Florida AD Scott Stricklin told Mike Bianchi:
"I know UCF’s program is in a different place [than USF’s], but in the eyes of a lot of people in the state, the programs are very similar. They’re in the same league, they’re both in metropolitan areas and they have a rivalry with one another. I don’t know why we would treat one different than the other.”
Fair enough. As I have said many times before, Stricklin should do whatever he thinks is best for Florida. But I have just a couple of questions for him. Is it just the position of no home-and-home series with G5s? Would Florida actually do a home-and-home with TCU? Wake Forest? Rutgers? Kansas? I doubt it. And what does UCF have to do on the field to move into the "home-and-home" category? Win a national title? Play in four straight major bowl games?
Last question for Stricklin: If the Big XII decided to expand(which they are not) and chose UCF to join the league in 2022, would that move UCF into the category of "home-and-home"?
One last note on this, Stricklin talks about the two-for-one deal with USF as an example of why he wouldn't entertain something different for UCF. Even in that deal, where Florida gets two games in Gainesville, Stricklin got twice the amount of visiting team tickets for the game in Tampa. According to sources who have seen the agreement, USF will get 6,000 tickets for their games at the Swamp. Gator fans get access to 12,000 tickets for the game at Raymond James Stadium...
The NBA Finals begin tonight. 50 years ago in 1970, the NBA was still a secondary television item. It marked the first time the league had all of their games air on network television. However, the famous Game 7 between the Lakers and Knicks was blacked out on ABC in the New York market and shown on tape delay at 11:30p. The little known MSG Network was the only live broadcast in the metro area and sent to 25,000 homes in the Manhattan area...
There will be eight MLB playoff games. No day in the history of the sport has had that many games. Of course, no season has ever had 16 teams in the playoffs. 75 years ago the Tigers and Cubs played the 1945 World Series. The Series went seven games and the two teams combined for a total of three home runs. Today, that is sometimes called the top of the fourth...
Super Bowl winning coach Brian Billick has a new book out (Billick appears Wednesday on "The Beat of Sports" radio show). The book "The Q Factor" looks at the 2018 NFL Draft class of quarterbacks and their first two seasons. Among the many great stories Billick dives into was the chaos inside the Browns front office on who to draft before eventually choosing Mayfield. It's a sad tale of a franchise that has had so many quarterbacks that didn't pan out and even with the number one pick, was not sure if Mayfield was the right choice and many inside the organization felt other QB's were a better choice. But the book does an excellent job of explaining why so many quarterbacks fail, including how organizations fail to provide the necessary tools to succeed...
Final thought: The average lifespan of an MLB baseball is.......seven pitches