On the Court
Lady Raider Basketball lost to Cincinnati after leading at the beginning of each quarter, 59-56. They fall to 3-12 in Big 12 play. They will play UCF on Saturday in Orlando.
A nice video on JT Toppin. At the 1:20 mark is the Duncanville Fieldhouse.
On the Gridiron
There is no way that I can do this justice so please just head over to John Kurtz and Open for Business where John discusses the reports coming out that the Big Ten and SEC are attempting to bully into 4 auto bids and essentially control the playoff format. I don’t have the capacity to understand how they can just do that, but maybe this is where we are. Plus the SEC wants to go back to 9 conference games because playing 10 games exposes the conference as weak and we saw how that worked out last year.
CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd writes that the Big Ten and SEC could damage college football’s credibility:
The CFP has prospered to this point because the teams have largely been perceived as being the right ones. There have been a few controversies (See: Florida State in 2023.) But the moment the public loses faith in the process because the Big Ten or SEC have to get that fourth team in the field, then the CFP is done.
There is evidence that all is not right. The playoff whiffed badly and stubbornly believing it could stage weeknight New Year’s Eve semifinals in 2015. Those games tanked badly in the ratings. In fact, since about Year 2, the CFP championship game ratings overall have been uneven.
Since then, the game has essentially developed two new bosses: Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC counterpart Greg Sankey.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams has 15 high school players Texas Tech football should target for the 2026 class. Here’s just 1 of them:
* Chase Campbell, 6-1, 180, WR, Frenship: Playing 10 miles west of Jones AT&T Stadium, Campbell caught 81 passes for 1,497 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2024, numbers nearly identical to what he put up in 2023. His Frenship teammates, quarterback Holden Phillips and wide receiver Leyton Stone, joined the Red Raiders in January. His mother, Deedee Brown-Campbell, is Tech senior associate athletics director/senior woman administrator.
On3’s Pete Nakos on Cody Campbell and John Sellers selling Double Eagle to Diamondback Energy for $4.08 billion in cash and stock.
Campbell is the co-founder and CEO of Double Eagle along with John A. Sellers. Diamondback will pay roughly 6.9 million shares and $3 billion in cash. It expects the deal to close on April 1.
I don’t know what to do with this information other than to congratulate both of them. I don’t think they were cash poor to begin with and I can’t imagine two guys this young just sitting on that money, but who knows.