The NCAA Tournament is the year's greatest event for couch potatoes -- there's just nothing like wall-to-wall basketball from noon to midnight. But even if you've got one of those HDTVs the size of a stadium jumbotron, it just isn't the same as being there.
Plan your trip now and experience the 2011 NCAA Tournament in person. Ticketing information -- and the ticket lottery for Final Four ducats -- will be available in early 2010.
Once the student signs a letter of intent, the recruiting process is officially closed. Schools are no longer permitted to contact that player.
If the player decides, for whatever reason, that he wants to attend a different school after signing a letter of intent, he must first seek and receive a release from the first institution. This scenario comes up most often when there are coaching changes -- for example, Devin Ebanks asked for a release from his commitment to Indiana after the coach that recruited him, Kelvin Sampson, was forced to resign. Ebanks eventually signed with West Virginia.
Schools don't have to offer releases. On occasion, they'll release players from an LOI under strict conditions, forbidding the player to sign within their conference or follow a coach to his new school.
So, when Kentucky recruit Brandon Knight "signed" with the Wildcats, he refused to sign a LOI, possibly out of fear that coach John Calipari would bolt for an NBA job. The only paper that changed hands was an "aid agreement." It seems likely that other top recruits will take a similar stance in the future.
Also Known As: National Letter of Intent, NLI
Enjoy it while it lasts. This may be the last you'll see of LeBron James and Amar'e Stoudemire and Kobe Bryant and the rest for a while.
The NBA's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) -- the document that outlines just about every aspect of the league and its relationship with its players -- expires after this season, and the owners are looking for changes.
Big changes.
The owners are looking for what they call "cost certainty" -- which translates loosely as "we'd like to continue raking in big bucks, but we're not so keen on sharing the dough with the players." The players, on the other hand, are very happy with the status quo -- and why wouldn't they be, when the current system ensures players like Eddy Curry continue to get paid well over $11 million this year.
At this point, a lockout is a virtual certainty -- but that just means the league will shut down operations after the NBA Finals, until a new CBA is in place. Depending on how negotiations go, the first casualties will be the 2011 NBA Draft and the summer leagues. The longer discussions drag out, the more cancellations we'll see. In 1998-99, the league and NBAPA didn't reach a settlement until mid-January. The 1998-99 season didn't start until February 5, was shortened to 50 games, and the all-star game was canceled entirely.
Worth noting -- it was during that lockout that most of the current labor agreement was put in place.
Will we see a similar delay to the start of the 2011-12 season? Or something worse, like the lockout that ate the entire 2004-05 National Hockey League season? Here's a look at the issues the negotiators will have to settle before next season can tip off.
Based on the official statements made by David Stern and NBPA union leadership, it is hard to tell how well the league's CBA discussions are progressing. But one thing is clear: the talks are expanding.
Neither side revealed any specifics, but after two straight days of what must have been substantive discussions in New York, both sides have agreed to return for additional talks next week. And they'll be bringing their full bargaining committees to the table for the first time since the lockout began.
The NBA's Board of Governors is set to meet in Dallas next Thursday, September 15. The NBPA will hold a similar meeting in Las Vegas that same day.
What does this all mean? Possibly nothing. David Stern cautioned reporters that any perceived sense of urgency is being driven "by the calendar" and not any progress in the talks. But union president Derek Fisher - possibly unintentionally - dropped several hints that significant progress has been made.
The sides probably have about two more weeks to reach a new deal before the lockout will force postponements and cancellations of training camps and preseason games.
Nov 10 2010
It can be difficult to decipher the NCAA guidelines for recruiting without degrees in law, astrophysics and phrenology -- but here's a head start: the official calendar that dictates when recruits can and cannot be contacted by coaches or other official team representatives.Please note: In NCAA-speak, a "contact" is anything beyond "hello."
As a general rule, the NCAA sets aside a formal contact period in the late summer/early fall, another in March and another in April. Teams and coaches are limited to 130 person/days of recruiting during the academic year, and get two additional evaluation periods during the summer.
Spans where recruiting is limited to campus visits -- quiet periods -- or shut down almost completely -- dead periods -- are sprinkled liberally throughout the year.
Here are the official dates for the 2010-11 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball recruiting calendar.
| Dates | Status | Notes |
| August 1 - September 8 | Quiet Period | |
| September 9 - October 5 | Contact Period | Fall Contact Period |
| October 6 - March 30, 2011 (with noted exceptions) | Evaluation Period | |
| November 8 - 11 | Dead Period | |
| December 24 - 26 | Dead Period | |
| March 16 - 22, 2011 | Contact Period | March Contact Period |
| March 31 - April 7, 2011 (noon) | Dead Period | |
| April 7 (noon) - 20, 2011 (with noted exceptions) | Contact Period | |
| April 11 - 14 | Dead Period | |
| April 21 - July 5, 2011 (with noted exceptions) | Quiet Period | |
| May 19-27 | Dead Period | |
| Date TBD | Evaluation Period - NBA pre-draft camp | |
| July 6 - 15 | Evaluation Period | Summer Evaluation Period |
| July 16 - 21 | Dead Period | Teams are allowed contact during this period with players who have enrolled in summer classes or who have signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) |
| July 22 - 31 | Evaluation Period | Summer Evaluation Period |
One of the issues being discussed at the NBA's CBA talks is an expansion of the draft, SheridanHoops.com is reporting. The owners want to add a third round. The union has countered with a number of proposals that would give additional picks at the top of the draft to the teams with the worst records.
My initial reaction? This is a problem in search of a solution. Under the current two-round system, most teams are more than willing to trade late second-round picks for a few dollars... or waste them on 27-year-old Qatari-league all-stars that aren't even eligible for selection.
But after further review, I'm starting to think of this as a no-lose proposition. Especially if it comes with an expansion of the D-League.
Chris Sheridan, one of ESPN's lead basketball voices for the last six years, has left the mothership and started his own site. And as is appropriate when launching a new endeavor, he's doing so with a healthy dose of optimism.
The first post on his new SheridanHoops.com site explains that the NBA and NBPA aren't as far apart on the most crucial issue - how league revenue will be split - as either side has been suggesting. To summarize... the numbers that the union has been throwing around, suggesting the sides are about $8 billion apart, are based on the owners' CBA proposal, which would have an active life of ten years.
But it's far more likely that the term in the next deal will be six years - and in that span, the sides are just under $3 billion apart.
("Just $3 billion." I'm starting to think that this summer's national debt crisis has rendered us unable to comprehend the sheer size of any number, so long as there's a dollar sign in front. But I digress.)
That's a lot of scratch, but it isn't insurmountable. In fact, Sheridan thinks the sides are close enough that they'll be able to settle things and still start the regular season on time.
The sides are expected to resume negotiations on Wednesday.
