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09/04/2010 - Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Helio Castroneves conserved enough fuel at the finish to win Saturday's IZOD IndyCar Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
Castroneves drove the final 53 laps around the 1.5-mile oval without pitting. The Team Penske driver captured the lead in the final laps when the remainder of the leaders had to stop for fuel.
The victory was Castroneves' second of the season and the 18th of his IndyCar career. He won at the Barber Motorsports Park road course in Birmingham, AL earlier this year.
Ed Carpenter, the pole sitter, matched his career-best finish with a second- place run. Carpenter also finished second at Kentucky last year. His teammate, Dan Wheldon, finished third, while Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti rounded out the top-five.
Points leader Will Power led the most laps with 82, but Power made slight contact with the wall after a late-race pit stop and then faded to an eighth- place finish. His lead is 17 points over Franchitti with just two races to go in the season -- Motegi, Japan and Homestead, FL.
<< White Sox edge Boston again to sweep doubleheader
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gavin Floyd tossed six solid innings and Carlos
Quentin posted two hits and scored twice as the Chicago White Sox edged
Boston, 3-1, to sweep a doubleheader at Fenway Park.
Mark Teahen also had a pair
<< Newton accounts for 5 TDs in Auburn's opening rout
Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Junior quarterback Cameron Newton was impressive
in his Auburn debut, throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for two more,
as the 22nd-ranked Tigers dominated Arkansas State, 52-26, in the season
opener
<< CB Vasher, WR Reed among Chargers' final cuts
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Chargers pared their roster to
the 53-player maximum on Saturday, releasing 23 players as part of their "cut-
down day" moves.
Excised were wide receiver Seyi Ajirotutu, tackle Brady Bond, runni
<< FCD extends unbeaten run to 13 with win over Toronto
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FC Dallas earned a 1-0 victory over Toronto FC
in Major League Soccer action at Pizza Hut Park on Saturday night.
Jeff Cunningham's eighth goal of the season and 129th of his MLS career were
enough to propel
Lions Release CB Bly, 19 more >>
Allen Park, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cornerback Dre' Bly was among the players
released by the Detroit Lions on Saturday, as the team pared its roster to the
53-player NFL maximum.
Bly, an 11-year NFL veteran who returned to Detroit in the offs
Lee's eighth-inning HR pushes Astros past D'Backs >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Lee hit the game-winning three-run home
run in the eighth inning and drove in four to lead Houston to a 6-5 come-from-
behind win over Arizona in the middle meeting of a three-game series.
Lee finished
Cummings brace leads Rapids past Goats >>
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colorado Rapids' striker Omar Cummings
scored two goals and helped set up another to lead his team to a 3-0 win over
Chivas USA at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Saturday night.
After the two teams b
Dalton leads TCU past Oregon State >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andy Dalton threw a touchdown and ran two in,
including the go-ahead score in the third quarter, as sixth-ranked TCU downed
No. 24 Oregon State, 30-21.
Dalton went 17-for-27 with 175 yards and two interce
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
The 2007 college football rules changes that were implemented to shorten games are now history. The NCAA rules committee did what they set out to do; games were cut by an average of 14 minutes per game last season. There were also, on average, 14 fewer plays per game. We’ll get into how that did (or didn’t) affect games in regards to the pointspread a bit later.
While the NCAA rules committee may have had the betterment of the game in mind, they'll now “turn back the clock” for next season. Two key rules have now been overturned by the NCAA committee for the 2007 season, something definitely for the better.
For those of you who may not remember what those rules actually were, let us refresh your memory.
1) The first one was actually starting the clock on a kickoff as soon as the kicker touched the ball rather than waiting until the returner touched it. The problem here was near the end of the half (or game), if the team leading was kicking off, they could milk the clock by intentionally running offsides and then re-kicking. They could run 10-15 seconds off the clock each play while taking just five-yard penalties each time. They could run the clock down and simply cause the half (or game) to end on a kickoff, keeping the opposing offense off the field. In 2007, the clock will now start when the returner touches the ball as it had before last season.
2) The second rule dealt with starting the clock after a change of online football betting possession rather than waiting until the ball was snapped. This took a lot of time off the clock throughout the game as teams changed possession, however it caused the most problems late in games (or halves). Rather than huddling up and calling a play, the offensive team would have to rush onto the field as the clock started. This was a definite disadvantage to a team that was trying to come from behind late in the game. This year the clock will start on a change of possession, after the ball is snapped.
How did those rules affect the college game last year and will it make a difference this year when it comes to the pointspread? We commonly heard two theories when it came to these changes. First, it would affect scoring negatively. Second, it would hurt favorites as they would have less time and fewer plays to cover the number.
Did the rules hurt scoring? Yes. It seemed obvious that shortening the game by what amounted to 14 plays would push scoring downward. That was the case last year. Of the 119 Division 1A teams, 69 squads scored fewer points in 2007 than they did in 2005. Just 48 teams had a higher PPG scoring average and two stayed the same. Almost 59 percent of the teams in college football last year had a lower PPG average than they did in 2005. Expect more scoring in 2007 as we revert back to the old rules.
Did the rules hinder favorites from covering the number in 2007? Not really. Last year the favorites posted an overall spread record of 336-350-16 (48.9 percent). The year before, favorites were 316-326-13 (49.2 percent). In 2004, the favorites were 316-339-2 (48.2 percent). In fact, college football favorites have been above 50 percent for the season just once in the last seven years (in 2003). Last year’s numbers fell right in line with where they have been historically.
How about big favorites? The rules must have hurt them? Maybe a little bit. Double-digit favorites last year came in at a 47.8 percent clip compare with an average of just over 50 percent over the last seven years. Since 1980, favorites of -10 or more have covered at exactly a 50 percent clip (measured over 6,716 games).
Even bigger favorites must have struggled? Not really. In fact, it was just the opposite. Favorites of three TD’s or more were 59-54-2 last year (52.2 percent). Since 2000, those same favorites (-21 or higher) hit at 51.3 percent and since 1990 came in a clip of 50.3 percent. Stepping it up a notch to four TD favorites or higher, we actually see they've covered at a much better rate last season than before. Last year, favorites of -28 or more were 31-21-1, or almost 60 percent. Historically, four-TD-or-higher favorites have come in at a 50.7 percent spot since 2000 and only 48.9 percent since 1990. The “perceived” problem with the favorites covering at a reduced rate really never came to fruition.
Bottom line is, there might be some more scoring in 2007, but no real revelations when it comes to finding any pointspread golden nuggets.
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