Conference Chaos has reared its ugly head once again. West Virginia is officially off to the Big 12, further shaking up college football’s unstable landscape. To make sense of all the madness we caught up with longtime ESPN College Football play by play man Dave Lamont. What does the move mean to West Virginia and their student athletes? What it does it do to the already hurting Big East? Who does the Big East plan on replacing West Virginia with and how will Missouri fare in the SEC? It’s a loaded episode of Juiced Sports Radio with a man who lives and breathes college football.

SCOTT JACOBS

The NBA is in a steady, gruesome lockout, and LeBron James is still making news. Yesterday after Merril Hodge told the world what he thought of Tim Tebow on SportsCenter, LeBron came out 140 chararacters a fightin’, tweeting:

“Tim Tebow will succeed in the NFL. He’s a hard worker, a student of the game, a natural born leader and most of all a WINNER! It takes time and he’ll be nice.”

And then…

“Listened to Merril Hoge today on SC and he was just blasting Tebow. The man hasn’t even play a full season and its only his 2nd year in.”

And then…

“Guys get on that TV and act like they was all WORLD when they played. How bout encouraging him and wishing him the best instead of hating!!”

Hoge said Tebow wasn’t accurate, and he wasn’t that great out of the pocket, amongst others. He doesn’t think that Tebow is ready for the NFL or a NFL caliber QB.  I don’t think he is either.

Tebow has the heart and soul of a winner, and people who don’t hate the guy, absolutely love him.  He was a dynamic unforgettable player in college while at Florida, but those days are over. Ken Dorsey had the heart of a winner and was a tremendous college QB, but look at him.  He never went anywhere in the NFL despite getting chances with numerous NFL teams to start.  Guys come out of college all the time who are great winners and great competitors, but that doesn’t mean they will be great pros.  Tim Tebow has been living in this spotlight ever since he emerged on the college scene, with his Rudy like speeches, and his Robin Hood like ‘take from the rich and give to the poor’ mantra.  He has the heart of a champion and he is extremely confident.  Tebow has been fighting the doubters his whole life.  But this is the big boy stage, where good intentions don’t equal good quarterback, nevermind great.

That said, Tebow seems to relish the doubters.  But at some point you have to ask yourself does this kid have that ‘it.’ Good character guy doesn’t mean squat in the NFL without the rest.  And although I like Orton and have followed his career all the way back to his rookie year with the Bears we’re not talking about an elite quarterback here. Orton is steady, not flashy, and has carved his place in the league.  But he’s certainly no one’s Peyton Manning or Tom Brady and he never will be.  Orton is a polished player though.  He makes good decisions, knows how to read the pocket, and doesn’t make a lot of back-breaking mistakes. He’s steady, but not sensational.  Denver wants to see what they have with Tebow, but he’s not ready it seems, and with no number 2 draft pick coming through the mail, Denver is going to pull an anti-Kevin Kolb, not only keeping him, but starting him too.

That said, LeBron just doesn’t get it, and it’s safe to say that he doesn’t really care.  The media doesn’t care about making friends.  The idea is for analysts to speak their minds.  This is not peewee football or little league. This is the big show.  This is where the world’s best are gathered to play one of the world’s roughest sports.  This isn’t about sunshine and rainbows, this is about manning up and showing you’re good enough.  Tim Tebow doesn’t need to be babied at this stage of his career.  He needs to prove himself.  Yeah, he is a young pup in the scheme of things, but he was a first round pick. I don’t care if he was a project of not, if he’s not showing you that ‘it’ now, maybe it’s not gonna happen anytime soon. We’re in the business of playing the best guys, and that’s what you do.

But James needs to stay away from this stuff.  This only further hurts his already shaken reputation.  Asking the media to play nice with the man they’ve cherished for so many years? It’s comical.  The man may change lives off the field, according to one announcer, but unless he brings results to the field that’s where the criticism lies.  LeBron needs to worry about his own problems, and this further makes him look soft.  We all know about the NBA Finals disappearance, but this just seems stupid.  It’s as if LeBron is an attention-whore.  Even when the NBA is out of the limelight, he has to have his name in the news.  Well LeBron hope you’re happy.  You’re the top story today, regarding a league that you’re not a part of.

As for Merril Hoge, know who you’re blasting LeBron, before you type out dumb, ill-informed tweets.  Hoge has been through a lot as evidenced by his interesting book, Find a Way, which came out back in September.  His childhood was difficult and the man has been through some crazy things, including overcoming cancer.  Just read the Product Description on Amazon.com:

When Merril talked about his dream of playing in the NFL all he heard was, that will be too hard, you can’t beat those odds, it’s impossible, and son don’t put all your eggs in one basket! That inspired him to write Find a Way and put it on the top of the wall above all his goals. Find a Way would become a life-long philosophy that helped him achieve his dream of playing in the NFL, but also has helped him deal with the near loss of his hand as a young boy, the loss of his mother at a young age, overcome severe head trauma and battle and beat cancer. It has also become a parenting tool and helped him realize the magic that exists in all of us!

Does that sound like a ‘hater?’ If anything, Hoge has every right to say what he said, given what he’s been through.  This isn’t a guy being hard for the sake of being hard.  He’s just calling it as he sees it. Hoge knows what it’s like to talk about overcoming the odds cause the man did it himself.  Heck, maybe LeBron should read the book too.

At the end of the day Hoge just did his job.  If Tebow proves him wrong, so be it.

Photo: AP

(Clark started and writes for NFLsFuture.com)

The story of Jim Tressel’s demise will be forever linked to the grotesque sham known as the NCAA.   In an effort to not come off as a Jim Tressel-apologist, I will simply state that Jim Tressel deserved the punishment for an age old practice.

In a day and age, when leading sports stories on ES(EC)PN are marked by athletes with guns, PED’s, rape allegations, the major media markets have decided to chastise The Ohio State University and Jim Tressel for “violations.”

Sports Illustrated led the charge and ultimately took the credit for running Jim Tressel out of The Horseshoe.  After months and probably millions of dollars, SI got their dirt.  The dirt they needed to chalk up another Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism.  Congrats, SI you got your man.  I challenge anyone to the argument that given the resources used they couldn’t dig up dirt on every major collegiate program.  Tats don’t come cheap these days.  So turn on a game and ask yourself how your favorite, overexposed college athlete paid for that sleeve of tats.  Rich uncle, Right?

ESPN runs an all day Memorial Day marathon to depict Jim Tressel as the villain in an attempt to cover-up the corruption of the NCAA.  The sad thing is that most will buy it and move on thinking another dirty program has received the NCAA death sentence.

Only if that were reality.  The reality is the NCAA is perpetrating the biggest lie in all of sports and making billions while we are buying it.

Jim Tressel is not a bad man.  Like most NCAA coaches he did what he did to protect his program and win football games.  Show me a NCAA coach that hasn’t or wouldn’t do the same and I will show you a man looking for a new job in the next couple of years.  In the business of college football it is win or well, win.

The fact of the matter is that Jim Tressel ran a quality program.  He graduated players at a rate that makes higher academic institutions jealous, he preached paying it forward and his players consistently showed their faces at charitable events around the state of Ohio, he molded troubled boys into men.  Most will fall back on Maurice Clarett, Ray Small, or Terrelle Pryor.  But take it from someone in this business of molding teenagers into adults, it isn’t an easy task.  Jim Tressel believed he could mold all young men into men and that is what cost him his job.  He believed his own lie and took the sword for the program he protected against it.

The NCAA will have you believe come August when sanctions are taken that they take these matters seriously.  Serious enough to sanction a program that makes more money than the GDP of Bangladesh.

If we continue to buy the story the NCAA is selling we never get an answer to our age old dilemma and it’s only a matter of time for the next program to be paraded around as dirty.  They have gotten away with archaic rules for so long they are really starting to believe they are doing right by these amateur athletes.

What a sham, amateur athletes.  What is amateur about a stadium packed filled with $100 seats and selling the likeness, jerseys, and memorabilia of the athletes that pour their blood and sweat into ensuring a billion dollar industry.

Maybe SI or ESPN will pour the resources into investigating the NCAA one day and things will really change.  Oh wait, I forgot they are married to the same myth that is the NCAA.

Photo: AP

Today ESPN concluded their groundbreaking 30 for 30 series.  Hopefully it ushers in a new era of sports journalism.  Because what ESPN did in handing the reigns of their series over to some of the biggest and brightest in Hollywood and afar is it re-lit the torch for the little guy. For the big guy. For the story we all knew about, but didn’t know the details. For the chaos we never had a clue about in a country we knew even less about.

In a sports world, now dominated by big-market teams and biased sports coverage, ESPN unplugged their very own biases and put the stories in the hands of different people. People not afraid to bring an edge with them. People who saw stories where the average person may have seen nothing.

In ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, we got film-making at it’s finest. Investigative journalism at it’s most beautiful. Tales from both sides of the story, whether you wanted to hear both sides or not.

I haven’t had a chance to watch all 30, but the ones I have watched have mostly been spectacular, entertaining, and most of all riveting theater. For a channel that re-defined sports and the respective coverage of them, it was a match made in heaven to see them turn over some of the power to some familiar and unfamiliar faces. With it came 30 documentaries. Each with it’s own spin. Each with it’s own tale to tell. Some mind-blowing. Others previously untold.

So ESPN puts a bow on this tribute to the last 30 years in sports, but I hope this is just the beginning. There are so many fascinating stories in the world of sports both big and small that people should hear. Hopefully the produced series by the brilliant Bill Simmons will spur a new dynamic in sports film-making.

King’s Random – Have yet to see it.

The Band that Wouldn’t Die – A great piece on the Baltimore Colts Band, a group of people that helped lure football back to the city. I never knew they existed before the story.

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? – A cool look at the short lived USFL, a league that had potential beyond anything that I had ever known about, but ultimately failed because of ill-fated decisions. One of those entertaining documentaries that makes you wonder ‘what if?’ A really good film.

Muhammad and Larry – Have yet to see it.

Without Bias – Have yet to see it.

The Legend of Jimmy the Greek - Have yet to see it.

The U – A riveting look at the “Convicts” who put Miami on the map, and the problems that nearly eliminated one of college football’s most colorful dynasties. I had no idea “The U” had so much influence on so many college football rules.

Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the Knicks – A good film about the rise of Reggie Miller and his much celebrated rivalry with the Knicks and Spike Lee. Good, not great.

Guru of Go – Have yet to see it.

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson – Allen Iverson’s 1993 trial is revisitedin a long, and sometimes slow film that leaves the question: what really happened in a Virginia bowling alley was A.I. was in high school.

Silly Little Game – Have yet to see it.

Run Ricky Run – Have yet to see it.

The 16th Man – Have yet to see it.

Straight Outta L.A. – Have yet to see it.

June 17, 1994 – Have yet to see it.

The Two Escobars - A riveting, horrifying, trip through Columbia’s short lived soccer empire. Done almost entirely in spanish, The Two Escobars is still a must see movie experience, one that will leave you chilled long after the final credits have rolled.

The Birth of Big Air – Have yet to see it.

Jordan Rides the Bus – A really fun look at Michael Jordan’s Birmingham Barons baseball experiment. A  cool look at how his presence forever changed the Barons and how he almost made it to The Show.

Little Big Men - Have yet to see it..

One Night in Vegas - Have yet to see it.

Unmatched – A look back at Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova’s well chronicled rivalry, and their lesser publicized friendship. While interesting, it was not one of the series’ best.

The House of Steinbrenner – Have yet to see it.

Into the Wind – A very sad, very inspirational story from NBA star Steve Nash. Terry Fox’s run across Canada to get support for cancer research is a fantastic one, and a tale that I never knew about before 30 for 30. Tales like these made this series’ special.

Four Days in October – Have yet to see it.

Once Brothers - A little long, and a little sluggish, the story of Serbian stars Dražen Petrovi? and Vlade Divac is nevertheless interesting. The footage and commentary is pretty intense at times.

Tim Richmond: To the Limit – I never knew about Richmond’s story or his battle with AIDS. This brought to light both about a man could have been the king of NASCAR.

Fernando Nation – Have yet to see it.

Marion Jones: Press Pause - Have yet to see it.

The Best that Never Was – Not a must see film, but an interesting behind the scene tale of Marcus Dupree, whose high school highlights, old as they may be, will blow your mind.

Pony Excess - A terrific film that cap a must see series. Excess documents the death penalty imposed on SMU for not knowing when to get out of their own way. Leaves one to wonder how many other schools have cheated/are cheating.

As you can see I have a lot of films to see. I’ve only seen 13 of the 30, but the ones I have seen were at the very worst entertaining. The Two Esccobars was the best in my opinion because it left me startled. As I see more of these great stories I can begin to fill in the blanks on the missing 17.

MIKE KAYE

You’ve been listening to draft talk for weeks, and the day is almost here.  On Saturday the NFL will introduce it’s newest batch of fresh faces, soon to be stars, and a crop of sure-fire busts, and most likely America, you’ll be watching.  Because what better way to spend a Saturday, then to lock yourself in a house all day, as the commish reads from a nifty little card emblazoned with a team logo.  More than likely you won’t know who half of these guys are, and had it been 1979, pre-ESPN you probably wouldn’t know 90% of the players pegged to go in the first round.

So who’s going where, and what team’s going to do what?  The envelope please…

SCOTT JACOBS

Welcome to the show boys!… and girls of course!  Today, Juiced Sports has an article featured on ESPN.com’s Page 2 Uni Watch.  Being a huge fan of logos, jersey designs, and all things sports aesthetics this is a great thrill for us.

So what’s featured?  Mitch’s article on the original Baltimore Ravens logo, read it here.  Mitch’s article interestingly enough dates back to October 2007, but who cares right?  How many times can you say you’ve got a link on ESPN.com?  And we don’t care how big the World Wide Leader in Sports’ website is.  Being on there, even if we’re tucked away neatly in the 16th paragraph (yeah we counted, big whoop, want to fight about it?) is very very cool.

The excerpt here (the link to our page is in bold):

“Swint hasn’t yet hired a lawyer or decided whether to pursue litigation (he realizes his lack of documentation hurts whatever claim he might have). Either way, this isn’t the first time a fan has claimed that his unsolicited design submission was appropriated by a team. When the Baltimore Ravens unveiled their original helmet logo in 1996, a Maryland security guard named Frederick E. Bouchat claimed that the logo design was based on a drawing he had faxed to the team the previous year. A federal court later agreed (which is why the Ravens switched to this helmet logo in 1999), although Bouchat received no monetary damages.”

So yeah, so we thought we’d share that with you.  Read the entire Uni Watch article here.

Photo: Baltimore Sun

If you don’t, after seeing this video you sure won’t forget it. It’s a classic. And this video brings us back to a simpler time: when ESPN had simpler graphics and a smaller number of reporters, and they actually tried to have some witty humor. This was a time before they spun a wheel, landed on a topic, and said we will talk about this every single week for the next year no matter how many better topics there are.

Back in the day, Sportscenter was fun. Everyone had a personality that was unique and colorful. Their graphics were generic and cheesy, but the anchors made the show, not the graphics or lame panel discussions. But that was back in the day. Apparently, when MLB ran this promotion in 1998 the league was also unafraid of some ridicule. No one thought about steroids back then. How could you with these abominations?

MITCHELL BLATT

This morning on SportsCenter, the crew analyzed the first two picks, then for some strange reason, they jumped to #6 and analyzed the Knicks pick.

Okay, so they had a good reason to talk Knicks. As Stu Scott said, “Since we’re in New York, we’ve got to talk about the New York-area teams.”

Yeah, no one cares that you’re in New York, but everyone hates the Knicks, and they suck anyway, so you have no reason to talk about them.

So then Jeff Van Gundy is asked to analyze the pick, Danilo Gallinari or something, and he must be thinking the same thing I’m thinking because he has no idea who the hell D-Gal is, so he had to quote other people who were affiliated with the Knicks when he analyzed the pick. He was basically reading off a press release.

He said:

I’m not as comfortable saying what type of player he is, because I haven’t watched him a whole lot, Stu. If he plays like Fran Prischella [sic] says he does, which is ‘tough, hard, high basketball IQ,’ the New York fan is attracted to all those qualities. This guy, if he’s ‘multidimenstional,’ as Donnie Walsh said, put it deep, put it on the floor, in traffic, he’ll fit in.

Frankly, I think he’d fit in better if he was selfish and sucked. But, I will say that if he’s a great player who can score lots of baskets, he’ll be a good pick.

SCOTT JACOBS

There are two days until the Celts and Lakers tip off from the TD BankNorth Garden to commence the 2008 NBA Finals.

With the dead time in between I figured I’d get something off my chest that has been bothering me for some time.

This match up.  This dream flash back to the past, glory days of the league matchup, that TV analysts and writers have been pulling for is not what everyone wanted.

I know I didn’t.

I hate the Lakers.

I’m a Suns fan.  Hearing analysts and sports fans exclaim that the Lakers now have the best and most dynamic offense in the league kills a small piece of me inside everytime I hear it.  The Suns may not have won a title, but over their exciting four year run, no one ever questioned the potency of their offense.

The Lakers have the best offense? I’m not really disagreeing at this point.  Right now they seemingly do.  But for people to tell me which team I want to see, I think is brutally ridiculous. Suns fans hate the Lakers.  Beating them down in the first round two years in a row was an enjoyable ride.  The Suns never even made the Finals those years. The Lakers hit the jackpot with a still hard to believe trade that went through for Gasol, and Bam!, they’re in the Finals, not to mention the favorites even though they’re starting out on the road!

And I think this season has taught us a lesson that never fails to repeat itself and shows the fickle notion of most sports writers and analysts: winning changes everything.  Kobe is still the same guy, only now he has an MVP, passes the ball a little, and the assumption is that everyone now loves the guy.

If everyone loves him, why haven’t you seen him reappear on TV commercials.  And no that 50 million pounds challenge commercial doesn’t count.

Here’s another thing that may get people riled up, but I’m okay with that.  Derek Fisher’s return to the Lakers has been huge.  But his addition was a total blow to the Utah Jazz, who kindly allowed him to find a team closer to his family in the offseason.  I know, I know about Fisher’s family.  But nine teams out of ten don’t get that crazy type of break.  Everyone and their mother knows that the Jazz would never have let the vet go unless a health issue created a conflict.

And I’m not attacking him or his family.  Merely the fact that the Lakers have gotten some very fortunate things to fall their way.  Gason, Fisher, just to name a few.

But I will say that the Lakers are an exciting team to watch.  They pass, they play rugged defense, and they really have a knack for hitting that backbreaking three.  Who needs Robert Horry?  He’s at home, the Lakers are in Boston to begin their last conquest to a title.

Boston is, well, what’s the best way I can put this?  O, I know… boring 

For a Celtics fan, KG falling in Boston’s lap for seven players was a godsend. For the rest of us, we had to hear all about how great it was that the Celtics were back all season.  I know Bostonians and New Englanders are loyal fans, but there are 29 other NBA cities with great fans too.  Just because Boston is a big city, doesn’t mean everyone wants to see them win.  Just because they have history some what 21 years ago, doesn’t mean they’re relevent like they once were.

Until Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, and Kevin McHale walk through the door, this Celtics team will just be another good team that did just enough to get to the finals because of a gift wrapped deal that got them over the hump over the mediocre East.

The Big Three?  More like the Three revolving doors.  Seriously, when was the last time you watched a Celtics game and all three of Boston’s so called superstars were all playing great?  Boston is good.  I’m not making a claim they don’t deserve to be where they are.  But I think we all jumped the gun a bit when the Celtics got Ray Allen, KG, and Pierce together on one team.  They’re all good players, but Allen has been unbelievably awful at points this post-season, Garnett seems to disappear in stretches of games and never seems to want to take the clutch shot, and Pierce is either great or just okay.

Whether he’s a Hall of Famer or not, I personally don’t think so.

Finally there’s this.  Most Celtics games are painful… to watch.

Great defense doesn’t always mean exciting.  Games against Cleveland that they had in round number two, such as the epically bad game one, were perfectly good examples that three stars doesn’t mean big scores.

I remember when the Celtics got off to a 20-3 start early in the year and were putting up crazy numbers on a nightly basis.  Then the NBA figured them out, they got old and got vets P.J. Brown and Sam “I am” Cassel, and all of a sudden he playoffs come around and they’re struggling to score against the likes of Atlanta and Cleveland.

Whatever.

This is the hand we got dealt, so I’ll live with it.

But it is hard to watch these big publications and writers claim this is the matchup everybody wanted to see.

Well, I’m not everybody.

I watched my Suns see their glorious run come to a screeching halt. And now I have to put up with this Laker-Celtic crap?

Not exactly my vision of “had to see.”

But I’ll watch.  O I’ll watch.  Because I love sports, and I can put up with the almost unbearable bias that our friends over at ESPN and ABC put on us on a weekly basis.

But if they even mention Joba Chamberlain during the pregame show, I’m done.

I can only take so much big city bias.

That said it’ll be Lakers in six, because they’re the better team.

SCOTT JACOBS

Barry Melrose is the face of ESPN’s hockey coverage. Scratch that. He’s the voice, heartbeat and preventer from the sport becoming completely invisible on the Worldwide Leader in New York sports coverage. And now, with all that, he’s on the verge of leaving his cozy studio gig for the lousy Tampa Bay Lightning.

Whether you care about the Bolts or not has little relevence to the potential significance of this story. The question is not whether Melrose is the right fit for Tampa or whether the Lighning will make the playoffs next year. No, the question now, is, “Is this it?”

Think about it. Hockey’s lame coverage on ESPN has been salvaged by a scruffy beard Melrose for about three years now. Actually, since ESPN threw hockey out the door and all of their analysts post-lockout, the only hockey voice on the channel has been Melrose. Marines Hockey Night was Melrose’s place.

Stupid question, but does ESPN even employ another knoledgeable hockey man? No, the crazy suit wearing guy, Don Cherry from National Hockey Night in Canada doesn’t count.

With Melrose leaving does that signal the end of hockey coverage altogether on ESPN? He was the last remaining link to hockey’s ESPN heydays, when the most beautiful tune on TV was that National Hockey night song. But now? Well, he’s off to sunny Florida.

Does ESPN replace him with another hockey guy, say someone from Versus or NBC or even Canada? Or does ESPN throw in the towel, and tell Steve Levy, don’t worry about it, we no longer care?

It’s weird to think this could be hockey’s final straw on ESPN, but I think there’s a 50-50 possibility. Remember, ESPN has no hockey show, doesn’t even show more then 4-5 highlights during the regular season on a daily basis, and doesn’t even spotlight the sports except a couple days a week.

With Melrose gone, does hockey on ESPN go with it?

I can’t fathom ESPN completely doing away with the sport, but that’s the road they’ve been inevitably traveling ever since that ratings nightmare on ABC between Calgary and Tampa Bay.

And now, the Lightning are striking again.

Which begs the question. When this is all said and done, when Melrose signs the dotted line with the Bolts, does it mean Tampa Bay is to blame for the sports fall from grace? Consider, Tampa Bay was a nightmare team to have in the Finals, and now they’re taking away the last guy who covers the sport.

I’ve never been more curious as to what ESPN chooses to do next.

ESPN, your move Bristol.