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Upper Deck is bringing out a new line of trading cards which will, for the first time, feature more than 30 active college basketball coaches, including Bill Self, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, Tubby Smith, Bobby Huggins and Jim Calhoun. The coaches cards will be part of a 400 card set covering multiple sports and featuring autographs and memorabilia inserted in the packs. Other stars featured in the set range include Tiger Woods, Landon Donovan, Dara Torres, Amanda Beard (no word on whether the card features her Playboy shoot), Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan in his UNC days, Sasha Cohen and inexplicably Jose Conseco representing baseball.

American Ryder Cup team captain Corey Pavin announced his captain's selections for the Ryder Cup team which will take on Europe at Celtic Manor in Wales.  To no one's surprise, Tiger Woods was selected despite his less than stellar play of late.  Joining him as a captain's pick are Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink and Rickie Fowler.  Johnson won the Colonial, Cink last year's Open Championship and Fowler has five top 10 finishes this year. although the last one came when he finished second at the Memorial back on June 6. 

Of the four selections, Fowler will definitely be the most controversial, as it is not evident to most, including me, why he was selected, at least based on his performance on the Tour this year.  He is only 21 years old, is 25th on the earnings list and while he did finish 14th at the Open Championship at St. Andrews (which could well be the reason Pavin picked him) he missed the cut in the two tournaments before that and didn't finish higher than 33 in the four he played following the Open.

If you are a college sports fan, you have probably paid money to IMG sometime in the past year, likely without realizing it.  IMG, which is more commonly thought of as a large sports and entertainment management firm, representing Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Roger Federer, among others. However, it began a push into college sports in 2007.  If you bought any officially licensed clothing of your or paraphernalia of your alma mater, then you paid IMG, as IMG bought Collegiate Sports Licensing back in 2007.  That purchase marked the beginning of its assault on the collegiate sports marketing dollar.

Later in 2007, IMG acquired Host Communications which held multimedia contracts with Kentucky, Arizona, Michigan, Kansas and Texas among others. In 2008, CBS chooses IMG to market corporate sponsorships for all of the NCAA championships. Throughout 2008 and 2009, IMG College, the former Host Communications, continues to add colleges to it roster list. 

 Then, this week it announces it has reached an agreement to acquire ISP, its major rival in the business of marketing collegiate athletic programs.  Terms of the acquistion have not been announced and the deal is subject to regulatory approval.  That approval may not be automatic.  If the deal is done, the combined entity will represent 80 schools including 34 out of 65 in the six BCS conferences, plus it will also represent Notre Dame.

 There are also significant conflict of interest concerns that are raised by IMG's client roster.  It represents both the NCAA and its most prominent member schools.  What happens when those schools are brought before the NCAA for rules violations that may affect their marketability. Will IMG have any influence on the ultimate penalties handed down?  Will IMG influence the NCAA basketball committee when it makes its at large selections for the NCAA basketball tournament, a tournament whose corporate sponsorships it marketed and many of whose participants and would be participant's multimedia rights it also holds.  The possible conflicts here are endless and I don't have the energy or time to list them all.  It is something the regulators will look at together with market share.  It is also something the NCAA needs to consider, as dispassionately as it can, given it is in the middle of many of the conflicts.

Here are some links to kick off your week: