John Wooden’s Impact on Sports and American Life is #1
In this blog, we chronicle the ongoing saga of college athletics. With 24/7 news outlets, blogs and investigative reporters constantly releasing stories at a feverish pace, it can at times be difficult to decide which pieces deserve our full attention. Nonetheless, some key events have such an impact on college sports that they warrant rising to the top of this year’s list. Here, then, are our picks as the Top Ten College Sports Stories of 2010: - The life and death of John Wooden. No one in history has had the influence over, or significantly touched, as many people in college sports as the former UCLA men’s basketball coach. When the other stories on this list have been long forgotten, Coach Wooden’s wisdom will still be felt and remembered.
- Reggie Bush returns the Heisman Trophy. For the first time ever, a Heisman recipient returned the most coveted prize in college football, if not in all of college sports.
- Conference realignment merry-go-round. The quest for more and more money has driven college sports into a new era. High-profile conferences are raiding neighboring conferences of its members so that conference football title games can be played, which of course creates more revenue. Where it stops, no one knows.
- The selling of Cam Newton. An NCAA investigation ascertained that Newton’s father, through an intermediary, attempted to coerce Mississippi State University into paying upwards of $180,000.00 for his son’s services. The plan failed, so Cam plays on at Auburn.
- UConn’s winning streak uncovered. Never has so little been made of such an amazing accomplishment. Geno Auriemma used three different teams to equal then surpass UCLA’s record of 88 consecutive wins. The basketball world yawned and moved on.
- Butler’s improbable run was March madness. Butler University’s men’s basketball team nearly won the NCAA title by advancing to the final game against the vaunted Duke Blue Devils. Had Bulldog Gordon Hayward’s last shot not banged off the back of the rim, we would still be wondering if Coach K had lost his magic touch for winning another championship ring. Instead, his genius is confirmed.
- BCS championship formula criticized, again. With fans clamoring for a season-ending tournament, the BCS steadfastly ignores the pleas, thumbs its nose and keeps the money.
- USC penalized. Gone is the athletic director, head coach and star athlete. Left in their place is a long, long list of their indiscretions and subsequent penalties levied by the NCAA which could paralyze the Trojans football and basketball programs for years to come.
- Terrelle Pryor’s short sale. The NCAA stumbled into a Columbus tattoo parlor which led to a series of accusations and eventual penalties which rained down upon the Ohio State quarterback and four of his buds.
- Northern Iowa beats top-seeded Kansas. Of all the upsets this past year, and there were many, this was the most compelling. A last second shot by NIU sank one of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament favorites to shake the event like dice in a tin cup. It was a harbinger of things to come.
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