Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
03/08/2008 - Palm Harbor, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stewart Cink parlayed a back-nine birdie run into a two-under 69 and a tentative lead Saturday at the suspended PODS Championship.
Cink birdied three holes in a row from the 10th, then ended his third round with a bogey at the 18th before play was suspended due to darkness.
He was at five-under 208 for a two-shot lead on Geoff Ogilvy, who also posted a 69 and was in the clubhouse at three-under 210.
Saturday began with the completion of the second round in the morning after it was pushed back by heavy storms on Friday. The strong wind that gusted near 40 mph on Friday remained through the morning, even pushing putts off-line.
It let up somewhat in the afternoon, when players went out in threesomes off the first and 10th tees for the third round, but was still a factor.
"I thought yesterday was tough," said Ogilvy, who had three birdies and a bogey. "But I think today might have been tougher."
Brandt Snedeker battled the early-morning wind and held the second-round lead when it was completed, but he was two-over par in the third round when play was suspended around 7:00 p.m. local time.
Snedeker and Billy Mayfair were both at three-under par through 15 holes, while Sean O'Hair (71) and Tom Pernice, Jr. (71) were in the clubhouse at two- under 211.
Defending champion Mark Calcavecchia was one-under through 16 holes.
Snedeker held an early four-shot lead over Cink, Ogilvy and Mayfair after rolling in a 12-foot birdie putt at the seventh hole. It was his third -- and last -- birdie before play was suspended.
Less than two hours later, he would trail Cink by three.
The seven-shot swing began with Snedeker making bogeys at the eighth and ninth holes and Cink rolling in three straight birdie putts from the 10th, the last one a 26-footer at the 12th that gave him a one-shot lead.
Snedeker's biggest mistake came at the par-three eighth, where he sent a 14- foot par putt six feet past the hole then missed the one coming back for a three-putt bogey.
"The first putt was bad. There is no other way around it," Snedeker said. "I hit it bad."
Snedeker then bogeyed back-to-back holes from the 12th, three-putting again from 27 feet at the 13th to fall three shots back. It came just 1 hour and 45 minutes after his birdie on No. 7 had given him his four-shot lead.
"I had a chance to kind of separate myself from the field and make good birdies, and I didn't do it," said Snedeker. "So I learn from it, come out here tomorrow and shoot a low one."
Cink saw his lead trimmed to three shots after twice hitting into the rough at the 18th, then pushing a four-foot par putt more than a foot past the hole.
There were 11 players within five shots of Cink's lead, though just three of them -- Snedeker, Mayfair and Calcavecchia -- were still on the course. Snedeker and Mayfair were both in the fairway off the 16th tee.
Play was set to resume Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. local time. The weather forecast called for mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-60s.
Because 79 players made the 36-hole cut Saturday morning, there will be a second cut after the third round to the lowest 70 players and ties. Those not making the final round will receive prize money based on their position, but will not play further.
Paul Goydos, Cameron Beckman, Tim Herron, Jesper Parnevik, Charles Warren, Ted Purdy, Jason Gore and Kevin Streelman were set to become the first casualties of the PGA Tour's newest cut policy.
The rule was implemented before last week's Honda Classic, but did not come into play there.
<< Hawks finally beat Heat...2 1/2 months later
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Hawks held on for a 114-111
overtime win over Miami, over 2 1/2 months after the game began.
The contest was finished prior to the tip-off of Saturday's regularly-
scheduled game bet
<< Flynn and Green lead Syracuse over No. 21 Marquette
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Freshmen Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene scored
21 points apiece as Syracuse thrashed 21st-ranked Marquette, 87-72, at the
Carrier Dome and moved one step closer to securing an NCAA Tournament bid.
Flynn a
<< Pyro burns brightest in Louisiana Derby
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Odds-on favorite Pyro put himself at the
head of the three-year-old class Saturday with a convincing victory in the
$600,000 Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds. The 1 1/16 mile race is a
major e
<< Balanced Habs steamroll hapless Kings
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Guillaume Latendresse posted a goal and an
assist, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the lowly Los Angeles Kings, 5-2,
in a matinee at the Staples Center.
Patrice Brisebois, Saku Koivu, Andrei Kostit
UTEP crowns Southern Miss, gains C-USA final >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Natasha Lacy recorded 25 points, eight rebounds
and five assists to lead top-seeded UTEP over Southern Miss, 86-69, in a
Conference USA semifinal matchup.
Jareica Hughes notched 21 points to go with eight
Utah rolls over UNLV >>
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kalee Whipple scored a game-high 20
points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds as 15th-ranked Utah cruised pass
UNLV, 82-46.
Leilani Mitchell added 14 points and dished out a game-high 13 assists, while
No. 10 Cal advances to semis with win over Oregon >>
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devanei Hampton scored 15 points and grabbed
seven rebounds to lead 10th-ranked California past Oregon, 67-60, in the
quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament.
Ashley Walker finished with 15 points, four rebound
Langer goes low for Toshiba Classic lead >>
Newport Beach, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters
champion, fired his second consecutive round of six-under 65 to grab the
second-round lead of the Toshiba Classic.
Langer finished 36 holes at 12-under-p
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting