whaaa??

Hi all, I have been incredibly busy all day and have not had a chance to talk about Jacoby's Treasure Chest, or how I completely blew my prediction on the Atlanta-Chicago game. My advice is go to Vegas and do the opposite of what I predict. I mean, seriously...is this the National Football League or something? I remember when the new Indiana Jones movie came out Burger King had this contest where you had a 50-50 chance of pulling the right sticker to win a free prize...and I pulled the wrong one on all four of our game cards. I always choose the wrong double-up at video poker, and look for the high fastball that turns out to be a sweeping low 12-6 curve ball...such is the way of things...but the season is young.

I did have a bit of a "what the hell??" moment when driving in to work this morning listening to ESPN radio that has nothing to do with baseball at all, but made my jaw literally drop when I heard it....

So Brad Stevens, the Head coach of the wildly popular Butler Bulldogs got a contract extension from his school today. Good for him, right? Where the jaw-drop comes into play is that...it is good until 2022, in other words it is a 12 YEAR extension.

Are they serious? Is this guy Bobby Cox or Coach K, or that Gino dude from Connecticut women's basketball? A 12 year extension? I mean, I was like everybody else who watched the Sweet 16 and the Final Four, and then the showdown with Duke...but COME ON. 12 year extension is just begging for another contract breech fallout.

Think back to a few years ago (I know, it is hard to even think back to last week). Remember teams like George Washington. Remember Valparaiso? Sienna?

The thing is, these are not perennial teams. They are teams that drew the attention of the country and had enough decent players to make a run at the dance for a window of 2-3 years. The problem with this is...where are these teams now?

Now Butler MAY be around for a bit longer...but do you really believe that Butler is going to become an institution that all the high-school athletes are going to line up for. "Forget NC, Duke, or Syracuse...I want to play for Butler"..mmmm, no.

In my humble opinion, a 12-year extension is a BIG mistake that the university will regret. I bet even Brad Steven's jaw dropped when he got the offer. This has Mike Beliotti written all over it.

But again, I always seem to choose incorrectly, but we shall see.