:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/34039869/450166408.0.jpg)
I'm headed to the track today to bet the ponies, and hopefully watch California Chrome become the first Triple-Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
Tweet of the Morning
2 Belmont trips w Triple Crown hopes: still waiting for Big Brown to finish & I'll Have Another to show. Not there today but go Cali Chrome
— Dana O'Neil (@ESPNDanaOneil) June 7, 2014
Go baby go!
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
Kentucky basketball
-
Does Calipari deserve his raise? This author says so:
In the "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" contest, Calipari defeats Coach K. Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils have been eliminated in the first round in two of the last three years and in those same years, Cal’s Wildcats have reached the title game.
-
James Young predicted Coach Cal would stay with Kentucky. Smart man.
Other Kentucky sports
- Austin Cousino drafted in the third round by the Seattle Mariners. I wonder if he might not return? Probably not.
Links posts
College football
-
Mr. SEC says that Nick Saban (and John Calipari) are worth the money. I think he's right.
The question is, are these coaches worth the money? Are they more valuable to society than doctors and teachers, etc? Of course not. But in their field, they are tops. They make money for their employers. Enough money that paying them large sums in return is not a problem. College football is worth more to a school than college basketball — speaking strictly in a financial sense. For that reason there’s no debate about Saban’s increase whatsoever.
Read the whole thing.
-
Big Five autonomy a game-changer in college sports. Consider:
Mostly what the Big Five is hoping to accomplish with autonomy is to save college sports as we know it and they want it. At a time when the NCAA's model for amateurism is under attack in courts both legal and of public opinion, the leaders of those conferences believe autonomy can bring the reforms necessary to alleviate some of the pressure.
College basketball
-
A rant about college athletics. I'd like to take this apart, but I don't really have the time. I feel the guy, but he takes so many obviously rote positions that it's hard for me to give him much respect.
Most college athletics is very much in line with the NCAA model — probably 80% or more. We're taking about football and basketball on the mens side when we go on rants about "college athletics." I think that's wrong.
Other sports news
-
Just in case you still believe that cramps are caused by dehydration, and that you can "fight" through them, disabuse yourself of that old wives tale. Science really doesn't know what causes cramps
-
I hope California Chrome wins. I am going to be at the track today, where the Belmont will be simulcast.
Other news
-
This Rube Goldberg-eque machine not only opens your wine for you, but pours it as well. Hat tip: Wild Weasel.