USA USA USA USA

The USA women won in a shoot out against Brazil. They played a player down for 55+ min. and scored in the 120+ min off a header by Abby W. Hope Solo blocked a penalty kick and the USA goes on to the World Cup semifinal game to play France. If your not a soccer fan this game was like playing with 4 players for 3/4 of a game against Duke and winning. Our women played their hearts out and refused to lose.

No way LeBron

I’ve always considered myself a sports fan. Naturally I’m a Kentucky football fan and a Kentucky basketball fan. Pro sports don’t sit to well with me simply because I’m jealous of the money they make, most games are boring until tournament time comes around and I’m sick of the games the players play to promote themselves like LeBron, Bosh and Wade have been doing.

After reading that 88% of the people in Spain watched them beat Germany in the world cup game I’m in shock.

The most Americans who have ever watched a super bowl game was in 1982 when a 49.1 rating was the highest ever recorded when people watched the Cincinnati San Francisco game and that was boosted because of a major blizzard in the northeastern United States on game day.

This years final 4 game drew a 6.0% rating. The most to ever watch a NCAA tournament final game was 50,000,000 in 1997 when Kentucky played Arizona.

The best the BCS title game has ever done was 21.6 rating in 2006.

Dare I ask what sort of rating LeBron James will get when he announces his choice on ESPN tonight. What ever the rating 88% is out of the question LeBron. American fans just don’t care that much. Oh and LeBron my figures might not be accurate they were just compiled from a brief search of the internet. So there is still hope you can get a good rating. Win a championship and you might get a 6.0 rating. That compares you with Butler who frankly had better game than you and Cleveland did in the tournament.

USA Advances

The US had numerous shots on goal and a goal called back and kept fans on the edge of their seats for the whole game but finally scored after Clint Donovan punched one in off of a rebound in the 91th min against Algeria. The win is the first time we have won a group in 81 years and the first time we have ever won game three in group play.

Until Donovan’s goal, it appeared the officiating would again be the focus much as Maurice Edu’s late goal that was disallowed against Slovenia last week. Clint Dempsey scored in the 21st minute but the goal was called offside. Replays appeared to show Dempsey was onside. FIFA had assigned a veteran referee for this game and Donovan’s goal kept them from having more egg on their face.

Coach Bradley finally got smart and didn’t start Oguchi Onyewu who has had a hard time in the midfield while trying to get back in shape after a injury and the team responded by keeping Algeria out of the goal. On the offense side of the ball the team played very aggressive for the whole game as Donovan and Dempsey had numerous chances in the first half but either misfired or were stopped by the Algerian goalie.

Next up the group D runner up in a do or die second round game this weekend.

The real wizard

It’s been a good week for the Cats. Men’s soccer clinched a post-season berth with a win Wednesday over SMU behind senior Tim Crone’s goal in the second half. It was his 3rd career goal all against SMU. His other two goals came in a 2-1 victory over #1 SMU in 2007.

The #11 womens volleyball team showed they are deserving of a top 10 ranking by defeating Alabama Friday night. The lady Cats (23-2, 13-1) got their 50th win at Memorial Coliseum in the last four years with the win.

Men’s basketball routed Clarion 117-52 with John Wall scoring 27 in his first game for the Cats. DeMarcus Cousins had 20 points, Patrick Patterson scored 14 and Ramon Harris, Darnell Dodson and Darius Miller had 11 points. It was a clean well played game with excellent play by everyone who touched a ball.

The football Cats won on Saturday with a 37-12 thumping of Eastern Kentucky behind two second half touchdown passes by Morgan Newton and all around good play by the team.

So what did we learn this week? In football Morgan Newton, LaRod King and Chris Matthews are going to be great next year. Donald Russell is probably going to see more playing time after his 79 yard run for a TD.

In volleyball the lady Cats can go deep in the NCAA tournament and with a little scheduling luck bring home a championship.

In mens soccer we learned that SMU probably looks forward to Tim Crone graduating.

In basketball we learned that the real wizard isn’t the the pretender from Westwood nor is he the fine dining coach from Louisville or the blue collar earth wizard from Michigan. He’s certainly not the dripping wizard from Tennessee who’s only claim to wizardry is his ability to cast a spell on the color orange or the cave dwelling wand waver from Connecticut. And lets not get started on the kettle stirring witches from Carolina or the seller of love potions from Kansas.

The real wizard is the Wizard of Lexington. The Wizard of Lexington is not just a wizard in coaching and recruiting. He’s also a wizard in the way he cast a spell that brought back our ability to laugh and enjoy ourselves during a basketball game.

The beauty of a sport

This is a good piece about soccer and a very good read. Why is it here in the basketball section. Because of something said below that I disagree with.

On the way back to our hotel, driving in our bulletproof car, we passed under a bridge on the highway and noticed one lone Mexican man happily swinging a flag back and forth. He had to have been 45 minutes from the stadium. There was nobody around him. He just kept swinging that flag with a joyous grin on his face. I remember thinking to myself, “Nobody in America will ever care about a sport that much.” And we won’t.

Obviously he has never been to Kentucky to know how much our fans care about the sport. Of course we Kentucky fans would never throw bags of urine at Indiana or Tennessee fans or Coach Calipari would walk off the court hiding a smile hopefully.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090817

And just as obviously we American love the beauty of the sport of soccer as much as anyone in the world. So much in fact that our passions boil at the thought of the game.

Is Title IX Hurting Mens Sports

Two for one day here at BigBlueRules. People have posted good looking girls, good looking mules and even Burt Reynolds in the forums but this is fairly new for us. We are putting up pictures of good looking girls on the front page to try and keep up with sex appeal of other blogs and we are giving you something to think about at the same time. This is a family site outside of a semi nude Burt Reynolds in the forums and I hope your following where I’m leading you.

Although Title IX was originally intended to help with education its become very important to something it wasn’t intended for womens sports. Here is some information to ponder while considering if Title IX is hurting mens sports or benefiting the country in general.

According to the latest data available from the NCAA there are 492 more women’s programs than men’s in Division I. There are scholarships available for women (32,656) and (20,206) for men.

The findings of a first-of-a-kind study of NCAA participation and scholarship data conducted by the College Sports Council (CSC) shows that in NCAA Division I “gender symmetric sports” (teams where both male and female athletes participate), female students are accorded far more opportunities than male students to compete and earn scholarships. As a result, the CSC is calling on the NCAA to equalize scholarship limits.

Findings of the study, the first of its kind to compare scholarship opportunities for men and women in NCAA Division I using the organization’s own data, include.

At the NCAA Division I level, there are far more women’s teams (2,653) than men’s teams (2,097). The study found the greatest gender disparities in favor of women in the sports of Volleyball (313 to 21) and Soccer (300 to 195).

Overall in “gender symmetric” sports, there are far more scholarships available for women (32,656) than for men (20,206). But those numbers don’t consider football in their data and instead compare sports that are available to both men and women.

Leaving football out provides a slanted view of scholarship opportunities. Football takes 85 men’s scholarships for each FBS team and 63 scholarships for each FCS team. That’s 10,200 scholarships available for 120 FBS schools and 7,749 scholarships available for 123 FCS schools (including five schools that were provisional in 2008).

Even in one of the only sports where there are more men’s teams, golf (285 to 228), there are still more athletic scholarships available for women (1,368 to 1,282.5).

In every “gender symmetric” sport with the exception of gymnastics, men face longer odds against getting a scholarship than women. By far, the most difficult athletic scholarship to obtain at the Division I level is in men’s volleyball, where there are 489 high school athletes for every full NCAA scholarship. Similar long odds exist for men competing in Track and Field/Cross-Country (221 to 1), Soccer and Water Polo (196 to 1) and Tennis (136 to 1).

Over the past twenty years, men have lost about a team each year while women have gained 3 each year. That pace has accelerated in recent years with men losing about a team and a half each year while women gain six annually.

Before Title IX. Things were different. The primary physical activities for girls were cheerleading and square-dancing. Only 1 in 27 girls played high school sports. There were virtually no college scholarships for female athletes. And female college athletes received only two percent of overall athletic budgets.

Since Title IX. There’s been real growth in the number of women who participate in sports, receive scholarships, and benefit from increased budgets. There are more opportunities to compete at elite levels through competitions like the Olympics, World Championships and professional leagues. Even more importantly, we know that playing sports makes women healthier. They’re less likely to smoke, drink, use drugs and experience unwanted pregnancies. Studies also link sports participation to reduced incidences of breast cancer and osteoporosis later in life. These health benefits for women and society alone should be reason to keep Title IX strong.

Why Title IX is still critical. The general perception is that girls now have equal opportunities in all areas of athletics. But that’s just not true.

In 2006 -2007 there were 3 million girls participating in high school athletics. They made up 41% of high school athletes, even though they represent more than 49% of the high school student population.

In 2005-2006 there were 171,000 women participating in college athletics. Women represent only 42% of college athletes, even thogh they represent over 50% of the college student population nationwide.

Each year male athletes receive over $136 million more than female athletes in college athletic scholarships at NCAA member institutions.

Women in Division I colleges are over 50% of the student body, but receive only 32% of athletic recruiting dollars and 37% of the total money spent on athletics.

In 2008, only 43% of coaches of women’s teams were women. In 1972, the number was over 90 percent.

They practice hard, and they have coaches – but is cheerleading a sport?
It probably depends on whose definition you’re using.

No doubt, most cheerleaders would tell you it’s a sport – just like gymnastics. But according to federal law, an activity can’t be considered a sport unless competition is its main goal.

And while many cheerleading squads participate in competitions, some say their primary function is supporting other athletic teams.

So here’s the interesting twist: It’s the law – specifically Title IX – that’s causing some colleges to call cheerleading a sport. Why? It’s a less expensive way of complying.

Take a look at Quinnipiac University. The Connecticut school decided to cut its women’s volleyball team this spring in an effort to save money. But controversy erupted when it proposed replacing the team by elevating cheerleading to a varsity sport.

Hard to blame the school, from a dollars and cents point of view:

Last season, Quinnipiac’s volleyball team had a budget of more than $70,000 for 11 players – that works out to $6,300 per team member.

The cheerleading squad’s budget was around $50,000 for 40 participants – about $1,250 per person.

So it still comes back to the question: Is cheerleading a sport? Or maybe, as in the case of Quinnipiac University, are schools willing to call it a sport just so they can get rid of costlier women’s teams?

From Catlanta in the forums on Title IX.

For starts, Title IX is settled federal law and for seconds, way too much of a political hot potato for Congress to change. I was not a fan of Title IX and felt that many male athletes were treated unfairly in the first few years of its implementation.

However, and this is a big however, since the advent of Title IX, medal counts for women from U.S. universities have skyrocketed in Olympic competitions. If the SEC had been a country, they would have placed something like fifth in total medals, and many of them were earned by women athletes. One SEC school, Auburn University, had 18 medals (7 of which were earned by women swimmers) and would have tied for 14th in the world, with Canada and Spain.

Title IX is making a giant positive impact on Team USA and, therefore, probably won’t be going away anytime soon, so might as well make the best of it.

So is Title IX hurting mens sports or benefiting the nation?