SI's 50 Richest Athletes - GT Represented...

Sports Illustrated released an article with the 50 highest paid American athletes of 2009. GT had Starbury and Teixeira represented on the the list at #17 and #14, respectively. I went through the list and broke down the players by college/conference. It's pretty interesting seeing the way sports pay their players as well. No surprise to me is that 22 of the 50 athletes are NBA guys, 14 are from the MLB, 9 from the NFL, 3 from the PGA, and Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon finish the list off. The highest paid is obviously Tiger by almost double.

8 of the top 50 are from the ACC, which ain't too shabby. Especially considering it's three different sports. The Pac 10 has 6 of the top 50, the Big East has 5 all from the NBA, the SEC has 4, and the Big 12 and Big 10 both have 2 represented. This means that 20 of the top 50 highest paid American athletes didn't attend a four year university before going pro. Pretty interesting.

The most represented university on the list of athletes was UNC with 3. GT's 2 were tied with Tennessee, Syracuse, and Arizona. There were 19 Division I universities with only one representative in the top 50. No one from uga made the list...

I thought the article was interesting. Any thoughts?

NBA Draft Recap

The NBA Draft was last night but no one gave a crap because the King of Pop passed away. Talk about terrible timing for a league trying to rejuvenate its depleted fan base.

A quick conference recap shows us what conferences won in the Draft and which conferences didn't show up. The first round featured the traditional three basketball conferences leading the way with six picks (ACC, Big East, and Pac 10). 5 dudes were taken in the first that didn't go to school at all. An interesting note concerning BCS vs. Midmajor was that 21 of 30 first rounders and 17 of the 30 second rounders came from BCS schools. The Midmajors only accounted for 12 of the 60 draft picks.

Because I like to dog the SEC's complete futility outside of baseball/football/women's gymnastics, I will point out that the SEC was tied for 5th most picks with only 3 alongside the likes of the West Coast Conference, Conference USA, and the Big 12.

UNC, of course, had the most picks with 4 followed by UConn with 3, 11 schools had 2 picks, and 21 other schools were represented by at least 1 draft pick. The most represented conference was the Big East with 7 schools having at least one player drafted. The most represented conference by percentage was the Pac 10, which had 5 schools represented in the Draft or 50% of the conference.

Here's a more statistical breakdown in the following format - Rank. Conference Total Picks (First Rounders):

1. Big East - 12 Picks (6)
2. ACC - 9 Picks (6)
2. Pac 10 - 9 Picks (6)
4. Atlantic 10 - 4 Picks (0)
5. Big 12 - 3 Picks (1)
5. SEC - 3 Picks (1)
5. West Coast - 3 Picks
5. Conference USA - 3 Picks (1)
9. Big 10 - 2 Picks (1)
10. SoConn - 1 Pick (1)
10. Colonial Athletic - 1 Pick (1)

No College - 10 Picks (5)

The Big 10 IS TERRIBLE. Good God. Wanna know why they can't win the Big 10-ACC Challenge. Look at the NBA Draft. Talent is not everything but it sure doesn't hurt in hoops.

Any thoughts or chunks of info you'd like to spew at us? Michael Jackson fans may or may not be welcome depending on which era they're a fan of: 1) Rhinestone-studded-glove Thriller Era fans welcome 2) Baby swingin', Mask Wearin' Era fans not really welcome.

Jeremy Tyler debate

So this junior in high school, Jeremy Tyler, wants to go to Europe instead of finishing high school. I understand there's money and "refining his game" but I ask why are his parents pushing him so hard? Why can't they wait a year? Guys play in the NBA or Europe for years.

To me, a kid should be a kid. Money is one thing but you're only a kid with zero responsibility and some semblance of freedom for a short period of time. He says he doesn't care about high school, prom, dating, etc. but that's because he's never experienced it all. And he won't get the chance to experience it because all his father sees (who is the driving force behind him leaving high school early) is $$$.

It seems like a story of exploitation. A story of the father that has pushed his kid too far because he is living vicariously through the kid. I already know Jacob will disagree with me on this whole issue. But I feel like the NBA/basketball needs to draw a line in the sand that separates adults getting paid from exploitation of youth.

Adults make adult decisions because they were allowed to grow and make mistakes. These kids are thrown into adult situations with millions of dollars, women, drugs, etc., and it just seems wrong. A modern slavery disguised by the jewelry, escalades, and big contracts. It's like, "We're paying you a lot so it IS the dream life." I guess he'll be okay because he's fulfilling that "MTV Cribs Image" that's fed to American youth now-a-days. Living in a million dollar, gadget filled McMansion.

Updates on Tech alum in pro sports

Currently, there've been some rough patches for Tech alum in the major pro sports. Mark Teixeira is struggling as a Yankee batting a lowly .211 in the New York "Homerun Derby Park." He's got three homers helpin' out his slugging percentage. We'll see what happens. Hopefully, Mark'll pull through and justify his contract to the Yankees.

Everyone's favorite name, Nomar Garciaparra, isn't doing much better batting a .179 for the 5-8 Oakland A's.

For completion's sake, Varitek is batting a .250, which isn't great but ain't too bad for a catcher.

In two playoff games for the Celtics, Stephon Marbury has only scored 2 points but he pulled down a few boards and got a few assists in the first game of the series. Otherwise, the playoffs have been like the rest of Marbury's tenure at the Celtics - less than stellar.

Will Bynum, on the other hand, has become a pretty good bench player for the Pistons and is putting in some solid minutes in a desperate effort against the unstoppable Cavaliers. Like I said a few weeks ago, I never thought the tiny man from our Final Four run would be the most successful NBAer when all of those players ran out of eligibility.

Thoughts on NBA playoffs or MLB are welcome.