Maddux Sports Blog

The NCAA is ridiculous. Yet again, they have chosen to punish a school in a way that does nothing to actually deter schools from doing things wrong. I’m talking, of course, about Memphis’ moronic punishment that was handed down yesterday. If you missed it, the school has been forced to vacate all 38 wins from two years ago – the year they lost in the championship game to Kansas by blowing the last couple of minutes of the game then tripping up badly in overtime. They will also be on probation for three years, though they lose no scholarships or postseason eligibility during that time. There are a couple of violations at issue, but the main one is that Derrick Rose likely wasn’t eligible for the season.

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I love college football for a lot of reasons, but one of them is how quickly things can change. Take Boston College, for example. Two years ago they were totally secure in their quarterback situation with Matt Ryan – probably the best QB in the country. Now their QB situation is an absolute shambles. It was already going to be ugly, but things got really bleak yesterday. Dominique Davis started four games as a freshman last year, and he was likely to be the starter at the beginning of this year. He was the only quarterback on the team who had ever thrown a college pass. Now he’s gone. He was suspended by the team for academic reasons, and the situation was serious enough that he decided to transfer instead of sticking it out and fixing the problem. Now the Eagles have just two guys -redshirt freshman Justin Tuggle and junior college transfer Codi Boek . I already wasn’t at all optimistic about BC in the ACC this year, but his only serves to further cloud their prospects in my eyes.

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We’re going to delay our regularly scheduled programming a bit this week in recognition of the start of the NBA season. I don’t generally bet on the NBA as much as other sports – I get most of my hoops fix from the college ranks – but I do love the league, and I look for intriguing betting opportunities daily. As the season gets underway, here are ten things I will be keeping an eye on as a bettor:

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