How rare is a top 3 ranking in football and basketball; Couches ablaze

Spartan Nation... When was the last time any school was ranked #1 in men's hoops and in the top 3 in football in the same week during the season?   The ES wuz trying to figure this out with Joe, Scooz, and Rod at the Peanut Barrel.  Hmmm.   Florida in its last year of football under Oscar Meyer?  Maybe Oklahoma in early 2000's (that's a stretch with basketball); potentially Michigan (Cheating Five; Remedial Robinson title) in the late 80s/early 90s?  Ohio State (Greg Oden and the sweater)?  Outside of these schools, one might have to go back to the mid 60s with the UCLA hoops teams that were #1 forever under John Wooden and went to a Rose Bowl or more.     

COUCHES ABLAZE

The ES wuz in Indy and was in his own blazing glory of beer and victory, so didn't get to see the fires and partying in East Lansing after the B1G Ten Title victory over Iowa.  However, after returning later on Sunday and walking through town... Linden Street seemed to be ablaze with couches early Sunday morning.  

Corner of Linden and Division

Further down on Linden

Damn straight it is GREAT TO BE A SPARTAN.  

I loathe Calipari; MSU vs Nebraska bigger than Kentucky

Everything wrong with college sports can be found with the two major college basketball teams in the state of Kentucky. Exhibit A: John Calipari, head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats.   The ES hopes Michigan State teachings the young one-and-dones a lesson tonight.

What is a bigger game this week:  #2 Michigan State vs #1 Kentucky in men's hoops .... or, #14 Michigan State vs Nebraska in football?

The game against the Corn is the more important game.  Who knows where these hoop teams will be in March, but we know the Spartans will likely be a Final Four contender.  But we know the Spartans need to beat Nebraska to have a chance at roses.

I still hope we embarass the Cats and teach the 17 year old diaper dandies how to play hoops.

Big Ten, MSU fare well in new NCAA rules affecting post-season play

Today, the NCAA passed legislation very un-NCAA like:  in quick fashion. Just one day after a presidential retreat, its Board of Directors passed a new rule, phased in over a few years, that would make any team ineligible for post-season play (and the revenues that go along with it, obviously) if the team was not on-track to graduate at least half of its players. This is something that has been LONG endorsed by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics going back 10 years or more.  The Knight Commission is a non-profit group advocating intercollegiate athletics reform and proper balance of athletics within higher education. The NCAA, however, uses a formula, called the Academic Progress Rate (APR) which tracks academic eligibility of every athlete, and  every team, on a term-by-term basis: awarding one point for staying in school (or graduating), and one point for remaining academically eligible both  at the institution and via the NCAA’s minimal academic expectations but rigid progress-toward-degree requirements (minimum # of credit hours passed each year).  An annual APR score is then averaged over a four-year period for the current APR score, which will be used in this instance.  A 930 score equates to about a 50 percent graduation rate.  A 1000 score is perfect.

So, the ES decided to look at MSU and other Big Ten schools and their 2011 APR scores (based on the 2009-2010 academic year) in men’s basketball and football, and… if this rule were in effect this year, who would be affected in the upcoming 2011-2012 academic year?  Well… here are the numbers:

	FB	MBK
Illinois	949	964
Indiana	966	929
Iowa	947	939
Michigan	928	970
MSU	938	995
Minnesota	935	964
Nebraska	958	945
N'western	993	990
Ohio St	985	952
Penn St	972	995
Purdue	939	954
Wisconsin	967	970

Michigan State is fine: matter of fact, all of MSU’s 20+ athletic teams are above 930.  Just two Big Ten schools in football or men's basketball would be impacted:  the Wolvies in football (928) and Indiana in men’s basketball (929).  Mind you, this will be phased in, so these schools have some time to put in the resources (or recruit athletes with better expectation they will remain academically eligible) to improve their scores.  But, the Big Ten looks pretty solid compared to other conferences.    

The ES won’t get into details about some of the dirty little secrets allowing teams to have exemptions for certain players.  But, the NCAA may take that on next as part of their reform effort.  

Interesting times as we head into football season.