Morning Links 6/8/12

Happy Fridays everyone! Get ready, here's your links:

Nwaba leads the way for Big West athletes on Thursday
UCSB's athlete finished second overall in Day 1 of the two day heptathlon.  LBSU's Ben Woodruff finished 19th in the javelin throw, earning himself honerable mention for All-American.  UCD's Sara Sumpter ran in the 10,000 meter race finishing 15th and earning 2nd team All-American.

SI's Holly Anderson suggests the perfect way to choose a selection committee for the proposed football playoffs: REALITY SHOW!
There could be fights, dumb analysis and a swimsuit section (not in article)!  Excellent!

Well, that's it for today.  See anything I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 6/1/12

Welcome to the first day of June.   There's a big game for Fullerton as they play Indiana State in their opening match of the Eugene regional as we rapidly approach the end of the school and college athletic season.  Here are the links:

National Awards coming in for Big West Players
The three All-Americans have been announced, and the three semifinalists for their respective awards are waiting to hear their name called.  We'll keep you updated as the information comes in.

Chian shoots 9 over the final round of the NCAA tournament
He finishes the tournament 18-over, but Chian has one more year of eligibility left, so we hope to see him next year.  On a side note, San Diego State advanced to the three-day match play to compete for the National Championship (we'll keep an eye on our future Big West member).

Hawaii looking to start charging for softball games
I didn't realize that Hawaii had free admittance to their softball games (which is awesome), however with the financial situation the way it is, that's soon to be over.  I think $5 is fair, with free admittance to students/grad students/faculty/Military.  Anyone disagree?

Oregon Coach Horton looking forward to reunion with Fullerton
Excellent article on the Titans previous coach.  Horton led Fullerton to 6 CWS appearances and a National Championship in 2004.  He's trying to build Oregon into the same kind of powerhouse.

Remember all, the Fullerton-Indiana State game is a 2 PM PST, and you can follow on Gametracker.

Morning Links 5/31/12

It's the last day of May! Which means nothing...unless it's your birthday, then Happy Birthday to you.  Here's a few links for you on this glorious day:

LBSU hoists second straight commissioner's cup
We'll talk more about this later (and even have a special Big West Confidential message for them), however the lead that LBSU had is ridiculous (nearly 25 points greater than that of the second place team UCD).

Chian shoots 6-over to finish Round 2 at the NCAA championships
Here's hoping he has a strong Round 3 to finish the tournament, as the individual medalists are awarded after today's round.

Pacific's Nikki Armagost named to All-American team
She was one of 54 athletes named to the NFCA's All-American team, landing a spot on the third team.  She becomes the first BWC player to do so since 2009, and first Tiger to receive an All-American award of some sort since 2007.

Because we all wish we had a mega-sponsor billionaire tycoon pouring money into are school like it's nobody's business: H/T to EDSBS for finding this gem, I don't know if the twitter handle is real or not, but you can bet that the thought process was...

UPDATE: We're still skeptical, but apparently this is T. Boone Pickens' real account. OWNED!

Morning Links 5/30/12

Happy Slump Day everyone!  We're getting close to the end of college seasons, which means that we'll need links to fill up the day.  So if you have something you think is funny/clever/related to college sports, hit me up in the comment section or in the email: cjhondros at the gmail dot com.  Off we go:

Big West Conference Awards announced for Baseball
I won't go into all the details (that's what links are for!) but I will say that I agree with the POY and the Pitcher of the Year award.  Even though Vanderhook is a first year coach at Fullerton, he took over an already dominant program.  I personally would have given it to Cal Poly's Larry Lee.

Chian finishes 3-over after one round of the NCAA Championships
This puts him in a tie for 62nd out of 156 players.  He tees off at 2:20 pm PST, here's to having a better round 2!

That's all for this morning, see anything I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/29/12

Another Memorial Day has gone and passed, and now it's back to our regular routine of work or school or sitting on the couch and watching college sports... Here are some link:

NCAA Tourney seeding recap
Anyone curious to know how close LBSU was to making the field of 64?  They were ranked 68 in RPI.  That would have essentially equated to one more win against either a strong non-conference opponent, or winning the series against Fullerton (which would have given them the auto-bid anyway, so that doesn't really count).

Dome/Fawcett lose to Jha/Quigley in two sets
The No. 68 ranked upset-minded duo couldn't come back after the first set, and fell to the Kentucky pair 7-6, 6-3.  Fawcett will leave Cal Poly with a successful showing at the NCAA tournament while Dome will have one more year of eligibility left.

13 Big West Athletes make it to the NCAA Championships
UCR and UCSB led the way with 3 athletes: Travis Smith, Caleb Stuart and Ryan Swafford for UCR and Ryan Martin, Barbara Nwaba and Derek Masterson for UCSB; Cal Poly, LBSU and UCD are all sending 2 athletes: John Prader and Whitney Sister from Cal Poly, Ben Woodruff and Katrina Graves-Johnson from LBSU, Ashley Hearn and Sarah Sumpter represent UCD.  The final athlete to represent the Big West are UCI's Charles Jock.

Philip Chian to represent LBSU and the Big West at the NCAA Golf Championships
He tees off here in a few minutes but Chian made his way to the Nationals by finishing in a tie 4th overall at the Athens Regional.  Best of luck to him.

See anything I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/25/12

Happy Friday before Memorial Day!  Here are some links to get you started:


Dome and Fawcett defeat Ole Miss opponents: move on to 2nd round today
The intriguing matchup is not just the fact that they're playing another SEC opponent (Kentucky) but Dome and Kentucky's Quigley will be squaring off against each other for the second time this week.  In the single's match, Quigley downed Dome in heated close sets 7-5, 6-4.  Can Dome get revenge with his partner-in-crime?

UCR leads 4 athletes into Day 2 of competition of NCAA West Regionals
The total number of Big West players advancing was 14.  The top 12 finishers in each event advance to the National Championships in 2 weeks.

We have now arrived at the final weekend of Big West Baseball, here are the list of games and times.  As always, if you live in the area: ATTEND!  Home teams are listed last and in bold.

UCI at UCD, 2:30 pm
Cal Poly at UCR, 6 pm
Northridge at Pacific, 6 pm
Fullerton at LBSU, 6 pm
UCSB at CSU Bakersfield, 7 pm

Makeup game: UCSB at Utah (from Bakersfield), 2 pm

See anything I missed? Comment Below!

Morning Links 5/24/12

Morning links have turned into afternoon links today as I've been busy with some things.  Here they are presented without anymore delays (hopefully):

Wednesday baseball recap: UCR 14, USC 9
USC had the lead up until the 5th, where the Highlanders piled on 3-run innings 3 more times and added a final run in the 9th for good measure.  USC also helped UCR with ERRONEOUS CHARITY!

Tennis individual recaps
Cal Poly's Andre Dome fell to No. 3 ranked UK's Eric Quigley 7-5, 6-4 and LBSU's Anais Dallara forced a third set before eventually losing to No. 24 Mary Anne MacFarlane 6-1,4-6, 6-3.

 Live Stats of Dome/Fawcett double's match (started at 1 PST)
As of right now, the Cal Poly duo hold a 2-1 lead in the first set against their Mississippi opponents.  Let's hope they pull out a victory.

See anything I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/23/12

Wednesday is slump day because it's in the middle of the week, but that's not stopping us from bringing you proper reading material before you force yourself to start the morning, here are the links:

Baseball recaps
On one of the last non-conference days of the season, UCSB defeated USC 6-3, sending the seniors out of Santa Barbara on a high note, UCD beat Saint Mary's 7-2, UCI fell to UCLA 6-2, Northridge lost to Bakersfield 10-1 and following a great series win against Fullerton, UCR got shut out by LMU 3-0.

All 8 Big West teams represented at NCAA West Regionals
I should mention now, while there are currently 9 teams in the Big West, Pacific does not have a track and field team, therefore there are only 8 teams who compete in the sport.  81 athletes total from all 8 schools will represent their school and the Big West Conference May 24-26 in Austin, Texas.  Those that finish high enough will qualify for the Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

Three Big West players set to compete in the Tennis Championships
LBSU's Anais Dallara and Cal Poly's Andre Dome and Matt Fawcett will compete in Athens, Georgia in hopes of bringing home a National Title.  Dallara's match starts at 10 AM PST today, while Dome's singles match is already underway.  Dome and Fawcett will compete in their doubles match tomorrow.  Good luck to all three!

See anything I've missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/22/12

With one sport playing for the rest of the season, it's a little harder to do links.  However, there's a huge piece of news coming out of Stockton and we'll have more on that later:

Bob Thomason to retire after the 2012-2013 season
While you may wonder why he's not retiring now, it makes perfect sense as to why he will wait another year.  Let's hope that his last will not be like Schnellenberger's last year at FAU.

Not much else going on today, so if you have free time on your hands and you live near the ballparks, here are some games for you to go out, attend and support our conference:

UCR at LMU, George C. Page Stadium, Los Angeles,  3 PM
UCD at SMC, Louis Guisto Field, Moraga, 3 PM
USC at UCSB, Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, Santa Barbara, 3 PM
CSUN at CSUB, Hardt Field, 6 PM
UCLA at UCI, Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark, 6:30 PM

Would you like to share a link? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/21/12

One weekend left of Big West Baseball and three teams are vying for the conference title.  Fullerton has a one game lead over LBSU and a two game lead over Cal Poly.  Theoretically if Fullerton loses the series 1-2 to the Dirtbags and Cal Poly sweeps UCR, there will be a three-way tie for first.  More on that later, first, the links.

LBSU's series win sets up for conference finale against Fullerton
Mark your calendars, and the location:  this Friday through Sunday at Blair Field (LBSU's stadium).

LBSU softball eliminated against No. 25 Syracuse
After falling to the Orange the first time, the 49ers beat LIU-Brooklyn 5-4 to eliminate the Blackbirds.  In the finale, the 49ers took Syracuse to 8 innings before Erin Jones-Wesley gave up a solo shot.  The Orange shut down the 49ers in the bottom of the 8th to win 2-1.

Baseball recaps
UCR won the rubber match with a 1-0 win over the Titans, Cal Poly came back from down 7-1 to sweep UCSB 9-8, Matadors took Senior Day 6-3 to avoid the sweep, Dirtbags won the series 2-1 with a 5-1 win over Pacific and UCI took the series against CSU-Bakersfield with a 15-6 pounding on Sunday.

Golf NCAA results
LBSU's Philip Chian finished in a tie for 4th place in the Athens Regional to advance to the NCAA Championship while LBSU finished 8th as a team, UCD finished 12th in the Stanford Regional, Pacific's Alex Edfort finished the Stanford Regional in a tie for 27th and UCI's Allen Jun finished 44th, finally Cal State Northridge's Chris Russo finished in a tie for 44th in the Greensboro Regional.

No news on conference expansion, so all is quiet on the Big West front.  See anything I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/18/12

Happy Friday everyone!  We have a couple things going on, first the NCAA Men's Golf Tournament continues today, second LBSU squares off against Syracuse in the Arizona Regional of the NCAA softball tourney and lastly, the penultimate weekend of baseball is about to begin.  So with that, let's get to some links:

With Round 1 in the books, Big West is representing well thus far in the NCAA tourney
UC Davis is sitting 12th in the Stanford Regional, LBSU is T10th in the Athens regional and in the individual competition, Alex Edfort from Pacific shot 2 over to sit 6 strokes behind the leader after one round while UCI's Allan Jun is 2 under after one round.

Four Big West players make it on the All-Regional first and second teams in softball
Three are in the All-Pacific region: Nikki Armagost made it to the first team, Megan Hom and Justine Vela made it to the second team.  Cya Neal was named to the All-West Second Team.  Congratulations to all these players.

LBSU preview from the Press Telegram
Best comparison? The first sentence when LBSU is compared to a stealth bomber.  It's so rare when you see a team completely turn their season around after a horrible start, but that's what LBSU did and now they're looking to make noise in the Tempe regional.

See any links I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/17/12

As we continue to bring updates with conference expansion, life will continue as normal.  However, the links are brought extra early to you today:

Big West Softball All-Conference team is diverse in teams
Here are your players and coaches of the year:
2012 OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Nikki Armagost, Pacific
2012 PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Justine Vela, UC Davis
2012 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Nicole Matson, Pacific
2012 FRESHMAN FIELD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Shelby Wisdom, UC Santa Barbara
2012 FRESHMAN PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Justine Vela, UC Davis
2012 COACH OF THE YEAR
Brie Galicinao, UC Santa Barbara

The All-Conference teams are in the link, so be sure to visit there to see if your favorite player made it.

Track and Field Honors start a series of firsts for a couple different programs 
UCD and UCSB who had never won a conference championship before, were rewarded with COY awards for their coaches (and indirectly the staff).


Hawaii may be Boise State's biggest enemy
Now this is stupid for many reason, mainly the fact that UH football has not been extremely competitive with BSU since Colt Brennan left, however, if UH votes "no" to BSU admission to the Big West, that puts Bronco football back into the MWC, where many of the temporary rivals of BSU want them to be.  That being said, how much power the Warriors have in the Big West right now is relative.


Another article about BSU's issues with going to the Big West
This one from KBOI in Boise says that the Broncos have been given a New Member Assessment Tool which is essentially an application form.  Two issues they bring up are travel costs (which I still think is easier than UH's travel costs) and approval from 8 of 10 members.


Mountain West Connection weighs in...
This is not from me, it's from bluesyourdaddy, the BSU writer for MWConnection.  His thoughts are similar to the Hawaii article in the fact that the MWC could be pushing for Hawaii to say no.  It's interesting he brings up the twelfth member choice as Fresno State.  This could be what's really worrying the Big West, though I'm firm in my suspicions that Bakersfield would more likely get the nod as the twelfth member now that they've become more developed and already competes with the rest of the Big West on a regular basis.


Stay tuned for more action and drama!

Morning Links 5/16/12

After a small day off due to school/work things, we're back with the links.

Big West reconsidering Boise State
If many of you could see my face right now, it would be something like this:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SEND OUT AN INVITE COMMISH!
/no further comments...or is there

"SDSU sends very subtle message to Big West"...a Hollywood screenplay from AKH
There are serious articles that report facts...and then there are rolling on the floor laughing blog posts that portray what's going on from an exaggerated view point.  This is why we're bloggers.  Let ESPN/USAToday/CNN or whoever do the reporting and let us tell the story and analyze the situation.  In the meantime, the Cedric Ceballos line was my favorite...

Baseball recap from Monday: UCD 6, Hawaii 3
UCD finished of their four straight days of playing by beating Hawaii 6-3.  This is win number 4 in the last 6 as they start to make their final push for .500 ball to finish the season.

Baseball recaps from yesterday
Cal Poly beat CSU Bakersfield 6-2, UCD beat SJSU 12-9, Pacific lost to their future conference mates Santa Clara 8-5, No. 21 USD edged out UCI 4-3 and the Dirtbags fell to Pepperdine 5-3.

See something I missed? What's your feelings on conference expansion? Leave comments below!

Morning Links 5/14/12

Championship weekend is over and we have a lot to cover, so sit back and enjoy:

LBSU Softball clinches Big West title, will face Syracuse in Arizona Regional
While the 49ers softball will be entering as a heavy underdog (28-23 vs No. 25 Syracuse's 40-14 record) every time these two teams have met, LBSU has won the matchup.

Anteaters finish 4th in the Tourney, falling to Stanford and UCLA
UCI kept the third place match close, but it was the Bruins who were able to edge out the win.

Track and Field: UCD women and UCSB men capture first Big West Titles in history
While UCSB dominated their competition the whole way, UCD beat the second place UCSB women by half a point. 

Aggie Women finish 12th in West Regional
After a great second round, the Aggies couldn't finish strong.  Amy Simanton missed out on the individual finals after losing in the playoff round.

Men and women tennis championship recap
No. 63 Cal Poly men fell in the first round to No. 22 Texas Tech 4-1, while No. 46 LBSU women dominated Arkansas 4-0, before falling the next day to No. 1 UCLA.

Baseball series recaps
The Matadors won their first series over UCI since 2004 with a 5-4 win on Sunday, Dirtbags beat UCD 4-1 but lost the series after dropping the first two games, UCR dominated the rubber game with a 12-1 trouncing of the Tigers, Fullerton beat UCSB 9-3 to take the series and Cal Poly won the series but dropped the final game to CSU Bakersfield 6-4.

See anything I missed? Comment Below!

Morning Links 5/11/12

It's Friday and it's also championship weekend for many sports.   That means you'll get an open thread to play around with this weekend: and I expect participation!  Here are your links:

Old article: still relevant
Andy Katz of ESPN dwells on whether the Big West should let BSU in.  And people thought conference expansion was over and done with...

Big West coaches meeting results in 16-game conference schedule for 2013
SDSU coach Steve Fischer was pushing for 14, but he's not going to make an issue of it, from what we can tell.

After one round, UC Davis Women are tied for 18th in the NCAA regional
Slow start, but they can come back from this.  Remember: the top 8 teams advance, so the Aggies will have to shoot well these next couple of days.

Remember: Pacific vs. LBSU is on ESPN3 today for both their games in the doubleheader, Women's Tennis begins with Arkansas vs LBSU at 10 am today and UCI's water polo team takes on LMU at 5:15 pm in San Diego.  The Tennis tourney is in LA, and the Water Polo tourney is in San Diego: if you have the opportunity, go watch these teams!  Open thread should be up here by 10.

Morning Links 5/9/12

Good Morning! If anyone was paying attention yesterday, the Big West might have some potential big news coming up...but we won't know until next week, at least.  Here are some links:

Big West Baseball goes 0-fer in Tuesday's mid-week action
UC Davis fell to Nevada 9-8 after coming back from an 8-2 deficit, USF beat Pacific 5-2 and Anteaters lost to USD 4-1, ending their 7-game win streak.

Big West sends two teams to the NCAA Regionals
Conference champs UCD enters the Stanford Regional as a No. 13 seed and LBSU enters the Athens Regional as a No. 7 seed (Athens, Georgia).

ESPN3 to broadcast the LBSU-Pacific Doubleheader
Do I really need to tell you to go watch?

No. 23 Aggies enter NCAA Regionals as a No. 8 seed in West Regional
The West Regional is in Erie, Colorado.  Top 8 teams of each regional qualify for the national finals at the Vanderbilt Legends Club.

Hawaii might be fine with BSU's inclusion because of travel subsides issue (Subscription Access)
Apparently, their travel subsidy doesn't figure for any new Big West teams joining.  This won't have any effect on a final decision, but it is interesting nonetheless.

As a final note, this is my own opinion: if any of you caught the "Ban College Football" debate, both sides were obscenely off.  It resolves nothing, and it solves nothing.  Bissinger and Gladwell went more on an anti-football propaganda, while Green (who did fairly well) and Whitlock provided poor arguments for keeping football.  I would like those 2 hours of my life back after hearing such stupidity, thank you.

Morning Links 5/8/12

With the seasons winding down, there aren't many recap links left, so we'll be bringing you links on constant conference expansion that could have to do with the Big West.

Dirtbags finish the sweep against LMU
With a 4-run bottom of the 8th, LBSU held on for a 7-5 win over the Lions.

Cal State holds one game lead entering this weekend's action
Cal State Fullerton to be specific.  The No. 8 Titans, while dominating the competition only have a slim lead over the Dirtbags.  UCI is also in the hunt, but there will have to be some losing at the top for them to win the conference.

Because I still can't help but laugh at this very real possible situation
Click for entertainment! Don't worry, it's safe for work, just not safe for the WAC

Big West meetings to discuss conference-y things
We'll know a lot more probably by the end of this week, but I suspect conference expansion is in there (scratch that: I wasn't patient, so I had to ask!).  All I got as an answer was to follow the Big West Conference's twitter feed, so that's what I'm doing!  Regardless of what happens in this week's meeting, you have to feel pretty confident that our AD's and Conference Officials are doing the right thing, so far they've made nothing but moves that have benefited the Big West, unlike a certain conference commissioner on the east coast who's not in his position anymore...

Questions? Comments?  Leave your comments below!  If you haven't done so either, like us on Facebook...

Morning Links 5/7/12

With only one weekend left of regular season in softball and 3 weeks left of baseball, things are heating up in the Big West.

Baseball series recaps
No. 8 Fullerton swept the Tigers with a 10-0 win on Sunday, UC Davis won the series against Cal Poly with a 5-4 win, UCR halted their 5-game Big West skid with a 3-1 win over CSU Northridge, Dirtbags have taken the series in a three game series as they won 5-4 yesterday over LMU and will go for the sweep tonight and UCI swept UCSB with a 5-4 victory on Sunday.

Softball recaps
UCR set a Division I program record for wins yesterday by beating CSU Northridge for their 23rd win of the season, Taylor Petty tossed a one-hit shutout as LBSU dominated CSU Fullerton 11-0 and UCSB mercy ruled Cal Poly on Sunday for the sweep.

Track and Field Championship results through one weekend
Because I know absolutely nothing about track and field, from looking at the scores, it appears that in the Men's decathlon competition, UCSB's JR team has a strong lead, and in the Women's heptathlon, Long Beach's SR team has the lead.  Scores are here if someone wants to correct me in all my mistaken glory.

Baseball and Softball standings are after the jump:

Morning Links 5/4/12

Happy Friday!  Not many BW links, therefore, more time to goof around:


Big West Track and Field Championships will be in Irvine this year
It will take place over the course of two weekends: today and tomorrow, and next weekend on the 11th and 12th.   If you live in the area, go attend!

LBSU alumni Jered Weaver throws no-no against Twins
This is a couple days old, however still noteworthy.  Baseball is the sport of the Big West and they continue to prove it at a professional level.

Have anything interesting to share? Comment below!

Morning Links 5/2/12

If you're living in Southern California right now, you are experiencing a strange phenomenon: rain.

Therefore, the lullaby finally applies to us:
Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day.

Here's some links:

Anteaters are a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament
They'll play No. 5 seed LMU in the first round of the tournament on May 11 at 8:15 pm.  The interactive bracket can be found here.

UC Davis wins second consecutive Big West Title
Pacific's Alex Edfort won the individual championship with a final score of 203.  The Aggies now await their selection on May 7th.

Men's Tennis Bracket is set, with Cal Poly facing Texas Tech in the first round
Can the Mustangs pull the win out against the Red Raiders?  Stay tuned...

LBSU women to face Arkansas in the opening round
If they manage to beat Arky, they could be up against No. 1 UCLA in the second round.

Baseball recaps
Cal Poly's Jimmy Allen homered to beat Pepperdine in the 10th inning, Titans beat USC 4-2, Trentacosta dominated in his first career start as UCI beat SDSU 6-2, UCR got hammered by UNLV 10-1, and the Dirtbags drop one against No. 11 UCLA 2-1.

See anything I missed?  Comment below!