NCAA Tourney all about the Benjamin's, baby!

Last month ESPN's Bob Ley hosted an "Outside the Lines" special on gambling and the NCAA tournament. Ley and his collection of guests talked about the relation between the high ratings the NCAA tournament receives each year and the amount of money being gambled on the tournament.

March Madness in one of the most watched sporting events year in and year out, and the reason why is pretty obvious to anyone with even a little bit of common sense.

Money, money and more money.

The tournament brackets and office pools are played in thousands upon thousands of offices, homes, bars, and schools across the nation. The people that do not even know anything about college basketball throw in their five or 10 dollars in hopes of winning much more than that in return.

However, Ley had a representative from the NCAA on his program that actually believed there was no (that's right zero) correlation between gambling and the public's interest on their tournament.

Are you serious!

If there were no office pools and no gambling on the tournament, the tourney would not even draw better ratings than a preseason WNBA game on a Saturday night. This guy is out of his mind and he obviously did not feel the earthquake from Vegas to the Alamo Dome after Chris Duhon's "meaningless," three point, bank, prayer at the buzzer went in to cover the spread for Duke against UConn. According to an FBI source in Las Vegas anywhere from $30 million to $100 was transferred on that made shot.

It’s estimated that over $100 million is wagered each year in Vegas on the tourney and over $2.5 billion online according to the FBI. And this does not include the money gambled with the local bookie and millions of dollars on office pools.

It is absolutely ludicrous for an NCAA representative to make that statement and the truth is as much as they hate to admit it, the NCAA loves the gambling on their brackets and deep down they realize the gambling world makes their tournament.

This same NCAA representative on "Outside the Lines" stated that the NCAA encourages people to fill out the brackets, but play for the competition and not for any money. Yeah, I'm sure the pools across the nation would continue if the winner received a pat on the back or a bright, yellow star on his/her cubicle.

As usual the NCAA is all about the money, but does not have the guts to admit it.

Do they honestly think the American public believes this nonsense?

No, but also they don’t care as long as the cash keeps on coming.

Win or go home for big Andy

The Philadelphia Eagles have more wins than any other franchise in the NFL over the past three seasons, but have also came up extremely small in the NFC championship game for three consecutive seasons. This can not continues and this year Andy Reid and company went out and made the moves to take this team to the next level.

They finally acquired a number one receiver in Terrell Owens, and signed the best available defensive end in "The Freak" Jevon Kearse. Reid also made the decision that it is time to move on from major contributors and leaders on this team by getting rid of the likes of Duce Staley, Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor and Carlos Emmons.

Many people with myself included can doubt the choice to lose these players, but the simple fact of the matter is the Eagles must win this year and should win this year with the players they have added.

Nobody is willing to say because of his record over the pas three seasons, but Reid must take this team to the next level this year or go home. That is right, if the Eagles do not go to the Super Bowl this year and preferable win it, big Andy needs to be fired.

There is no reason to believe that they will not go to the Bowl, but if they don't enough is enough already with Reid. This is his team and his players, with him making the decisions on and off the field.

He should be applauded for putting his trash theory aside and obtaining Owens, but okay let's go win this thing now. Andy, you put these peaces in place and it is time to get it done.

Nobody wants to hear how "we need to get better" or any other lame excuse. It is Super Bowl or bust and this season in Philadelphia nothing else is acceptable.

Baseball needs to step up

Major league's baseball season has begun and it is surrounded by the controversy of steroids and Bud Selig needs to put a stop to this.

There needs to be some sort of legitimate testing done of all players across the board and it can not be anonymous. Names need to be named and serious penalties must be accessed.

Baseball is the only major sport that does not have a serious testing program for performance enhancing drugs. This is America's past time and Selig is making a joke of it.

Balls are flying out of the park like there is no tomorrow and Bonds head is growing by the minute, and there all sorts of allegations from the BALCO case, yet baseball continues to sit on their hands.

There are some players who have come forward on and off the record and are willing to be tested, and pleading for baseball to simply test everyone.

The integrity of the game, it's individual records and teams must be saved and the public needs some sort of answers to these drug using questions.

Baseball is a game of great history and is still a great game today, but Selig and company cannot go with eyes closed towards this issue. The playing field has to be leveled and the only way that can take place is to test every single player and make the results public.

Have and questions or comments?Agree/Disagree?Send all responses to blkovack@yahoo.com.