Lower Expenses - After former Syracuse football coach Doug Marrone was named to the same position with the Buffalo Bills, I heard a comment from an ESPN analyst that at least the Bills wouldn't have to pay much for moving expenses. That's because Marrone is moving from only about 150 miles away.
How much could moving expenses for a coach be? Here is what former Texas Tech football coach Tommy Tuberville will receive from the University of Cincinnati in addition to his $2.2 million contract.
He is receiving $20,000 in moving expenses with $6,000 a month for three months of temporary housing.
Here are a few other extras.
Tuberville will receive a $25,000 bowl family allowance plus 200 tickets to any bowl game.
And if things don't work out at Cincinnati, Tuberville won't be hurting. He has a termination fee of $8.8 million if fired in 2013, $6.6 million in 2014 and $2.2 million in 2015.
His contract expires in 2017.
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Tiger Talk - There was an excellent interview with Rocco Mediate in the January issue of Golf Digest and he made a very interesting observation about Tiger Woods' recent problems on the course.
Mediate said, ''I've been a Pittsburgh Pirates fan my entire life. They haven't had a winning season since 1992, and I'm still with them. I don't leave. With that, you think I'm going to kick Tiger to the curb because he had a couple of rough years?''
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Which Williams? - It wasn't a requirement that each team in the 20th Post-Journal Classic men's basketball tournament at Jamestown Community College have a Williams on its roster, but it sure looked like it.
Playing for the host Jayhawks was Jabar Williams. Westmoreland County CC had Josh Williams, Columbus State CC had Kenrick Williams and Monroe CC had Greg Williams.
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NHL 48-Game Season - After the long lockout, the National Hockey League season is supposed to begin on Jan. 19 and will be reduced to 48 games instead of the regularly-scheduled 82 games.
The shortened regular-season schedule hasn't been announced yet, but it will probably end sometime in May. The blueprint is the 1994-95 season that was also shortened to 48 games because of a lockout. It began on Jan. 20 and ended on May 3. The Stanley Cup playoffs that season ended on June 24.
That was unusual, but 48-game NHL schedules were once the norm.
The last was in 1941-42. That 25th NHL season began on Nov. 1 and ended on March 19 for a total of 139 days. The Stanley Cup playoffs began two days later and were finished on April 18.
The Stanley Cup finals were historical that season because after losing the first three games to the Detroit Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs won the next four. It was the first time a team had come back from a 3-0 deficit and it has happened only two times since.
Another rarity was that the New York Rangers finished first in the standings and they didn't do it again for 50 years.
That season was played with seven teams, but for the 1942-43 season the Brooklyn Americans were dropped from the league. It was the first season of the ''Original Six'' and a 50-game season was used.
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Recovery Bowls - I have often said if I had to be laid up in bed with nothing to do but watch television, having it happen during the Ryder Cup would be a great time.
Recently I had a bout with food poisoning and during it I didn't care what was on the TV. But finally when the worst was over, I was stuck in bed in a hotel room all day with not much to do but watch TV. And it is a Ryder Cup year, but I was three months too late. However, there was an endless schedule of college bowl games to watch.
I couldn't believe it, but I watched four bowls back to back to back to back.
That was a rarity for me, but I guess some couch potatoes would consider it a normal day.
There was some nostalgia involved. Watching Rice play in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl was fun. It was the Owls' first bowl appearance since 2008 and third in the 2000s. Prior to that, Rice hadn't been in a bowl since 1961.
When I was growing up, the Owls were pretty much a regular bowl team. They also play in famous Rice Stadium and some might forget that the Super Bowl in 1974 was played there.
There was more nostalgia a couple of days earlier when Duke played in the Belk Bowl. It was the Blue Devils' first bowl appearance since the 1994 season and prior to that they hadn't been in a bowl since 1961.
Now when Duke is mentioned, sports fans think of basketball. But back then, Duke was also known as a football school and in six years it appeared in two Orange Bowls and one Cotton Bowl and went 2-1.
Duke also played in the 1939 and 1942 Rose Bowls and lost each time.
The 1942 Rose Bowl was played in Duke Stadium because the United States government prohibited large gatherings on the West Coast due to fears of a Japanese attack following the attack on Pearl Harbor.