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In the FCS Huddle: SWAC can help Alcorn State give coach a pushNCAA Football Betting Lines01/19/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Is it 2013 yet? They hardly are words Southwestern Athletic Conference officials want to be uttering in January, but the troubled situation with Alcorn State football already is making 2012 feel like 2011. And, quite simply, the embarrassment of 2011 can't be repeated this year for a FCS conference with so much pride and tradition. It was one year ago Thursday that Alcorn State introduced Melvin Spears Jr. as its new head football coach. Today the university seemingly can't get him out the door fast enough. The 51-year-old Alcorn State alum has been on administrative leave with pay since Dec. 12 following a forgettable first season. Not only did the Braves fall to 2-8 (1-8 SWAC) for its fifth straight losing season, but attendance dwindled to create a shortfall in the athletic department budget, standout sophomore quarterback Brandon Bridge left the program amid a rocky relationship with Spears and the first-year head coach had an alleged profanity-filled verbal altercation with a player's father who is a pastor. Spears, who was fired at Grambling State after a stormy three-year run as head coach from 2004-06, had pledged a more patient approach when he was introduced as Alcorn State's head coach. He didn't deliver that pledge just as he didn't deliver on victories. Three assistant coaches have been shown the door since the end of the season and their positions are expected to be unfilled, whether Spears returns to the sideline or not. Considering this all has played out during prime recruiting season, it's a volatile situation that craves for resolution. Enter the SWAC. Or at least the SWAC needs to enter the picture. Like yesterday. Granted, the SWAC works for the 10 schools and not the other way around. But after what happened across the conference last year, it's imperative for commissioner Duer Sharp and his deputies to be more pro-active and help save the member programs from continually embarrassing themselves. Last year, four of the SWAC programs had to replace head coaches, including Alcorn State after Earnest Collins Jr. left for Northern Colorado. Sadly, the other three changes involved the schools that had combined to win the three prior SWAC titles. Prairie View A&M's Henry Frazier III and Grambling State's Rod Broadway turned heads by departing for struggling programs in the Mid- Eastern Athletic Conference and Texas Southern's Johnnie Cole, who was the 2010 SWAC Coach of the Year, was fired because of the program's academic shortcomings. At least Texas Southern was eligible for the 2011 SWAC Championship Game. Jackson State, considered the conference's top team with the top player, quarterback Casey Therriault, was ineligible - along with Southern University - following their NCAA Academic Progress Rate penalties. Worst of all, the Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff squads had a wild post-game fight that resulted in 40 players being suspended by the SWAC. Enough's enough? You bet. The SWAC restored some credibility with Grambling State's win in the conference championship game on Dec. 10, meaning that head coach Doug Williams returned the storied program back to the top in his first season back on the sideline. Now it's time for Alcorn State, with some nudging from the SWAC, to move on and change its head coach, even though the Braves already have had four different ones in the last five seasons. Sure there's no doubt the situation could improve under Spears because time heals wounds. But Alcorn State basically would be buying time for two years until his contract ends. That's not a manageable situation for anyone, especially the student-athletes. There's also no doubt Alcorn State is trying to prove justifiable cause in releasing Spears from his contract, which is a surprisingly low $130,000 per year. If the university is faced with buying Spears out of the contract, then it has to do it. Alcorn State is the only Division I program without a true head coach right now. With each day, it makes less sense that the SWAC program remains in this predicament.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The surging New Jersey Devils will try to exact a measure of revenge against the Boston Bruins tonight, when the clubs meet at the Prudential Center in Newark. The Devils and Bruins met earlier this month in the Garden Sta
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Union forward Paunovic retires >>
Chester, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Union forward Veljko Paunovic has retired due to "family reasons," ending a career that started in 1994. Paunovic, 34, joined the Union last June and had three goals and three assists in 16 starts
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 millionIn the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree. And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so. Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal. So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them. Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.) The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money. As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached. The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs. In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season. Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done. And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting. So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year. There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve. So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal. And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million. There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.) Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft. Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey. Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year. So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation. To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs. Sportsbook betting odds favor Europe in Ryder Cup September 19, – Despite holding a decided edge in the all-time series, with 24 wins, 2 ties and 10 losses, Team USA is the underdog again heading into the Ryder Cup in Kidare, Ireland this weekend, according to MySportsbook.com. The Europeans have captured four of the past five editions, including their largest victory ever, an 18 ½ to 9 ½ thumping in Michigan in 2004. Current Ryder Cup betting odds favor the Europeans to continue their winning ways; they are a 4-5 bet to take the title, compared to 6-5 for the Americans. Despite being knocked out in the first round of World Match play by Shaun Micheel, Tiger Woods is predicted to lead the US charge and be their highest point scorer for the week, with odds listed at 9-4 that he outpoints all other American players, including Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco to name a few. Team USA has four relatively unknown players on the roster but all four are 2007 tournament winners and have posted some of season’s best performances, each earning over $1.5 million on the PGA TOUR. They include Zach Johnson, Vaughan Taylor, JJ Henry and Brett Wetterich. The experienced European squad includes the likes of Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Jose Maria Olazabal and Darren Clarke, who’s emotions will be tested after the passing of his wife to a battle with cancer. Donald and Garcia are in particularly good form and each is a 5-1 bet to lead the European squad in the points race. Donald has proven he can go head to head with Woods at a major event after a run for the $1.2 million purse at the PGA Championship. Garcia’s Ryder Cup credentials prove he’s ready for battle too. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your golf sportsbook needs. Ryder Cup Odds
Ryder Cup Top US point scorer
Ryder Cup Top European scorer
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com |
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