The Morning Fade – 2.4.11

Really, really short fade on a quiet, snowy Friday. I’ll be back this afternoon with a little Bedlam preview. These should tide you over until then…and if not, check out the podcast we did last night.

1. Rickie who? – OSU golf team is lighting it up out in Hawaii. “The second-ranked Cowboys began the day tied with Georgia Tech and seven shots behind Southern California. However, OSU matched UCLA for the low round of the day, firing a 15-under 273 to stand seven shots clear of the Bruins for the top spot in the team race at the par-72, 7,074-yard layout. The Cowboys have a 36-hole total of 551, 25-under par, while UCLA stands at 558 and Texas Tech is third at 559.” (okstate.com)

2. John Klein writes about mega-boosters in college athletics – “Obviously, the biggest and most visible donors like Pickens and Knight get most of the criticism from those idealists who believe athletics operates in some sort of financial vacuum.” I think this could be an entire series of posts, or maybe even a book, but Klein does a good job of opening the treasury box of questions for all of us to peruse. (Tulsa World)

3. OSU has the second most Big 12 athletes going to the NFL combine – I don’t know if it’s more surprising that Nebraska has nine or that OU only has four? By the way, your OSU guys are: Hunter, Bailey, Chinasa (who’s going to blow up I think), Lemon, and Andrew McGee. (ESPN)

The Packers have been practicing in an indoor high school facility in Highland Park that Aaron Rodgers said is “not that different from ours”. And OSU continues to be the only Big 12 school without one.