Kansas Athletics

Ottawa’s Semi Ojeleye to visit Duke on May 31 | KUsports.com
What I've read is that Self has had a hard time deciding where Ojeleye fits in terms of position. Regardless I'd hate to see a player from Ottawa that is getting this kind of attention head elsewhere. I hope we're on this in a big way.

KU football player gets diversion for OUI case | KUsports.com
So obviously this was a first time offense and Sims will have an opportunity to earn his way back into the lineup after the three game suspension. It's not going to be easy.

Misc.

Change the Game: Rethinking block-charge - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
This was a constant point of contention this year.

Andy Katz's Daily Word: NCAA rules committee passes recommendation on consistency of floors on the court -- college basketball - ESPN
Some rules discussion relating back to the charge/block rule

For two years the Big 12 has been the conference that others have come to raid when addressing the conference alignment game. First it was the Big 10 and Pac 10, then the SEC came along to snag a piece of the "crumbling" Big 12. Now, finally, the tables seem to have turned. Big, bad Texas seems ready to cooperate and work toward the greater good and all seems to be playing out nicely for a conference that had twice been on the brink of dissolving.

As a Kansas fan this is GREAT news. Our loyalty or perhaps lack of options, has been rewarded. While others found new homes or frantically lobbied for validation, we stuck by our previous alliances because it made the most sense to Kansas.

I've sat with Nebraska fans less than a year ago who claimed that Texas had ruined the Big 12 and Kansas was going down with the ship to the Mountain West. I've listened to Colorado fans talk about how they are too 'West coast' to take trips to Lawrence and they will recruit California and compete in the Pac 12. And of course this past year we heard the SEC chants from Mizzou fans while they celebrated their greatest achievement in Big 12 history, leaving.

With Friday's announcement the picture surrounding the four power conferences and who will comprise that group are becoming more clear. The aforementioned SEC has chosen to align itself with none other than the Big 12. With the Pac 12 and Big 10 already aligned in the Rose Bowl, things are starting to look very murky for the ACC and even worse for an already failing Big East.

The college football playoff is creeping ever closer. The leagues that will make up that playoff are starting to take shape. It would appear that the stage is set for further realignment and perhaps the power conference end game that we've been hearing about for three years. Fortunately for the first time in three years, it's good to be the Big 12 when it comes to the now infamous word...conference realignment.

Kansas Athletics

Name recognition: Campo widely respected, especially by Texans | KUsports.com
Good for Kansas, my biggest question is how long we keep him around.

My reaction to last week's Champions Bowl announcement, plus some realignment links from the weekend | Tale of the Tait | KUsports.com
Good snapshot of what the Friday announcement means.

Big 12

Report: Big 12 still split on expansion | CollegeFootballTalk
The Tulsa World‘s Dave Sittler tweeted Sunday afternoon that, regarding expansion, four Big 12 schools are okay with the idea, four are one the fence, one is pushing hard in favor of it and one is pushing hard to prevent it.

Champions Bowl

College football -- Big 12-SEC bowl a death knell for ACC? - ESPN
The Big 12 and SEC are starting their version of the Rose Bowl. And that's bad news for the ACC and Big East.

SEC, Big 12 use bowl game deal to get leverage in BCS playoff - Stewart Mandel - SI.com
With a four-team playoff now imminent and the face of college football's postseason about to undergo a reconstructive makeover, the SEC and Big 12 made a bold statement Friday, proving they'll most definitely be at the center of it.

Big 12, SEC announce a deal for champions to play in bowl game - NCAA Football - SI.com
"This new game will provide a great matchup between the two most successful conferences in the BCS era and will complement the exciting postseason atmosphere created by the new four-team model. Most importantly, it will provide our student-athletes, coaches and fans with an outstanding bowl experience."

a tad light on questions this week, so help a guy out and email rctmailbag at gmail dot com to get yours answered.

Q: Rank Tharpe, Adams, White and Frankamp in terms of guards you're most excited about over the next couple years.

-from Michael R.

This is an interesting question, which I will most assuredly mess up because I have only seen Tharpe play. Obviously I am a bigger Tharpe fan than anyone at RCT (I think), but I was also a bigger Tyshawn fan than anyone and you see how that turned out (/toots own horn). That said, everything about Conner Frankamp reminds me of Jeff Boschee, and that is the ultimate trump card in my book. Being 6'0" and, let's face it, white, there are going to be questions about whether he has the athleticism to get his shot off at the college level, but even if he turns into a three point shooter only his shot is so good that he will be a valuable college player with that skill alone.

Adams and White are tougher to discern between because they're two different players. Adams is more of a slasher type while White figures to be more of an outside shooter. My answer would probably be Frankamp, Tharpe, White, Adams, which I'll partially address in the next question:

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Kansas Athletics

It’s time to accent year’s top Jayhawks | KUsports.com
I'd put Taylor higher up on the list. He was arguably the best player during Big 12 play.

Duncan, Kansas baseball bottle up Missouri | KUsports.com
Nice win for the baseball team

Misc.

Ex-FSU trustee: ‘As far as I know, the Big 12 reached out to us’ | CollegeFootballTalk
This is interesting because initially the rumor out of the Big 12 was that no such contact occurred. Of course, what else is anyone going to say.

ACC meetings: Florida State leaving not brought up - NCAA Football - SI.com
Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford said Wednesday that the possibility of Florida State leaving the league was not brought up "in any formal way'' during this week's meetings.

With the summer in full swing, I thought looking back at one of the most memorable seasons in KU history would be a good way to pass the time. Today a look at the top 10 games of last year. Feel free to leave yours in the comments and also remember to be mailing the mailbag at RCTmailbag at gmail dot com.

This year's Kansas team played in more big games - and more close ones - than any I can remember, and they actually lost quite a few of them, which made this list even tougher than normal to compile. Do I rank losses higher than wins because the game was better? Or should the top few games all be wins? Let's find out:

10. vs. North Dakota, December 31

We'll start off with a game that meant more to me than probably any other college basketball fan out there as my alma mater and current institute of higher learning squared off in an epic grudge match. Or maybe it was a 26 point blowout victory for KU. Either way. Thomas Robinson had a 30-20 game in the win, and it was fun to drop some knowledge about the Sioux and hopefully help show Kansas fans how great my home state is.

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