Complete 5 rounds:
Sprint 40 yards
15 Burpees
Sprint 40 yards
15 Two-Handed DB Bent Over Rows - 50 lbs
*Rest 45 seconds between rounds
Post fastest rounds to comments.
Backwoods CrossFit Football - Firewood WOD
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TCU has been a successful, valued member of the Mountain West for six years, winning three conference championships since 2005 and roughly tripling the MWC's annual payout to all nine members by earning back-to-back bids to BCS bowls the last two seasons. Naturally, the other members are jumping at their first chance to put the screws to the Horned Frogs before they officially hop to the Big East next year.TCU is scheduled to host newcomer Boise State in Fort Worth this fall, the first and only Horned Frog-Bronco matchup as Mountain West rivals before the former exits the league. This season also happens to be the last season in the crucial 2008-11 BCS evaluation period, the results of which will be fed into a formula to determine which conferences get one of the coveted automatic berths in the big money bowls for their respective champions beginning in 2013. The Mountain West desperately wants to be one of those conferences, and it gets to claim the successes of both Boise State and TCU over the 2008-11 evaluation period. Last year, however, was the start of another evaluation period, encompassing 2010-13. The MWC gets to count Boise State's record as part of its own numbers, but not TCU's: The Horned Frogs' record in that span will be transferred to the Big East – the conference whose automatic bid the Mountain West hopes to take for itself.
Ergo, the Mountain West as a whole actually has a strong rooting interest this fall in seeing its reigning overlord dethroned by its newest addition. And to help their cause, conference athletic directors are strongly considering moving the Boise-TCU game to the blue turf in Boise, where the Broncos have won 56 of 57 games since 2001. Oh: And TCU, as an outgoing member, doesn't have a vote.
For some reason, TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte thinks that arrangement is just slightly unfair:
"It's our home game and they told us it would be our home game and to change the rules midstream is not appropriate," Del Conte told ESPNDallas.com by phone from China, where he's visiting this week. "I'm hoping they do what we originally said, which was that it would be a home game for TCU. To me to change it is not right, but that's been the discussion."
[…]
"We've been a valued member of the conference," Del Conte said. "I don't think just because we're going to the Big East for a different opportunity that we should be treated differently."
The ultimate decision falls to university presidents of the member schools, who meet next month. Something tells me that when the potential dollar figures start flying across the conference table, their idea of the "appropriate" course of action may not be the same as Del Conte's.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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Michigan State fans who fell asleep early on Tuesday will have an unpleasant surprise awaiting them when they wake up Wednesday morning.
That's because coach Tom Izzo announced late Tuesday night that guard Korie Lucious has been dismissed from the team for the remainder of the season for unspecified "conduct detrimental to the program." The junior averaged 6.5 points and 4.1 assists in 24.4 minutes per game so far this season and was best known for his game-winning shot against Maryland in the NCAA tournament last year.
"I didn't live up to the standards of the program," Lucious said in a statement released by the school. "Unfortunately, I let my teammates, my coaches, and myself down, and wish them the best for the rest of the season."
The dismissal of Lucious is the latest in a series of off-the-court distractions that have plagued Michigan State since the end of last season.
It started with Izzo's lengthy dalliance with the Cleveland Cavaliers before determining that he would return to Michigan State. Then came the dismissal of starting guard Chris Allen three months before the start of his senior season. And finally there was the suspension of Lucious in late August as a result of drunk driving charges.
The fact that the latest incident with Lucious isn't his first offense surely contributed to the harsh punishment. He clearly made another serious mistake and now he and his teammates will pay dearly for it.
For a Michigan State team that began the season as a national title favorite but has since lost seven games and slipped all the way to 25th in the polls, replacing Lucious will not be easy.
Although Lucious was shooting only 31.2 percent from the field, his ability as a distributor will be missed. Kalin Lucas will likely have to play on the ball more often and freshman Keith Appling will absorb some of Lucious' minutes.
Brittany Snow Lauren German Cindy Crawford Mariah OBrien Uma Thurman
A season in review.Jimbo Fisher was hired at Florida State to revive a once-explosive offense that had fallen into utter disrepair by the end of 2006. When he finally supplanted Bobby Bowden as head coach three years later, though, Fisher's mandate was on the other side of the ball: The 2009 Seminole D was unrecognizable as a product of longtime, respected Bowden aide Mickey Andrews, falling on its face out of the gate and eventually stumbling in at dead last in the ACC in rushing, pass efficiency and total defense.
FSU gave up at least 26 points in every conference game in '09, and had to be bailed out by repeatedly by the offense in shoot-em-up wins over bottom-dwellers N.C. State (45-42), Wake Forest (41-28) and Maryland (29-26) – all of which put up more than 400 yards total offense – as well as at North Carolina (30-27), where the 'Noles had to rally from a 24-6 hole in the second half. It was the first time a Florida State defense had allowed 30 points per game across an entire season since an 0-11 effort in 1973, three years before Bowden's arrival.
Compared to the rock bottom of Andrews' swan song, the mediocrity of the first season under Mark Stoops was a great leap forward – or backward, if you're thinking along a timeline – especially against the 'Noles' closest annual rivals, where the results weren't so mediocre. In the instate wars, they held Miami to 17 points and Florida to a paltry seven in a pair of satisfying blowouts. Within the Atlantic Division, they shut out Wake Forest and held Boston College, Clemson and Maryland under 20 in FSU wins.
Elsewhere, though, the shootouts persisted, and the offense proved less prolific in keeping pace. Oklahoma knocked FSU off the national radar with a vengeance in September, dropping four touchdown on the Seminoles the first four times it touched the ball in a 47-17 incineration that brought visions of 2009 flooding back. Even on the heels of a subsequent five-game winning streak that eased some of the worst fears, the 'Noles were lit up in losses at the hands of the three most veteran quarterbacks in the ACC: N.C. State's Russell Wilson (247 total yards, 4 touchdowns in a 28-27 upset that put the Wolfpack in the Atlantic Division driver's seat for the last five weeks of the regular season), North Carolina's T.J. Yates (439 yards passing, 3 touchdowns in a 37-35 Tar Heel win) and Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor (287 total yards, 4 touchdowns in a 44-33 triumph in the ACC Championship Game). Four times Florida State allowed upward of 20 points, a good rate in the grand scheme, but all four times it went home a loser.
But it's not like Florida State has ever lacked for talent, or for high expectations as a result. If this group has earned the top-10 projections certain to come their way this summer, it's mainly because they're being compared to their immediate, vastly underachieving predecessors instead of the halcyon headhunters that made top-five finishes routine for more than a decade. With the offense taking significant hits at quarterback and on the offensive line, the old standards will be in force, and it will take another leap forward to meet them.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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Making the morning rounds.• Wait, I've got a bylaw for that. If you had "six days" in the pool for "How long will it take rivals to begin sniping at Texas' partnership with ESPN?" step up to claim your prize: Texas A&M athletic director Bill "Irish Temper" Byrne told the Dallas Morning News Tuesday that the fledgling Longhorn network's plan to cover Texas high school sports could conflict with NCAA rules that prohibit universities from publicizing potential recruits.
"I can't speak for the NCAA, but I would imagine the governing body will look into the use of a collegiate television network airing games of prospective student-athletes," Byrne said in a statement. "I understand networks such as FSN and ESPN airing high school sports, but whether or not employees under contract with a university that may have additional contact would seem to be an issue." And if that doesn't stop the unholy alliance, there's always the SEC. [Dallas Morning News]
• Have a nice trip. As predicted last week, the Mountain West has formally extended a middle finger to its outgoing overlord, TCU, by voting to move the Horned Frogs' home game against Boise State this fall to the blue turf in Boise, where the Broncos have won 56 of their last 57 games since 2001. (BSU will play at San Diego State, previously marked as a home game, instead.) TCU, bound for the Big East in 2012, didn't even have a vote.
It's not personal, guys, just business: A Bronco win stands to boost the MWC's standing more than a TCU win would in the all-important BCS formula, which will determine whether the Mountain West gets its coveted automatic berth to one of the big money bowls on the next contract cycle. And, you know, if the Big East's record should happen to absorb a crucial loss in the formula at the same time, well, they can't really do anything about that, can they? [Idaho Statesman]
• Oh, and thanks for your contribution. Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs were responsible for bringing in $24.7 million in BCS revenue for the Mountain West non-automatically qualifying conferences, thanks to their appearance in the Rose Bowl as an automatic qualifier rather than an at-large selection. (No wonder the MWC aggressively shot down rumors Tuesday that it was looking to pluck two more members from the gasping carcass of the WAC: Why share?) That number is a new high for the non-"Big Six" leagues, slightly up from last year's high of $24 million, part of a record $170 million BCS payout to all eleven member conferences, more than 85 percent of which remained reserved for the "Big Six" leagues. [Associated Press]
• OK, we're square. Former Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins – whose final year in Lawrence included multiple on-campus dustups between the football and basketball teams, the departure of a successful coach under a cloud of scandal, public outrage over Perkins' huge salary and a sprawling multi-sport ticket scandal – agreed to pay a $4,000 fine for improperly accepting a gift of exercise equipment while still working for the university. The equipment had been the subject of an apparent blackmail attempt by a former KU employee, which initiated an investigation by the state's Governmental Ethics Commission. [Associated Press]
Quickly… The Fiesta Bowl, still under investigation from the Arizona attorney general, cuts off all contact with lobbyists. … Rich Rodriguez will be on the air next Wednesday for national signing day. … Miami's new staff is scrambling to add a quarterback to its 2011 recruiting class. … Another Michigan exile, Tate Forcier, surveys the field. … Why Lane Kiffin won't talk about USC's recruiting numbers. … Trinton Sturdivant is still here. … And heavens, can you believe Gene Chizik has the gall to use such unspeakable profanity in mixed company?
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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Making the morning rounds.• We are working to address your potentially actionable concerns. Iowa has launched a 90-day investigation to "identify the root causes" of the outbreak of a muscle syndrome, rhabdomyolysis, that sent 13 Hawkeye players to the hospital earlier this week. If there was any doubt, we can cross off drug use: All 13 players reportedly tested negative for illegal substances, presumably including cocaine and methamphetamine, which are among the many known causes of the syndrome.
In the meantime, coach Kirk Ferentz returned Wednesday from recruiting in Ohio to "a group of frustrated parents" who were upset that Ferentz and athletic director Gary Barta were both no-shows for Wednesday's press conference, held 36 hours after the hospitalizations. "Kirk took a lot of (stuff)," an anonymous source told the Sporting News. "But he stood there and took it all. He's been incredibly remorseful." [Des Moines Register, Sporting News]
• Because no one goes to Vegas to see the sun. UNLV is set to unveil plans for a multipurpose sports and entertainment complex that will include a domed stadium for the Runnin' Rebel football team, per the Las Vegas Sun. The university has been in discussions with Los Angeles real estate tycoon Ed Roski – last seen trying to leverage his billions to lure an NFL team to L.A. – and is expected to formally announce the project next week. [Las Vegas Sun]
Elsewhere, the Louisiana Superdome is undergoing an $85 million makeover to convert its iconic bowl shape into "a jazzier, new rectangular configuration" that will add about 8,000 seats and 16 private suites. You know, to accommodate all those rabid Tulane fans. [Associated Press]
• Think of the children. Hard-up columnists across the country hungrily pounced on the first meme of the offseason, using rogue booster Robert Burton's rebellion at UConn to collectively warn America's athletic directors of a system covertly ruled by self-interested millionaires lurking in the shadows. "The way that fundraising is supposed to work is that the athletic department goes to the donor and says, "Here's our plan. Here's our vision. Will you support us?'" wrote ESPN's Ivan Maisel. "If the donor believes in the vision, he writes a check."
Shockingly, Oklahoma State mega-booster T. Boone Pickens has a slightly different take: "You always have time for people who are putting up the money. That just makes all the sense in the world," Pickens told USA Today. "You can't ignore those people. I mean, they've paid their money, and they're entitled to be informed." [ESPN, Dallas Morning News, Syracuse Post-Dispatch, USA Today]
Quickly… The NCAA introduces a new fund for injured athletes. … Mountain West commish Craig Thompson clears up a few questions about the conference's quest for an automatic BCS bid and the middle finger it gave TCU. … In a shocking turn, Brice Butler's father thinks his son got a raw deal from Lane Kiffin. … Jon Embree suggests Colorado's kickers "over-kicked" in practice under the old coaching staff. … Outgoing Boston College tackle Anthony Castonzo chronicles his week at the Senior Bowl. … Georgia students appeal to the administration to relax tailgating rules. … Michigan fans in the Cult of Barwis can now officially subscribe to the Barwis Method. … Gus Malzahn draws a crowd at a Mississippi coaching clinic. Ball's in your court, Alabama. … Oversigning.com actually agrees with Nick Saban about something, but still gets taken down by SEC apologists. … And most Oregon fans can't bring themselves to watch the championship game again. But what are you supposed to do when God is on the other side?
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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