks and NHL Dallas Stars at American Airlines Arena.

The NBA’s Houston Rockets were purchased by local businessman Tillman Fertitta in 2017 for a reported $2.2 Billion.

Within a year of buying the professional basketball team, the Rockets’ owner expressed some interest in acquiring an NHL team for the city of Houston, too.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 came along, and most major league sports franchises struggled to break even.

In June, 2022, a Houston television station asked Rockets’ owner Tillman Fertitta what he thought about adding an NHL franchise to his local sports portfolio.  A very smart businessman, Fertitta understands the local excitement about the potential for NHL hockey in Houston.  He has been cautious about whether all of the people claiming to be potential ticket buyers for professional hockey in Houston are willing to ante-up to pay for costly season tickets.

“Does that excitement turn into people buying season tickets, though” said Fertitta.  “I would love to see if we could sell 14 or 15 thousand season tickets, and it would sure make it a lot easier.   Hockey doesn’t bring in the television revenue that the NBA and the NFL do.  It’s not an easy task.”

He is right about that, too.

Last week, a long-time friend called to talk about the first round of the NFL playoff games.  Though he is still depressed about his Dallas Cowboys getting obliterated by Green Bay, he still predicted four of the six games correctly.

I didn’t fare as well and lost three of those six games!  I goofed by picking the “experienced” quarterback Joe Flacco and Cleveland (over Houston), Philadelphia (to beat Tampa Bay), and, like most everyone, Dallas to easily handle Green Bay.

That is just a 50% winning percentage – without the point spread involved!

Another long-time friend joked about which of us is a bigger jinx with our predictions.  He is a math major, so you might believe that this particular friend would be statistically savvy with his football picks.

Wrong again!  We tend to make our picks based on gut feelings and emotions.  If either one of us should ever decide to visit a casino, I’m pretty sure “the house” would be very happy to see us walking in.

We only make our football picks for fun.  It’s really hard to squeeze any money out of either of us.  We’re really that cheap! 

I thought it might be fun to put my neck on the line with my predictions for the four “semifinal” NFL games for this weekend.  Besides, the cold weather is still lingering around the South again this weekend.  I am looking forward to watching all or portions of the weekend’s games from the great indoors – my living room.

The NFL certainly knows a captive audience when they see one.

Even though the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Philadelphia Eagles were all eliminated in Round 1, millions of their fans will be tuning-in to watch the proceedings as they continue to ponder, “What if…?”

Let’s examine each of the four NFL Divisional playoff games on this weekend’s schedule.  All game times are Central (of course!):

Game #1 – Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens – Saturday 3:30PM on ABC and ESPN

Vegas Favorite – Ravens by 10 points

Weather – Sunny and 29 degrees

The Houston Texans are on a roll.  The NFL’s likely Coach of the Year will be Houston’s DeMeco Ryans.  The NFL’s likely Rookie of the Year award is securely in the hands of Texans’ quarterback C.J. Stroud (sorry about that, Carolina).  The Texans posted a 10-7 record in the regular season.  That’s a terrific seven game improvement from last year’s 3-13-1 team.

The #1 seed in this year’s AFC playoffs are the Baltimore Ravens.  That’s what a 13-4 regular season will get for you.  Baltimore plays its games in an outdoor stadium, so the cold weather will factor into this game.  In fact, it is snowing in Charm City today (Friday) so a few snowballs may be flying Saturday afternoon.

The Ravens will have their own MVP running the show in quarterback Lamar Jackson.  He was able to stay healthy this season and has continued to cut down on costly turnovers.  The real question for Saturday’s game will be whether “Playoff Jackson” (just 1-3 for his career) will stumble again.

The 27-year old Lamar Jackson wants to prove that he can win in the post-season and lead the Ravens to the Super Bowl.  We’re going to find out soon.

Prediction – Baltimore 28, Houston 21

The Ravens’ home field and defense will force the Texans to make mistakes.  The wild-card is whether Lamar Jackson will stay calm under pressure.  Houston will bring the heat and try to make Baltimore’s quarterback turn the ball over in key moments.  I think the Ravens will prevail.

Game #2 – Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers – Saturday at 7PM on Fox

Vegas Favorite – 49ers by 10 points

Weather – Breezy with rain and 55 degrees

The first thing which I noticed was the expected weather forecast and conditions.  The city by the bay will have a dreary day of rain on Saturday with more than ½ inch of precipitation expected.

Now that Tiger Woods has nearly disappeared from the PGA Tour, Rory McIlroy has become the most popular top golf star regularly seen on the worldwide stage.

The four-time major champion is only 34 years old.  It feels like we have seen him on television for nearly half of his life.  Actually, we have!

The fiery golfer from Northern Ireland is known for his aggressive golf swing (my back aches just watching him swing that driver) and very focused playing style.  Last year, the 5’9” and 165 pound golfer led the entire PGA Tour in driving distance with incredible 326 yards off the tee.

Financially speaking, the PGA Tour has been extremely good to Rory McIlroy.  He won more than $14 million in prize money last season.  McIlroy’s career PGA Tour earnings of $80 million trail only Tiger Woods ($120 million) and Phil Mickelson ($90 million).

Unless Rory’s back or knees should cause significant physical issues, he should pass Mickelson within the next two years.  He could overtake Tiger Woods as the PGA Tour’s all-time earnings leader before he turns 40 years of age.

When the new LIV Golf league hit the ground less than two years ago, Rory McIlroy told them “No, Thanks!”  In the past two years, there has been no bigger pom-pom waver on behalf of the PGA Tour or a bigger naysayer about LIV Golf than the fan friendly Rory McIlroy.

Money (BIG money, that is) talks

For most of the first two years of LIV Golf’s existence, it has been Rory McIlroy speaking the loudest and harshest about the PGA Tour’s new competitor and its oversized wallet (courtesy of the Saudi Investment Fund).  Regardless, LIV Golf was able to sign some of golf’s biggest names from the PGA Tour and the DP (European) Tour in 2022.

There is nothing quite like being offered tens (or hundreds) of millions of dollars in guaranteed money to help you make a decision about a possible job change.

Golfers regularly experience serious injuries – primarily in their lower back.  If you don’t think injuries can end a golf career, has anyone seen much of Tiger Woods recently?

The 48-year old Woods, who remains tied with Sam Snead for the most career PGA victories at 82, has endured a number of golf-related injuries in his lengthy pro career.  Additionally, his nasty one-vehicle crash a few years ago has caused him to miss a significant number of PGA tournaments.

Professional golfers are quite aware that their earnings are directly related to their ability to tee it up on tour week to week and then year to year.  They must compete at a high level to earn enough money to stay on tour each season.  Once a golfer falls from the public eye, incremental revenue earned from advertising or endorsement deals will start to diminish, too.

The lure of guaranteed signing bonus money (anywhere from an estimated $10 million up to the $200 million enticement paid to Phil Mickelson) offered by LIV Golf in 2022 and 2023 helped make the decision to walk away from the PGA Tour relatively easy for most of the new league’s 48 professional golfers.

PGA Tour increases payouts and adds new concepts starting in 2024

For pro golfers choosing to remain loyal to the PGA Tour (such as Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and many others), Commissioner Jay Monahan began to unveil several expensive promises in hopes to retain golfers through the 2023 season and beyond.

This year, the PGA Tour will roll-out significantly higher paydays in some golf tournaments.  The PGA Tour will add a few events with a no-cut field limited to 70-80 of its top ranked golfers.

With these and other changes, current PGA Tour members are hopeful to finally stem the tide of player defections over to LIV Golf.

The streak continues for the Dallas Cowboys.  For the 28th consecutive year, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys will not reach the NFC Championship game or the Super Bowl this season.

Sunday’s 48-32 blowout loss to the NFC’s seventh seed Green Bay Packers was much, much worse than the final score.  The home team trailed 27-0 in the second quarter of this game.  The Cowboys were fortunate to have scored a touchdown on the final play of the first half to head to the locker room down 27-7.

For a team which calls itself cowboys, this looked like a team which had left its six-shooters and horses back at the corral prior to kick-off.

The entire game was incredibly embarrassing for the hometown NFL team.

Dallas Cowboys team owner “Meddlin’” Jerry Jones was quite distraught on Sunday night.

“This is one of my (biggest) surprises since I’ve been involved in sport.  Period,” Jones said.  “This seems like the most painful (playoff loss), because we all had such great expectation and hope for this team.  I’m floored.  It’s beyond my comprehension.”

On the other side of the field, Green Bay was not expected to reach the playoffs as the season began.

Four-time MVP quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, left the Packers and signed with the New York Jets in 2023.   The Packers were a very young team with low expectations this year.  On Sunday, Coach Matt LaFleur’s team surprised even the heartiest Cheese Head fans in the upper Midwest.

Green Bay eased into the NFL playoffs with a 9-8 record and were just 4-5 on the road.  The odds makers generously made the visiting Packers a 7-point underdog in Dallas on Sunday.  Most football fans expected Dallas (12-5) to cruise to a double digit victory in this opening round playoff game.

Oops! 

Green Bay apparently failed to get the message prior to Sunday afternoon’s kick-off in Dallas.

The Packers dominated this game from the opening kickoff as the Packers scored on the opening possession.  For the next 3 ½ quarters, Green Bay built a commanding 48-16 lead with just six minutes left in the game.

In the 1970’s, Dallas was known as its “Doomsday” defense.  On Sunday, Dallas unveiled its new “Swiss Cheese” defense.

It was full of holes for everyone on the Packers to run around and through.

Against Green Bay, the Dallas’ defense was doomed from the opening snap.  Running back Aaron Jones torched Dallas for 118 yards on just 21 carries (5.6 yards per carry) and three touchdowns.  He hardly worked-up a sweat as he pranced through numerous gaping holes in the new Dallas “Swiss Cheese” defense.  Aaron Jones celebrated and laughed every time he scored an easy touchdown Sunday afternoon.

It would get worse.

Green Bay tight end Luke Musgrave was so wide open on a late third quarter touchdown that it appeared he was going to lose his balance from laughing so hard.  There wasn’t a Dallas defender within 20 yards of Musgrave as he caught the ball on a 38-yard score to give Green Bay a commanding 41-16 lead.

At that point, Green Bay pulled its starting defensive and offensive players out of the game to avoid injuries.  That’s when Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott (as usual) padded his personal statistics with a couple of late game touchdowns to make this game’s 48-32 final score look slightly more respectable.

Prescott completed 41 of 60 passes for 403 yards and three touchdowns.   Most of the quarterback’s yardage came while many of Green Bay starters were on the sidelines chuckling at the Cowboys’ feeble attempt at a late-game rally.

Though Pittsburgh Steelers fans have their Terrible Towels, millions of Dallas Cowboys fans could use a very large crying towel right now.

Within a 24-hour news cycle, we have learned that three of the most successful football coaches of our lifetimes will no longer be coaching in their familiar habitats next season.

Much like the very popular 1960’s singing trio known as “The Supremes”, football coaching legends Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, and Bill Belichick have exited the stage within the past day.

Just having one of these legendary coaching names exit would have been newsworthy for this week.  Having all three legends disappear from their coaching posts within a matter of hours is still quite hard to comprehend.

Let’s take a look at the career of each of these coaching “Supremes”.

#1 – Pete Carroll – “I Hear a Symphony” (1965)

Early Wednesday, long-time Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was replaced as the head coach of the NFL team.  After a few glowing comments about his now-former coach, the team’s owner said that Pete Carroll will remain with the Seahawks as an “advisor” next season.

“Pete is the winningest coach in Seahawks history, brought the city its first Super Bowl title, and created a tremendous impact over the past 14 years on the field and in the community,” said Seahawks chair Jody Allen.

LSU football fans also remember Pete Carroll as the head coach of the 2003 USC Trojans team.  As then-LSU coach Nick Saban’s 13-1 LSU Tigers won the BCS title on the field by defeating Oklahoma 21-14, the Associated Press later named Pete Carroll’s 12-1 USC squad as its #1 team after the bowl season concluded.

To refresh your 2003 memory, LSU and Oklahoma were both 12-1 coming into the BCS title game.  USC (which had lost an early-season road game at Cal) was 11-1 and left out of the two-team finale.  The Trojans would beat #4 Michigan 28-14 in the Rose Bowl just prior to LSU’s seven-point win over OU in the BCS title nightcap game.

More than twenty years later, LSU fans (who still aren’t happy about that so-called co-championship) will finally see their Tigers play a football game against USC soon.  The two powers are going to face-off to start the 2024 season on Sunday, September 1 in Las Vegas.

The following year in 2004, Coach Pete Carroll’s USC team went 14-0 to claim an undisputed national title.  During his nine seasons in Los Angeles, the Southern Cal football teams won an amazing 83% of their games.

In 2010, Pete Carroll left college football amid recruiting controversies involving future New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush.  The school would be placed on a two year probation as its former leader bolted California to become the head coach for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.

He led Seattle to its first and only Super Bowl win in 2013 over the Denver Broncos.  The Seahawks returned to the Big Game again the following year in 2014 only to lose to Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s New England Patriots.

In his 14 seasons with the NFL Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll had just three losing campaigns and a winning record of nearly 61%.  By the way, Pete Carroll is now 72 years of age.

#2 – Nick Saban – “I’m Gonna Make you Love Me” (1968)

Late Wednesday afternoon, the second coaching “Supreme” to leave this week was easily the biggest surprise.

Coach Nick Saban (also age 72) recently led Alabama into the College Football Playoffs.  Though this season’s Crimson Tide team lost to eventual national champion Michigan, many believed that Coach Saban did some of his finest coaching with the 2023 Alabama football team.

Incredibly, Nick Saban never posted a losing season as a college head football coach (Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama).  He won a national title at LSU in 2003.

The 2023 National Football League regular season ended last Sunday.   For yet another year, the television ratings for the fall pro football league produced gargantuan numbers for its partners.

How good were the NFL’s television ratings?  Am I still allowed to say, “Super”?

In 2023, the only television programs which attracted more than 20 million viewers were NFL football games.

Starting with the 115 million TV viewers for last February’s Super Bowl game, there were fourteen NFL football games which drew more than 20 million viewers last year.

The Oscars (#15 last year with 19 million) and an episode of Fox Television’s “Next Level Chef” (which followed the Super Bowl game) came in at #22 with 17 million viewers were the only non-NFL shows to crack the top 30 most-watched television programs last year.

Think about that.  Twenty-eight of the top thirty television programs in 2023 were NFL football games.

Why is the NFL so popular?

In a nutshell, the NFL supplies a consistent entertainment product which continues to satisfy its customers.  The reliable quality on the field of play brings back customers every week in the fall to watch more.

Sure, the growth of fantasy football, online wagering, keeping Sunday as its primary day of competition, and other factors haven’t hurt.

When you think about it, the NFL’s schedule and television format has changed very little over the past 50 years.  If you tuned in to watch a game in the fall of 1973, you would have seen two Sunday afternoon football games.  One game kicked-off at 12 Noon (Central) and the other around 3:00PM.  By then, there was already a Monday Night Football Game (started in 1970).

In the 2023 football season, those same three time slots were still populated with NFL football games.  That is the epitome of product consistency!

The NFL added a Sunday Night Football game in 2006.  That game has been slowing growing its television ratings since inception, too.

NFL Thursday Night Football has done better than expected

The most recent big change to the NFL’s programming was the permanent addition of a weekly Thursday night football game.  Believe it or not, ABC’s “Monday Night Football” experimented with the same idea.  It aired a few of its games on Thursday nights from the late 1970’s into the 1980’s.

The football players have never liked the idea of playing on Thursday.  After having played a game on the previous Sunday, players need sufficient time for their bodies to recover.  As you might have expected, the NFL owners and the Players Union eventually reached an agreement to incorporate a weekly Thursday Night Football game into the schedule.

Money talks.

The NFL’s Thursday Night Football game has seen a variety of platforms (the NFL Network, CBS, and NBC to name a few) over the past 17 years.  The league eventually sold its Thursday Night package to Amazon Prime subscribers ($8.99 to $14.99/monthly cost) a few years ago.  Amazon Prime retains exclusive rights for this weekly game through 2033.

Surprisingly (at least to me), those games still reached more than 10 million viewers on most weeks of the 2023 football season.

Why haven’t the NBA, Major League Baseball, and others grown like the NFL?

Thus far, the NFL has been very smart to limit its regular season to about four months.  From early September to early January, the 32-team league plays a 17-game schedule.  The NFL playoffs take one additional month and end in early February.

By contrast, the 82-game NBA regular season stretches for seven months from October through April.

On Tuesday, the Grambling State University Lady Tigers basketball team beat The College of Biblical Studies 159-18 on Willis Reed Court at Grambling’s Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center.

Ouch. 

The national media quickly circulated this story as Grambling’s women team (which improved to 6-5 with the win) established a new NCAA record for the largest margin of victory in a women’s college basketball game.  The 141 point winning margin broke the previous record of 139 points set in 2018 as Savannah State (Georgia) demolished Wesleyan College of Georgia.

Unlike men’s college basketball, the women now compete in four 10-minute quarters.

The Grambling women jumped out to a 34-0 first quarter lead before The College of Biblical Studies (CBS) Lady Ambassadors from Houston finally tallied their first points of the game.

As well as Grambling played, the box score revealed that The College of Biblical Studies committed an incredible 57 turnovers in this game.  That led to Grambling’s women scoring an amazing 122 points in the paint during the rout.

Grambling attempted 24 three point shots in this game (hitting just five).  The Lady Tigers also converted 70 of their 119 attempts (59%) from closer to the basket against CBS.

Here was the team scoring by quarter:

First quarter – Grambling 46, CBS 4

Second quarter – Grambling 36, CBS 6 (Halftime score – Grambling 82, CBS 10)

Third quarter – Grambling 39, CBS 3

Fourth quarter – Grambling 38, CBS 5

Final score:  Grambling 159, CBS 18

“Although the goal set out was not to win by this margin, it was to play the best Grambling basketball we could,” said Tigers coach Courtney Simmons after the game.

Years from now, if you hear someone should say that they witnessed this game in person, the official box score indicated that only 65 patrons were in attendance to witness the historic thrashing.

Why did Grambling continue to run up the score in the second half?

Grambling’s women’s basketball coach knew from the opening tip-off that their opponent (playing in their first year of college basketball) was seriously overmatched.  None of the starting five for the Lady Tigers played more than twenty minutes of this game.   In fact, every player on the bench logged at least ten minutes of playing time.

Today’s women’s game is played with a 30-second shot clock.  Ironically, the shot clock was instituted to prevent teams from playing a slow-down game which had bored fans and players alike.

During halftime, Grambling’s head coach could have insisted that her team take at least 20 seconds off the shot clock on every offensive possession.  They could have settled into a zone defense at the other end of the court on defense.  The coach could have instructed her players that there will be no fast breaks in the second half.

After scoring 82 points in the first half, it appears that Grambling only slightly took its foot off the gas pedal in the second half as another 77 points were poured in.

What happened to showing some good sportsmanship?

Sportsmanship can mean different things to different people.

Some do not have a problem when their team pours it on from the start of the game until the contest ends.  During such a lopsided blow-out in any sport, the players on the losing side are quite aware of the situation as it is unfolding.  They are embarrassed by it.  Altercations between players are more likely to occur in the la...

If you are a fan of spring professional football, I have some good news and some bad news for you.

The good news is that the newly created United Football League (the UFL) intends to start play on March 30, 2024.

The bad news is that the former USFL (which has been in existence for the past two years) and the third iteration of the XFL (which began play last year in 2023) were merged to create the new United Football League.

The newly formed UFL will have just eight teams once play begins this spring.  The teams will be in two separate “conferences”.

USFL Conference:

Birmingham Stallions (2-time defending champs)

Houston Roughnecks (an XFL team last season.  It replaces the USFL’s Houston Gamblers)

Memphis Showboats

Michigan Panthers

XFL Conference:

Arlington (Texas) Renegades (defending champs)

D.C. Defenders

San Antonio Brahmas

St. Louis Battlehawks

Unfortunately, five of the eight USFL teams have now gone to the spring professional football burial grounds.  We must say good-bye to the following USFL franchises:

Houston Gamblers (H-town had a team in each league, so the Gamblers bit the dust)

New Jersey Generals

New Orleans Breakers

Pittsburgh Maulers

Philadelphia Stars

In addition, Canton, Ohio was expected to field a USFL team in 2024.  They won’t now.

The XFL will lose three of its weakest teams from last season’s third incarnation of the spring football league (2001, 2020, and 2023).  We will say “Adios” to the following franchises:

Orlando Guardians

Seattle Sea Dragons

Vegas Vipers

If at first you don’t succeed…

The December 31 announcement of the newly merged USFL and XFL into the combined UFL was not a surprise.  The quality of play and television production of both leagues was surprisingly good.

However, the stadium optics on television made for a lousy product to watch at home.

An exciting football game in front of just a few thousand fans simply did not translate into a winner with home television viewers.  The USFL and XFL did their best to hide the empty seats and even add some phony crowd noises to ramp-up the television product.

Neither league could attract more than about 500,000 television viewers to watch its top weekly game.  The consensus has been that it will take at least one million viewers each week to generate enough advertising revenue to break even.

Both leagues have failed on the financial side.

It is safe to say that a merger would not have taken place if either the USFL or the XFL had been generating a profit for their owners.

The USFL lied to the fans of five of these recently-folded franchises

After two years of teasing fans in some of its markets that spring football was eventually on the way, the USFL just cancelled five franchises which never played a home game in their city.

The USFL’s Year #1 was, admittedly, a pricey gamble for a start-up league.  To save money, Fox Sports (which owns 100% of the USFL) opted to play all of the league’s games in a brand new football stadium in Birmingham, Alabama.  Though the hometown Stallions drew 20,000 fans to most of its games, the other three weekend games were sparsely attended by local fans.

Even with ticket prices less than $20 apiece in Birmingham, three out of the four USFL weekly televised games featured a mostly empty and very quiet stadium regardless of the excitement generated on the field.

In Year #2, the USFL took a tiny step toward more home games by having four “pods” to host games.  Birmingham, Memphis, Detroit, and Canton, Ohio (which was promised a team in 2024) became the four host cities.

Just like in Year #1,