Delaware sports betting is now officially screwed. Couple weeks ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit told the state that they would not allow single game betting on all sports. Now, on Monday, the same court ruled that Delaware would only allow parlay bets on NFL games...and no other sports. Ouch.

This is effectively a death blow to the state’s desire to raise money through taking legalized bets on sporting events. No one in their right mind is going to travel to Dover Downs just to make a parlay bet on NFL games, that is just silly. All the money spent on getting these casinos’ racebooks up to sportsbook quality is now down the drain and it is a shame.

If bets can be taken in Las Vegas right now and the sanctity of sporting events is not compromised then the entire argument for all professional and collegiate sporting leagues should be considered moot. I mean, the one big, recent, gambling scandal was with an NBA referee and the mob. The mob. Yes, the mob makes a considerable amount of money off of illegal sports bets. Sure would be nice to legalize it and regulate it huh?

In any case, the real victim is not Delaware or its citizens, no its me, here in Washington DC. We are so freaking far away from any real gambling it makes me sick. Not that I really dont mind using online sources, but doing that is like playing poker online. Its fun, but there is nothing like being in a casino, with the sights and the sounds, putting actual cash down for your bets. I miss it, i need it and Delaware got screwed trying to get it.

Here’s to hoping that they head to the Supreme Court for this one.

From Reuters

Whatever happened to Another Bad Creation? I’m guessing Iesha turned into a jealous girl and broke up the group like Yoko did the Beatles. Soon college basketball assistants will be playing Nintendo and eating cereal in seventh-grade living rooms thanks to an NCAA ruling that makes seventh graders official prospects.

The organization voted Thursday to change the definition of a prospect from ninth grade to seventh grade – for men’s basketball only – to nip a trend in which some college coaches were working at private, elite camps and clinics for seventh- and eighth-graders. The NCAA couldn’t regulate those camps because those youngsters fell below the current cutoff.

“It’s a little scary only because – we talked about this – where does it stop?” said Joe D’Antonio, chairman of the 31-member Division I Legislative Council, which approved the change during a two-day meeting at the NCAA Convention. “The fact that we’ve got to this point is really just a sign of the times.”

The concern is that elite camps for children are giving some coaches an advantage so there’s pressure for other coaches to start their own. Soon they’ll have to start camps for third and fourth-graders. Poor college coaches. Once again, the NCAA is looking out for the athlete.

Soon we’ll have coaches passing eighth-graders a lollipop and a letter and telling them to keep it a secret while they give benefits under the table. Imagine the scandals during campus visits. “Ro, Coach Huggins won’t make you do any work and you can play all the Playstation you want. I guess you could graduate but wouldn’t you rather play ball and Madden all day? Once you stop thinking girls are icky, you can have anyone you want like Pat White. Let Jenny touch you and see what you think.” Next thing you know, there will be more underage sex scandals than a Florida school system. Well done, NCAA.

Its been a trying week for Billy Donovan, first he felt with all his heart that it was the right thing to sign a multi year, multi million dollar contract with the Orlando Magic. Days later, he had a change of heart and wanted to return back to where he did his best work, the University of Florida. So many emotions must be flowing around Billy’s head, and Rosie Grier says it best…Billy, “Its alright to cry”

Side note, i still sing this song everytime some dude cries, whether I am taunting him or not, and I haven’t seen this video since I was 4. Rosie and “Free to be you and me” is permanently ingrained in my memory…and I love it.

Ah the good old days of middle and high school lacrosse. I remember going to pick out equipment at Lax World in Kenilworth Plaza like it was yesterday. Trying on new helmets. Trying on gloves and putting them through the paces by holding a stick, trying a few moves and “gloving” the stock boy. I miss the good old days.

Players at Dublin Coffman High School in Dublin, OH are very familiar with the persuasive and quite effective gloving technique. Ex-assistant coaches Greg Simpson and Dustin Pentz were charged with rape for an incident during a team trip in 2006.

Simpson allegedly held a player down while Pentz “inserted his gloved fingers into the athlete’s rectum”.

According to the players’ statements, Greg Simpson told them that he had “invented” the glove and Pentz said that “he was a changed man after … he had been gloved.”

A lawsuit alleges that “Pentz, 26, and Greg Simpson, 28, participated in “glove” assaults as students at Dublin Scioto High School during the 1990s”.

… Both [former head coach] Brian and [former volunteer coach] Frank Simpson testified that they did not know about the reported assault until school officials told them three weeks later.

But an 18-year-old who was on the team told police that Brian Simpson referred to the incident hours after it is said to have occurred. He said Simpson warned him that the student who said he had been assaulted would get “the glove again” if he did not return to his hotel room at curfew.

A 17-year-old teammate said he heard Pentz tell Brian Simpson, “Hey, B, I got three fingers in him” immediately after the incident.

Brian Simpson was acquitted of witness intimidation earlier this year while his father Frank Simpson, a volunteer coach, was “found guilty of the same charge for pressuring the player to recant his sexual-assault claim during a meeting with the team”.

Oh it gets better.

And the day or evening after the incident, the players, including the one Pentz is accused of raping, broke into the coaches’ hotel room and threatened to “glove” Pentz, according to the witness statements.

“There was a posse of the players that showed up with face paint and a glove of their own,” Pentz’s attorney, Karl Schneider said. “That’s a bizarre response.”

According to the statements, the players opened the coaches’ hotel room with a key, but Greg Simpson blocked them from entering.

Did we mention that Greg Simpson is Brian Simpson’s brother? Now that’s one for all and all for one. Five personal fouls in one game means ejection. You gotta give one for each finger and the guilty conviction so they’re playing with fire.

If Marvin Lewis wants to put an end to the Bengals’ criminal ways, he might do himself a favor by dropping the claims of a c-o-n-spiracy and listening to the Simpsons.

*Pictured above: STX G-Force Glove. The choice of glovers worldwide.

**Congratulations to Johns Hopkins for beating Duke in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship Game and maintaining Bawlmer’s honor as the capital of lacrosse.

Things are amiss in Garyland. The men’s basketball team has a weakness for academic failure like Pacman does for strip clubs.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland is in danger of losing two scholarships if its Academic Progess Rate doesn’t improve next season. Two out of six seniors are not graduating on time and “if one or both of those players don’t graduate by the end of the summer, and the team’s four-year average is again under the 925 cut score, the program could lose 10 percent of the total allotment of 13 scholarships”. The Terps currently have a three-year average of 908.

While this isn’t a Cincinnati/Huggy Bear-type situation, this is a matter of some concern as Maryland men’s basketball academics have been dicey for quite some time.

The APR is a formula developed by the NCAA to provide a real-time gauge of how many athletes are staying in school, staying eligible and graduating. The best score is 1,000.

Nationally, teams from historically black schools and colleges affected by Hurricane Katrina did not fare well. About 13 percent of the schools that received warning letters or could lose scholarships were predominantly black colleges and universities.

As long as teams are above 900 and do not lose an ineligible student from the university, they will not lose scholarships. If teams fall below 900, they will receive a letter of “public notice.”

If teams fall below 900 a second straight year, it could lead to scholarship losses and reductions in practice and playing time. Third-year penalties would restrict postseason competition, and four straight years of poor academic performance would result in restricted Division I membership for the entire athletic department.

Teams can earn bonus points if an athlete returns to school to complete his degree, and Goff said Maryland expects at least one former athlete to do that.

It seems a bit cruel to penalize schools affected by Hurrican Katrina. The only other men’s basketball teams in the ACC that need improvement are Virginia and Clemson. Rage, what’s up with your boys? Ralph Sampson and Mustapha Farrakhan must be furious.

Good to see Maryland is keeping track of their former players even though it’s a backdoor way to get their APR up. Maybe more players will be inspired by Pacman going back to WVU to get his degree in Astrophysics. I’m looking at you, Stevie Franchise.