Yesterday, we shared the exciting news of the Capital One Cup victory by the North Carolina women. But did you know that not everyone likes the Capital One Cup? Indeed, fans of the Big 10 (remember, the Confidential’s motto for the Big 10 is “first in money and nothing else”) are unhappy that the Capital One Cup (gasp!) assigns different points to different sports. Here is our response to that…
Congratulations to the North Carolina Tar Heels! Their women have claimed the Capital One Cup!
If you are a fan of college football, then you are at least slightly interested in how players from your favorite school fare in the NFL. Perhaps you are even a big fan of the NFL too. Did you know which schools have placed the most players in the NFL Hall of Fame?
Here is the top 10 list, as per the best source we have–the NFL Hall of Fame itself:
That’s right. Miami, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame.
Not Florida State, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Virginia Tech. You do not see the Big 10’s Wisconsin, Michigan State, Maryland, Rutgers, or Nebraska. You do not see the SEC’s Florida, Auburn, Georgia, or L.S.U. You do not even see the Big XII’s Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, or even Texas.
Just recent additions to the ACC, courtesy of the now-destroyed Big East.
Recently, the ACC had a very good NFL draft in 2013. Looking backward, who are the Hall of Famers, by school, from the ACC? Here you go:
So there you have it. The ACC has put quite a few people into the NFL Hall of Fame, led mostly by teams that are new to the ACC fold.
By the way, who has been to Canton? Did you like the NFL Hall of Fame or find it disappointing?
The regionals are complete and now its on to the super regionals. This is the last stop before Omaha and the College World Series. So far there hasn’t been any real surprises this year, aka Kent State last year. There has been only two upsets with the biggest being Oregon, who was the #8 national seed, being knocked out by Rice. The other is Virginia Tech being knocked out by Oklahoma. Top national seed North Carolina was taken to extra innings by Fla Atlantic in an elimination game but other than that it has been chalk.
The ACC will have their four remaining teams play host in the super regionals while Louisville, a future ACC member, has also earned a spot. The SEC also has four teams remaining but only two of them will be hosting. The Big 12 and the Pac 12 each has two teams remaining. The next round of games will be a beast of three series which will run from Friday, June 7 until Monday, June 10.
Here is a run down on the super regionals.
English: Logo for the athletics teams at the University of Pittsburgh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Pitt Panthers came up short in their attempt to win the BE baseball tourney on Saturday after a 10 inning 3-2 loss to Notre Dame. With an RPI of 65 the loss leaves Pitt on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. They will now have to wait until Monday for the field to be announced to learn their fait. I believe that a second place finish in the BE should be enough to get them in.
Pitts two losses of the tourney came against Notre Dame with errors at critical moments of the game. A pair of crucial errors help to lead them to a 5-3 defeat in their earlier meeting and Pitt committed 5 errors in Saturdays game.
Pitt looked poised to take the lead in the top of the 9th when they had base-runners on first and second but a controversial call stalled their rally. Notre Dame pitcher Nick McCarty threw the ball to first in an attempt to pick off the runner but the throw went into the first base stands. Both runners took two bases on the error which scored the runner from second and gave Pitt the lead but the umpires told the runners to back up a base, putting runners at second and third instead and taking the run off of the board. Pitt coach Joe Jordano protested but after a meeting from the umpires the call was upheld. The ruling made was that the pitcher threw over to first base while still in contact with the rubber which limited both runners to one base. If he had left the rubber then the runners would have been given two bases each. The first base umpire ruled that the pitcher did disengage the rubber but was over ruled by the third and home plate umpires. Still Pitt was in scoring position with one out but the next batter popped out to third and the following batter struck out to retire the side.
The bottom of the 10th started horribly for Pitt as Evan Oswald booted a ground ball from ND Charlie Markson. This was followed by Dylan Wolsonovich error on a grounder by Frank DeSico which gave ND two base runners with no outs. ND bunted the runners up to second and third and Pitt intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases and to set up a double play possibility. Instead Ryan Bull hit a sharp single to center to score the winning run.
The sixth seeded Notre Dame will take on eighth seeded Connecticut for the championship on Sunday.
Pitt is only 99 days away from their ACC and season opener on Labor Day against Florida State at Heinz Field. This will probably be one of their biggest season openers in recent memory.
If the ACC were to end the football season with a rivalry game, who would best fit that role for Pitt? Virginia Tech? Miami? Boston College? Penn St? Some other team? What are your thoughts?
What is the goal of an athletic director at one of the schools in the top several conferences? Is it to win national championships in the revenue sports? Is it to make consistently good showings in the revenue sports? Or is it to have a broad array of athletes participating in non-revenue sports? Well, the Big 10 folks like to talk about how it is the latter. So what if they are not winning national championships, they are offering teams in skee-ball and hula hoops. And all that leads to success in the Capital One Cup.
Or does it?
As much as I fear the worst for the Orange come the NCAA hoops tournament, the opposite is true for lacrosse. For the first time since 2009 Syracuse returns to the Final Four on Memorial Day weekend. This holiday has essentially been a Syracuse holiday. With the growth of lacrosse across the country and schools adding it, the Orange can’t expect to dominate like it used to, so it’s nice to still be at the front of the pack. The Orange advanced with another one goal victory over Yale yesterday to save the senior class from not having been to a Final Four.
The Confidential 