NU says Lacrosse Final 4 Tainted

Five time defending women's NCAA lacrosse champions were upset in this years final late last month.  Northwestern claims the final four was tainted.  School officials point out that official Pat Dillon has a conflict of interest and should not have been officiating and possibly cost them the championship.  Pat Dillon's life partner is Maryland's head athletic trainer Sandy Worth also Northwesterns championship opponent.  In 2009 the ACC prevented Dillon from calling ACC games to avoid such conflicts of interest.  Northwestern was trailing Maryland 11-10 in the championship game and found momentum to tie the game until a questionable charging call from Dillon waved off the game tying goal.  Momentum swayed back to Maryland who won a close championship game 13-11.  Northwestern plans to achieve change to the process of assigning officials as there should be not question concerning a referee's bias, integrity and professionalism.

This is why Soccer is not big in America

Soccer is not big in America for many reasons.  The main reason being these athletes try to be actors with fake injuries such as the ridiculous red card given to Kaka as seen in the video.  Kaka didn't even touch Ivory Coast player Kadar Keita's face and he falls in pain holding his face.  Touch someone in soccer and one player acts and the other gets penalized, what a joke.  And what is with the red card?  Brazil has already advanced to the knockout stage so what could this be for?  Are they trying to fix the upcoming Brazil versus Portugal game to be a low scoring affair or helping Portugal overtake Brazil for the number one spot in the group for positioning for the next round by penalizing Kaka?

Where Do They Get These Refs?

If you haven't heard by now team USA got robbed of a victory against Slovenia last Friday.  The go ahead goal was disallowed by referee Koman Coulibaly.  It was first believed to be a bad offsides call but was soon called an unspecified foul.  USA star Landon Donovan said, "We asked Coulibaly many times who it was on or what the foul was, and he wouldn't or couldn't explain it."  FIFA officials have been hush hush about the controversial call but have removed referee Coulibaly from officiating further world cup games.  This is one of many bad officiating calls this world cup has already seen from bad offside calls to premature yellow and red cards.

Sandgate Skate Sabotage

Although the Philadelphia Flyers did advance to the Stanley Cup finals there was some controversy during their playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens now dubbed Sandgate.  NBC's Pierre McGuire noticed during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals that some foreign substance or sand was covering the floor by the Flyers' dressing room.  I can attest as a former hockey player that any foreign substance coming into contact with skate blades can be horrendous.  Throughout the game several Flyers' players left the ice for skate issues and by the third period towels covered the floor where the substance was reported.  Philly.com reported multiple players getting skates sharpened multiple times throughout the game which led to some missed shifts.  The Canadiens denied any knowledge or wrong doing but this sure seems like a case of sand-bagging the opponent but regardless the Flyers advanced to the finals.

Who Paid This Guy Off???

Even the announcers commented later that this type of stop should be made even at the kids level.  I realize your on the big stage and nerves can come into play but this was bad, fixed or not.  I do recall many draws in past world cup games and sure there was heavy action on England today.  Was the public screwed again on this one?

Any Advantage You Can Get

One week ago Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake accused Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly of cheating.  Blake accused Lilly of winding up several inches in front of the pitching rubber against some right-handed batters to gain an unfair advantage.  Rules state that the pitcher must stay on the rubber during wind up.  Lilly declined an interview after being accused and manager Lou Piniella passed on the questions of Lilly possibly cheating.

Youth Basketball Coach Fixing Games

Michael Kman, a Catholic youth basketball coach from Pennsylvania has been arrested for attempted bribery of two officials to fix his team's games.  He offered money to certain officials to take on certain games and turn those games into specific outcomes for all to profit.  He claimed he would start them off with lower level games and move them up to higher level games as this progressed.  Check out the complete story here.  I have never heard of betting on such a level of play except for friends in a friendly wager but this really pushes the envelope for that betting fix or scam.