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Television
Al Jazeera intends to build a global sports brand, even bidding for UK rights to Premier League games (Reuters)

NBC laid out its Olympics coverage including live streaming of every event on NBCOlympics.com and 242 hours of 3D coverage on one delay (Engadget)

Baseball
No wonder the Marlins and Rays have had attendance problems;  Florida baseball fans' favorite team is not located in Florida (NESN)

Call it the Dodgers effect, Padres owner want $800 million for the team that only averages 24,000 fans a game (Forbes)

Frank McCourt just won't go away; currently being investigated by federal grand jury for financial irregularities with the Dodgers (BleacherReport)

Football
One of the unfortunate consequences of conference realignment is the ending of decades old rivalries. One which has not received the publicity it deserves is the Holy War in Utah (NationalFootballPost)

Did Robert Griffin III sign with Adidas because of of that suffix (Shutdown Corner)

Sometime there is justice in the world, Terrell Owens cut by indoor football league team he partially owns (Yahoo)

Further evidence of justice, Craig James received four percent of the vote in the Texas Republican Senate primary, Texas Republicans showing better judgement than I ever knew they had (CBS)

NBA
The New Orleans Hornets just recently sold by the NBA to Tom Benson, the owner of the Saints, won the draft lottery and will likely take Anthony Davis, who won the NCAA title in NOLA (ESPN)

Calvin Klein becomes founding partner of Brooklyn Nets in a $4 million per year deal (Sports Pro Magazine)


NCAA
Northwestern's women's lacrosse win NCAA title, making seven out of the last eight, but the bigger championship has been off the field (ChicagoTribune)

University of Louisville funds expansion of their baseball stadium one baseball at a time (UofL Sports)

Horse Racing
There are dopers and then there is this: trainer accused of doping In 675 harness races (NYT)

I'll Have Another's trainer suspended for 45 days starting July 1 and fined $15,000 for excessive level of carbon dioxide in one of his horses - not his first suspension (DRF)

Soccer


US Men's National Time gets a reality check with 4-1 loss to Neymar and Brazil ahead of June 8 opening of World Cup qualifying (ESPN)

The Beautiful Game is not necessarily the cleanest game; another new match fixing in Italy (Bloomberg)

Minnesota Senate gave final approval to Vikings new $975 million stadium (Star Tribune via Sports Business News)

Is Florida State heading to the Big 12 as conference roulette rolls on? (Yahoo, Orlando Sentinel)

Is Boise reconsidering its move to the Big East? (CBS Sports)

Fresh on the heel of the Lingerie Football League, we have the Bikini Hockey League (Bob's Blitz)

The USFL returns, but as a minor league on par with the NBA D-League (Sports Business Digest)

New York Times sells remaining interest in Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Red Sox and Liverpool FC (Yahoo)

ESPN is bringing back 30 for 30 for a new season of 15 documentaries starting this fall (NYT)

USA Today is out with its annual database of collegiate athletic finances (USA Today)

Why sports TV rights fees keep growing (Eric Crawford)

The Rick's blog is back as he humorously discusses what the Cards need to do in offseason (Rick Pitino)

ACC-Big Ten Challenge matchups announced featuring Maryland at Northwestern (ESPN)

Is Madison Square Garden ($MSG) a buy right now (Insider Monkey)

The post Derby honeymoon didn't last too long in either Derby City or at Churchill Downs. By Monday morning, the bloom was already off the roses, except for shareholders of Churchill Downs.

Derby sets attendance, on track and all source wagering records, remarkable for a race with less than normal pre-race buzz (DRF)

TV ratings were also up; third most watched since 1989 (Business First)

$CHDN reports record revenue and net earnings for first quarter (DRF)

Full Preakness field with plenty of newcomers awaits Derby winner who arrived at Pimlico yesterday (WaPo)

Groom found dead in stall at Churchill Downs on morning after Derby in apparent homicide (C-J)

Winning trainer has a somewhat less than illustrious past on the racetrack; winning owner's fortune arose from sub-prime lending and legal loansharking (Eric Crawford)


In news unrelated to the Kentucky Derby:

Stop me if you've heard this before, NHL announces tentative deal to sell Coyotes (ESPN)

Why college football should be banned, and he's not totally wrong (WSJ)

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto is forced to resign (ESPN)

Big XII presidents agree to 13 year, $200 million TV deal with ESPN/Fox (CBSSports)

With TV contract settled, new commissioner and long-term stability, will the Big XII now look at expansion and do we get to play more of the who goes where game? First bet still Louisville; most intriguing new rumor: Clemson and Florida State  (KC Star)

There are as many ways to fill out March Madness brackets as there are people filling them out.  In fact, according to the Houston Chronicle, there are 147.5 quintillion ways to fill one out. And that's just the office pool variety.

The NCAA bracket lends itself to all sorts of quick analysis or examples of different ways of looking at college athletics or colleges in general.  There are the academic performance brackets (Butler if you're scoring at home) and graduation rates (seven schools with 100% - the highest seed being Notre Dame and Arizona at the bottom with 20%), but the most novel one I found this year revolves around money.  It's not the money that each program makes, although that is an interesting one as well (see, Forbes study of 2009 basketball revenue - Duke, Louisville and North Carolina on top), it's one that is based on the median salary of each school's graduates.

In this bracket, not surprisingly Princeton beat Kentucky.  Actually, the bracket only begins with the Sweet Sixteen but since Princeton is in it, we can assume that win.  It's a fun look and a Final Four of Princeton, Duke, UCLA and Georgetown is not all that surprising,  Neither is Princeton's ultimate victory.  Here's the bracket:

The oft troubled Derrick Caracter, formerly of the University of Louisville and most recently a post player from the University of Texas El Paso, showed enough promise in the NBA Summer League the champion Lakers gave their second round pick a two year contract, with  at least the first year, or a portion of it, guaranteed. While not typical for second round pick (only first round draft picks are assured guaranteed contracts) it is certainly not unheard of and Caracter is certainly not the only second round pick to earn a roster spot this summer. 

What makes his contract different is how the Lakers baked in an incentive for him to commit to handle the one area that caused the club the most concern.  Going into the draft, the knock on Caracter was his work ethic, desire and commitment to conditioning, all of which combined to get him shipped out of Louisville by Rick Pitino.  The Lakers signed Caracter to a $473,000 contract for this year, but if he weighs 275 pounds or less on September 10, the whole contract becomes guaranteed.  If Derrick is not willing to do the work and get in shape for the money, no amount of coaching magic by the Zen master will do the trick.  Here's hoping Derrick's been using Nutrisystem; he was always a fan favorite in the Derby City and deserves to have some good things happen for him.  HT.: JSK

The University of Louisville basketball program has been well known for years as a terrific revenue generator.  In fact, for the last several years it has been the highest grossing and highest netting program in the country, however, it outdid itself last year.  The Cardinals had revenue attributed to basketball of      $25,494,904, with expenses of $8,625,245 for a profit of $16,869,659.  That is a profit margin of 66.2% if you're scoring at home.  Oh, and remember, this was while the Cardinals were playing in Freedom Hall, their home for the last 54 years which they said goodbye to this past season as they prepare to move into the new $238 million KFC Yum! Center this fall.  Freedom Hall did not allow the Cardinals to maximize their revenue opportunities as athletic department officials put it during discussions on a possible new arena.

Yum! and its wholly owned subsidiary KFC bought naming rights to the new Louisville Arena for a relatively modest ten year $13.5 million, in a deal announced today by the company and the University of Louisville who will be the prime tenant in the arena.  Yum! Brands has its world headquarters in Louisville. In addition, Yum! Brands has the naming rights to the Cardinals on campus basketball and volleyball practice facility and coaches offices.