Burning Kansas

Bill Self on his way to East Lansing?

As if being left out in the cold of the conference shake up we are in the midst of wasn’t enough, there are rumors now circulating Kansas may also lose their men’s head basketball coach.  With Michigan State coach Tom Izzo on his way to Cleveland (supposedly) the new rumor floating about that could be buried by all the conference realignment talk is Bill Self being poached by the Spartans.

Self knows the Big 10, he still recruits the area and had measurable success at Illinois on his way to Lawrence.  It’s logical a vacancy in East Lansing would result in them going after all the big names in college basketball.  Self would not be immune from that kind of search from Michigan State.  This without a doubt would mean at the least temporary disaster for the Jayhawks.  With big names like Aldrich, Henry and Collins all bolting for the NBA or graduating  it would be tough for a new coach to cope with the crop of young stars coming to Kansas and continue the year-round recruiting war on a national level.  Sure Kansas is a big name in college basketball, but what conference will you be playing in?  Do kids worry about the athletic department’s integrity?  Something which in Kansas’ case is a giant question mark.

More expansion talk…

This post of course is the stuff of wild speculation and should not be taken seriously to the point of fact, however it is not far fetched to believe things are about to go from bad to worse in Lawrence.  For the time being, most fans will probably still wonder where their teams will fall by the end of this weekend with Colorado already becoming part of the Pac 10 Conference, and Nebraska on the verge of moving to the Big 10.  Locally, fans and alumni from Kansas along with Missouri and Kansas State have to feel little insulted by the fact that for the most part, these talks of super conferences do not include them.  Missouri being the exception.  But in the opinion of this blogger Missouri was used as a catalyst to get the ball rolling on bigger fish.  The Big 10 has hinted at the fact if Nebraska comes to the Big 10, expansion may continue down the road which may include the Tigers.  But for now it’s wait and see.

If things go according to plan, the Pac 10 and Big 10 will go down as making some savvy moves to acquire talent and revenue to compete with what will become the SEC/ESPN juggernaut.  The two conferences are still pretty cozy, and holding on to their archaic Rose Bowl tie in now looks like a genius move.  The Pac “16″ and Big 10 (if they can land Notre Dame and Rutgers along with Missouri) will be on par at least financially with the SEC and what it is about to become.  It seems that the conference heads realized they needed to stay united to compete with the movement of football in the South becoming a powerhouse, and now it seems they’ll have the teams to do it.  Once again, if things go according to plan the Pac 10 and Big 10 will have orchestrated one the biggest raids on another conference in college history.

What does this all mean for the BCS?  And are we closer to finally somewhat legitimizing the sport by moving toward a playoff system?  For now we’ll have to wait on the answers to those questions which will probably hold more interest to the public at large.  For now, there is money to be made.  Which at the end of the day, this is what it’s all really about.

A Forgone Conclusion

Jose Mourinho is Madrid bound.

Ok, so it’s not exactly confirmed.  But when Mourinho ends up in La Liga you can say I told you so.  With the axe finding the back of the neck of Manuel Pellegrini earlier today, the road should be paved straight from Milan to Spain.

Mourinho has held five positions as head man starting with 2000 for Benefica.  It didn’t take him long to figure out how to pull teams together to win big.  With the exception of Chelsea, he has won the UEFA Champions League with two different teams since 2002.  He’s also racked up domestic club titles along with league cups in the countries he has coached.  To say he is one of the hottest commodities in big league soccer on planet Earth is an understatement.

But here is a big league prediction from this blog.  Mourinho will not win the Champions League while at the Bernabeu.  How do I know?  Well, I don’t obviously and most would probably say the thought of him not finding success managing the second most well known soccer club in the world is me just trying to be bold.  But Madrid is a pressure cooker.  Mourinho has two years to not only bring European glory back to Real, but they also have to displace a team widely renowned as the best club team on the planet in Barcelona.  It’s a two man show in Spain, but it could be difficult, relatively speaking, to push back and bring home some silverware for Galacticos.

At the moment, the roster is full of all-stars.  Starting with none other than former Mr. Manchester United himself Christiano Ronaldo and Brazil superstar Kaka.  Building a team will not be a concern, but the pressure to win immediately will be.  Mourinho will be tested not because of the players at his disposal, but because the pressure from the fan owned Real will be daunting.  However, if the Portuguese wizard can strike while the iron is hot and stay in one place for more than a few seasons, it could spell disaster for other big name European clubs.