794...St. John's Versus Carleton And U Of O Today

Game time is 1 at Carleton; 8 30 at the University of Ottawa.

St. John's Red Storm are a big time Big East basketball program that were a power in the NCAA until they were coerced into changing their name, Redmen, to the Red Storm in the early '90s. Normally I would say "damn you, political correctness" but, in this case, being a Syracuse Orange fan and all, I will give the pc racists points. Now if you would just go after the Hoyas and Huskies all would be good.

See you at Carleton, Sharpie in hand, black and red sombrero on my noggin.

WFDS

691...Carleton/Towson: Ravens/Tigers: Tonight

At the U of K.

8 bells.

Be there for the first game of the 2009/2010 Ravens season as the defending national champion basketball team takes on the Towson Tigers of the NCAA.

Look for me in my black sombrero. Sharpie in hand.

WFDS

635...NCAA Accepts First Canadian School

Ah, another sign of the impending doom and end of Canadian culture and blah blah blah.

Or, perhaps, they just wanted to save money on travel.

Either way, Sports Illustrated reports that Simon Fraser University in suburban Vancouver has been admitted on probation to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division II. This is not the big time, populated by schools such as Notre Dame, Washington, Syracuse but it is the NC2A.

Here is what SI had to say:

A new option emerged on July 10, when the NCAA’s Division II admitted its first non-U.S. school, Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C., for a transitional period with the ability to become a full member in 2012-13. Division II made the decision to geographically balance its membership, particularly in the West generally and in the Northwest for football. For now, neither Division I nor Division III is considering opening its membership internationally, and with only a handful of Canadian schools considering Division II, the concept of a North American Collegiate Athletic Association is far-fetched.

But, but and but. The process that made this happen was the attempt by the University of British Columbia to join the NCAA a few years ago. UBC wants in the NCAA Division I to play in the Pacific Athletic Conference, the PAC 10, against schools such as Stanford, Washington, UCLA and USC. Their reasoning is two fold. First off, it is much cheaper to go from Van to Seattle, Palo Alto, LA than from Van to Saskatoon, Brandon and Thunder Bay. Secondly, if one buys into the fact that one of the prime reasons for big time athletics is to raise the profile of the school, playing against Stanford, Washington et. al. on TV has exponentially more value than playing Brandon in a half empty gym that may or may not even make the student paper.

This is not the end of university sports in Canada per se but it could be the end of the CIS, Canadian Interscholastic Sports and, frankly, that is a good thing.

It is fashionable to hate on the United States for sure but the fact of the matter is the CIS has nothing approaching Title IX, which is a gender equity law passed in 1972 and is why women's sports have exploded in the last three decades nor does the CIS publish graduation rates. The NCAA has both.

WFDS

608...My Third Favourite Sport Is Cheerleading

I love it because it is so dangerous.

You scoff but facts is facts my friend, facts is facts.

Cheerleading is the cause of 65 per cent of catastrophic injuries among female high school athletes according to a study published in the most recent annual report from the National Center For Catastrophic Sports Injury Research which shares a home with the national champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels ballers in the Triangle.

Cheerleading also is the cause of 70 per cent of catastrophic injuries among university athletes in the NCAA.

In the years surveyed, 1982 to 2007, there were 109 fatal or catastrophic injuries to cheerleaders at the high school level. The number two sport for fatal or catastrophic injuries was gymnastics at 9.

Let those numbers sink in.

109 cheerleaders f'd up super bad; 9 gymnasts.

109 to 9.

A study in the journal Pediatrics says that the high rate of injury can be tied to the simple truth that cheerleading has grown "...from a school spirit activity..." into applied gymnastics.

Plus it is done without pads and often with coaching that, on a good day, is suspect.

Schools such as Nebraska, which was stung with a 2.1 million dollar judgement against it after a Cornhusker cheerleader ended a double back flip on her head, resulting in partial paralysis, have banned gymnastic routines and things like pyramids.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cheerleaders.

WFDS

583...Tories Prepare For Autumn Election

Brian Laghi in this morning's Globe and Mail writes that the Conservative Party of Canada is holding meetings starting today in my hometown and your National Capital with the express purpose of getting the troops ready for a fall election.

Say it ain't so.

There should be some sort of law against having an election during the heart of the football season. It is hard enough to follow the CFL, NFL, CIS, NCAA and BCS without having an election take up part of one's brain.

Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, the guy with the moustache and Gilles Duceppe, play nice, at least until the end of the regular season.

Please.

And thanks.

WFDS