Episode 49 - Know Your Mid-Majors: SoCon

Mike concludes a string of three straight solo Know Your Mid-Majors segments with the Southern Conference (SoCon).

Interesting fact about this conference: if spawned not one but two of our current major conferences - the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1932 and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 1953.

The 2013-14 members of this conference are:

• Appalachian State (leaving for Sun Belt in summer 2014)
• Tennessee-Chattanooga
• The Citadel
• Davidson (leaving for A-10 in summer 2014)
• Elon (leaving for Colonial in summer 2014)
• Furman
• Georgia Southern (leaving for Sun Belt in summer 2014)
• Samford
• UNC Greensboro
• Western Carolina (Mike can't pronounce the name of the town this school is located in)
• Wofford

Joining the SoCon during the summer are East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun), Mercer (Atlantic Sun) and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) (Big South).

Former St. Louis Rams CB Cortland Finnegan, who introduced the "Smack Cam" fad in the Rams locker room in 2013, is a Samford grad.  Therefore, audio from some of Finnegan's "Smack Cam" videos is used in this episode for illustrative purposes only.

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Episode 48 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Atlantic Sun

Mike is solo again for Know Your Mid-Majors.  Today's conference: Atlantic Sun Conference.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• East Tennessee State (leaving for SoCon in summer 2014)
• Florida Gulf Coast (founded in 1991, this is the newest NCAA DI school - and made the tournament in 2013)
• Jacksonville
• Kennesaw State
• Lipscomb
• Mercer (leaving for SoCon in summer 2014)
• Northern Kentucky
• North Florida
• South Carolina Upstate
• Stetson

 


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Episode 47 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Sun Belt

Mike starts a string of three solo Know Your Mid-Majors with the Sun Belt Conference.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• Arkansas State
• Arkansas-Little Rock
• Georgia State
• Louisiana-Lafayette
• Louisiana-Monroe
• South Alabama
• Texas State
• Texas-Arlington
• Troy
• Western Kentucky (leaving for Conference USA in summer 2014)

Joining this conference over the summer are Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, both from the Southern Conference.

This edition of Know Your Mid-Majors contains small clips from the Tony Kornheiser Show (during its ESPN Radio incarnation) where he talks about a controversy around Western Kentucky's blob-like mascot Big Red.  Intended for illustrative purposes only.

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Episode 46 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Conference USA

Today's Know Your Mid-Majors deals with the quintessential high mid-major: Conference USA.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• Alabama-Birmingham (UAB)
• East Carolina (headed to the American Athletic in summer 2014)
• Florida Atlantic
• Florida International
• Louisiana Tech (Terry Bradshaw's alma mater)
• Marshall
• Middle Tennessee State
• UNC Charlotte
• North Texas
• Old Dominion
• Rice
• Southern Mississippi (Brett Favre's alma mater)
• Texas-El Paso (UTEP)
• Texas-San Antonio (UTSA)
• Tulane (headed to the American Athletic in summer 2014)
• Tulsa (headed to the American Athletic in summer 2014)

Western Kentucky (currently in the Sun Belt Conference) joins this conference in summer 2014.

 


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City wins League Cup. Mike is SAFE!

The 2013-14 edition of England's League Cup has come and gone.

Manchester City 3-1 Sunderland

Mike correctly picked City to win this game - and by 2 goals.

As a result, Mike is SAFE and does not have yet another batsu game coming for the time being.

There is still the matter of the NBA regular season as well as Barcelona's fate in the UEFA Champions League.

So far, 5 of the issued 6 batsu games have been completed.  The one outstanding is Mike getting a certain autograph in less than two weeks (he still hasn't got tickets).

Episode 45 - Know Your Mid-Majors: American Athletic

Question: Is the conference formerly known as the Big East considered a mid-major?

Answer: Some would argue no, but for our purposes, yes, it is because they lose preferred ("BCS") status this summer.

The American Athletic Conference is the result of the non-football schools of the old Big East Conference (the so-called "Catholic 7") splitting from the older conference and buying the Big East name.  Don't worry, Big East fans, we'll get to you eventually.

The schools of the American Athletic in 2013-14 are:

• Central Florida (UCF)
• Cincinnati
• Connecticut (UConn)
• Houston
• Louisville (heading for the ACC this summer)
• Memphis
• Rutgers (heading for the Big Ten this summer)
• South Florida
• Southern Methodist (SMU)
• Temple

In summer 2014, three schools join this conference as full members, all from Conference USA: East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa.

This episode contains clips from a 2008 segment of Hardball on MSNBC for illustrative purposes.

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Episode 44 - Where Are They Now? 4

Tim gives us another edition of "Where Are They Now?"

Today's athletes of discussion:

• Brian Bosworth
• Fernando Valenzuela
• Rudy Tomjanovich
• Mike Eruzione

Tim also provided for us a photo signed by Eruzione and other members of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team.  He also informed us of a sports collectibles show he had attended and met for members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Marcus Allen, Len Dawson, Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith.

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