HedleyLamarr

One of my favorite busts is Shania Twain, but I digress..... Boris Valabik was perfect....before the NHL made rules changes that allowed speed and skill to thrive.

Really, any conference championship game is a chance for the conference to cannibalize the conference's chances of getting a team in the playoffs. Using that argument when every other Power Five conference has it...and won't be getting rid of it....becomes a pointless argument.

Many were concerned about the SEC cannibalizing themselves out of a national championship contender when they started playing the conference championship game in 1992. Far more often than not, it hasn't gone that way. The team that was closer to being a national championship participant has won the SEC title game more often than not. The lone instances I can think of was the 2001 season when LSU took down #2 (I think) Tennessee and the year when Freddy Millons went crazy for Alabama against a highly-ranked Florida team....

When Alaska and Gwinnett played in the Kelly Cup Finals years ago, I remember reading about the Gladiators not being able to get the entire team on one flight to Alaska. There was a little uncertainty that the entire team would get there in time for Game 1. Some players and/or staff were doing some "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" action to get there.

And how this ties into conference realignment.... Each of the schools in the ACC (and I believe Notre Dame, too) have media rights contracts with the conference through 2036. Meaning that, even if a school goes to another conference, their revenue from whatever avenue of media goes to the ACC every year until 2036. Quite the poison pill if any conference is still wanting to poach an ACC school. John Swofford was on the cusp of losing his job a couple years ago. Quite the home run he hit with this deal.

I shudder to think about "What could have been" when it comes to how the Thrashers could have been developed. Let's start at the very top with ownership....Ted Turner quickly faded into AOL/Time Warner, which was basically a corporation not really paying attention to the sports teams (Braves and Hawks as well). When AOL had to start shedding excess fat, the teams were one of the first entities to go. The Thrashers were close to being sold to some guy in Texas named David McDavid until Ted's son-in-law and oddball son and the rest of the Quorum of Asshats (thanks Admiral!). Ok, local ownership is good, ties to the city...we're good! Well....5.5 years of court hearings later, and...yeah. Oy. The Thrashers went from making a profit under Time Warner to becoming a joke in a hurry. Front office: Ok, it wasn't a bad thing to hire the assistant GM of a team that just won back-to-back Cups. You can do worse. And early on, Don Waddell did what he could to bring long-term success...he acquired a crap-load of draft picks and prospects and had his lined-out Five Year Plan. When it comes to making trades and scavenging the waiver wire, Waddell was actually pretty strong. He acquired Slava Kozlov for nothing, Marc Savard for nothing, and put Rich Peverley on the map. He had a shaky record in drafts (for every Heatley and Kovalchuk, there was a Stefan and Bourret and Valabik). His free agent signings were nothing to write home about (hurrah for Todd White). It seems like every year, his moves fell short of reasonable expectation, as a whole. Coaching: Ok, not much Curt Fraser could have done with the group he had. About all I remember from his tenure was that he and the Hawks coach both got fired on the same day, the day after Christmas. Waddell had a couple stints as coach (which is always great....dual GM/head coach). Bob Hartley did really well, but in typical team fashion, they fire a coach six games into the season following their most successful season. John Anderson sucked, and Craig Ramsay never really got going. And then....there was just sheer bad luck. Damian Rhodes was a decent goalie in Ottawa...couldn't keep his groin together here. Dany Heatley killed a teammate and tore knee ligaments. Stefan kept seeing stars. First decent goalie in franchise history wrecks his knee during the lockout season. Lehtonen had a fragile groin. Pavelec collapsed on the ice because of dehydration. The Thrashers once went through five goalies in ten games to open a season. Norm Maracle stunk. Bobby Holik was too old. Jaroslav Modry was too slow. What are you doing, Andy Sutton? And we had way-past-their-primes Mark Recchi, Peter Bondra, Keith Tkachuk, and Chris Chelios! And a lot of guys that never had a prime. And now look at the mess Winnipeg is in...that franchise has had nearly 20 years of acquiring draft picks and prospects, and they still haven't had anything close to resembling long-term sustained success. One division championship, two playoff appearances, 0-for in the playoffs. How is that even possible? That franchise would strive for being snake-bitten.

As things currently stand, Detroit gets 21 games against the Original Six...games they covet. If they were still in the West, that number would be 15. And, they have two normal-size West Coast swings (3-5 games long) instead of 3-4 West Coast trips.

They voted "Yes" to that realignment plan that had them go to the Western Conference, on the condition that they get put back in the East when the next full-on realignment plan gets in motion. Don't be dumb...it's not the 8pm starts. It's about playing more 10pm games and playing fewer games against the teams they care about playing the most. It's funny. The Thrashers and Predators were 4 hours away from each other, the closest teams to each other....yet hardly played each other. It took the Thrashers to move to Winnipeg...a 19-hour, 1340 mile drive now....for the two to get into the same division.

Did the NHL not make a promise to move Detroit back to the Eastern Conference as soon as the next chance came up? Can't fault the Red Wings for requesting the NHL to follow through on said deal. It's not about suffering or winning four Cups or being The Model Franchise of the NHL for the last 25 years. If there's a "Get over it" attitude towards a team, it should be directed towards the newer franchise that's been spinning their tires for 15 seasons. "You should be thankful you have a team, Columbus. You have no history with anyone, and no one considers you to be a rival....whereas Detroit deep history with a lot of teams in the East. Be a little more successful and you might earn some clout, especially when that clout gets matched up with one of the blue-bloods of the NHL. You're 16 years old now...get your crap together, do something, and until then...get over it."

Why have the legacy team switch conferences when Columbus hasn't quite paid their dues? They've been around for over 15 years now.....surely they're still not dependent on Penguins fans helping boost their ticket sales, are they? You're the lone pro team in town once Ohio State football ends (OSU basketball is no Goliath to take down).

Ooooooh....ownership dispute in court action! Just for fun, can Karmanos change the name of the owner of the Hurricanes to Raleigh Spirit?

Guess you don't really remember his Daily Show or Late Late Show days....

To be blunt, not many in the state of Florida care about UCF or USF. Even fewer folks in the state of Florida care about the Big XII. A Texas-UCF game right now wouldn't get any more eyeballs on the TV as it would if it were a conference game. And there'd be no appeal for a USF-Kansas State game. With the Big XII, everything funnels through Texas. Texas wants and has two things: a bigger portion of the pie and the most power. Texas would only agree to expansion if their wheels get greased by whomever...see TCU and how they support Texas's wishes in everything. "Ok Houston, you want to join us in the big leagues? You'll do it under two conditions: We get your vote on anything, and instead of our pie slice getting smaller, use the market of Houston as your revenue source."

Don't forget that Houston used to play in a conference with Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, and TCU. I would think Houston's got a really good shot at getting accepted into the Big XII. Memphis would be that bridge to West Virginia. As would Cincinnati. I don't know who that 14th school would be...BYU has their restrictions (which isn't too big a hurdle), and both Colorado State and UCF/USF seem, at least to me, to be worthless pick-ups. Nothing against them, but I see no excitement in gaining CSU and either USF/UCF.

Texas won't agree to anything unless their piece of the pie either stays exactly the same or gets bigger. It would be neat if Texas Tech grows a pair and goes against the wishes of Texas. Tech doesn't owe Texas anything.

Knowing how ESPN rolls, can we really believe Option A isn't plausible? I'm not going full-blown Tin Foil Hat mode, but ESPN has the ability to: -Edit programming if needed -Control content on their channels -Extend commercial breaks ever-so-slightly during games, knowing the officials won't start play until TV is back -Determine the length of how long the post-game summarizing/analysis goes (PxP & color analyst discuss, sideline reporter extends interviews, etc.) -Run a few extra promos and commercials after the game until their edited taped programming is synced up ....all in order to fit in removing the portion of the documentary where a recently-fired employee is the climax of the story. I've worked for an NBA team during the playoffs. If the game isn't the front end of the doubleheader, the NBA and TV do all they can to extend the game closer to 3 hours long instead of the 2:20-ish regular season games last and the 2.5 hours they have allotted for games that they do have for the front-end games. Quarter breaks are longer, halftime is longer, and timeouts are longer. TV will extend the game time if there's a lengthy gap between Game 1 and Game 2 of the doubleheader, and TV will hurry Game 1 along if Game 2 is fast-approaching. TV will try like hell to avoid starting that second game on another channel if Game 1 is running long. Game 2 running slowly? No problem...live game coverage is always better than SportsCenter or taped programming. WGN doesn't cut out the portion of who's won the $10,000 on "America's Funniest Videos" after Cubs games end. Turner doesn't cut out the end of "Closer" or Andy Griffith taking away Opie's slingshot after Braves games or basketball ends. FSN didn't cut out Tim Hudson's house when they went to tour his house after Braves coverage ended. Yadda yadda yadda...... ESPN has long lost the benefit of the doubt when it comes to journalistic integrity and kosher politics with current/former employees. Whoever thinks Option A isn't a legit option is either an ESPN fellator, living in a cave, or has their head up their dumper.

"We now join our regularly scheduled program, already in progress." Just about every sporting event, that I've ever seen at least, that's gone on longer than what was scheduled has that few-second blurb before the next show comes on. And that next show is right at the point where it should be had it been on the air since the top of the hour. The taped programming that was supposed to start at whatever time is generally queued up to start playing as it was supposed to, and whomever at Programming Central doesn't switch over from live programming to recorded programming until all the live obligations are fulfilled. Live programming ends....quick said blurb is run...then the switch is flipped over to recorded programming. I've done enough radio and seen enough behind-the-scenes TV work to know that there's regularly scheduled programming already taking place and rolling, ready to be picked up as soon as live TV is over. Turner always had their scheduled content rolling. FSN always had their content rolling. WGN always had their content rolling. NBCSN always had their content rolling. Never saw their recorded programming get the middle portion cut off....just the beginning. This was definitely an ESPN choice, and likely one made from up above. It was their cheap-shot moment. ESPN plays by their own rules until their money source tells them to shape up....like when the NFL told ESPN to kill "Playmakers".

I found that out yesterday....boooooo.

That $50 million exit fee, while steep, isn't a deterrent for a school that's looking to leave. Athletic departments can do some fundraisers....

My personal preference was that logo on the top left, at least in the colors. The team was named after the state bird, the brown thrasher. I had always hoped brown/tan would have a bigger role/use in the uniforms and logo than it did. Perhaps brown and yellow with that dark red as a tertiary, or brown with that light blue....navy and red was already around the league.

Some prototype Thrashers logos before the final logo was determined....

Limited research has shown that he has actually had a few credible tips. If any expansion talk is true, the obvious place to look at is the Big XII. Even though recent legislation now gives the Big XII the ability to play a conference championship game with 10 teams, there's going to be enough push from the other Power 5 conferences to add at least two schools to get to 12. Looks like the SEC, ACC, and Big Ten have realized that 14 is probably the highest amount of schools you can have in a conference without murdering tradition (in terms of football). The Pac-12 seems content with their current arrangement.

@Cujo, you suck!

Just noticed we can tag people now.

Yeah, not disliking the new look. I'm sure it'll all make perfect sense once the last 80% gets filled in. Count me as a fan, boss!