OSG CFB: Just How Much Is Kirk Ferentz's Buyout These Days...??? Still Un-Buyoutable...

((HT: Iowa State Daily Online))

Iowa State beat Iowa today in the annual CyHawk affair on a last-second field goal by Cole Netten with two seconds left in regulation.

Netten missed his first attempt, but Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz had called timeout to try and ice him.

Didn't work and now the Cyclones are 1-2 after their embarassing loss to North Dakota State and the Hawkeyes (2-1) have now lost three of the last four in the series.

Here's Paul Rhoads talking about his kicker...


And, now, we address the larger question. Frankly, it's one of the larger questions in the state after a day like today.

It is commonly known that Ferentz has the worst contract for a state employee in the history of contracts for state employees short of Huey Long.

And, for that, he can thank AD Gary Barta for base salaries, longevity bonuses, and anything else resembling supplemental payments that Barta threw at him when the contract was signed and extended.

Patrick Vint over at Bleacher Report did a tremendously face-slapping awareness piece IN 2012 on the sheer madness of the contract and why a buyout will NEVER HAPPEN UNTIL THE CONTRACT IS OVER... and, then, it just won't be renewed.

In the year 2020... let that sink in for a moment...

His contract is SO BAD it cannot be bought out, so a program is stuck with him unless someone befriends Warren Buffet or T. Boone Pickensian-type folks over the next five years or so.

If we extrapolate Vint's base number for buying out in 2012 dollars using his "75-percent of his base salary" figure, and we fire Kirk Ferentz the second this story is published, we're looking at a minimum of 52 payments of $219,742 or $11,426,584...

And that says nothing of any kind of hidden settlements or other hidden paragraphs in the Ferentz-ian contract.

It's almost the Peter Principle of contracts and there's nothing the school or the state can do about it.

Barta is more than happy, apparently, to fire one of the more nationally recognized field hockey coaches in the country when he let Tracey Griesbaum go with three weeks before the 2014 season was going to start a month ago- allegedly when five players went to Barta and claimed that Griesbaum called a player "fat."

Barta fired Griesbaum without cause and went straight to the buyout portion of the contract for that sport- and, probably, ruined it on campus.

A particular paragraph late in the Black Heart piece by Vint speaks volumes about where Barta's head is in the Iowa Athletic Program:

"A football workout actually put nine players in the hospital not long ago, yet not one person was fired or even reprimanded; the strength coach responsible for the workout got a 'Coach of the Year' award from the program two months later. And if yelling at players is grounds for dismissal, then Gary Barta has obviously not watched the basketball coach he hired four years ago."

So, if anyone is looking for any kind of success in Iowa City- good luck with that until Barta and Ferentz are gone...

SIX YEARS FROM NOW!!!

Cobb County Commissioners Approve Braves Paperwork

((HT: 11Alive.com))

Surprising no one, really, the suburban county that is getting the Atlanta Braves and their new ballpark may have slipped paperwork onto their website for only a day's review before the meeting Tuesday night.

And stacked the deck on speakers before putting their ideas to a vote that was going to pass anyway...

And had people tossed from the meeting who wanted to speak, weren't allowed to, and then raised their voices in protest...

It looks like an additional $31-million was added onto the county's responsibilities. If the Braves and the county don't meet their expectations with incoming revenue and revenue streams, then county taxpayers are on the hook for the balance...

Here's team coverage with the Hull Man and Melissa...

Construction starts in late 2014 and the team is set to move into its news digs in 2017

OSG High: Sixers Sign Down's Syndrome HS Student To Contract

((HT: CSN Philly))

The HQ showed the efforts of Kevin Grow a few days ago...

He is the Pennsylvania high schooler with Down's Syndrome who hit four three-pointers on Senior Night for Bensalem (PA) High School. Because of his efforts on and off the court, the Sixers are signing him to a two-day contract where he will take part in a team's practice, eat dinner with the team, and get some SIxers gear out of the deal.

When the Sixers host the Cavaliers on Tuesday, Grow gets a jersey, his own locker in the locker room, and will stand with his new teammates for the National Anthem.

Here's the signing at Bensalem High...


Grow and his teammates will be honored during the Cavs game during a timeout as well...

Drew Brees REALLY Wants Jimmy Graham To Stay...

((HT: Dan Patrick Show))

And he even went to the highest point of the first floor of the Manscraper to express his desires for Saints GM Mickey Loomis to keep his favorite tight end around...

Go the the 8:55 mark...


See what the Roman Numeral Classic does to folks...???

Causes them to channel Rocky during his run...

Or something...

Rogers Gets The Next 12 Years Of The NHL Up North...

((HT: Sportsnet))

And this is huge in a few ways...

1) The dollar figure- C$5.2-billion over 12 years... the largest deal in league history...

2) Sportsnet gets the "Hockey Night in Canada" brand, but can sub-lease it back to the CBC for four years...

3) It completely boxes out TSN nationally- the top-ranked cable network in the country and puts CBC under the thumb of Sportsnet- as it barely hangs on to any kind of sports branding...

Any kind...

Which means that the future of Don Cherry is in flux right now... and he can't even tell you what his future is...

4) CBC, run through public funding, can't flip the profits they make from hockey and turn them into other shows...

So, Sportsnet outspent everyone and CBC continues to fall behind in sports programming, but one of the first things the commissioner had to do was survive "Prime Time Sports" with Bob McCown....

Here's The Bettman with Bobcat...