FSU president lays out pros/cons of Big 12 move

The president of Florida State University says moving the athletic program from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big 12 has several drawbacks to be considered.

FSU president Eric Barron sent an email to those who have asked him about the possibility of the Seminoles switching conferences. The email was obtained by The Associated Press and several other news organizations.

He writes that negotiations between the school and the conference are not taking place. While he lays out both possible pros and cons for a move, he makes a strong case for staying in the ACC, where the Seminoles have competed since 1992.

For about the past two weeks there have been several more reports about Florida State leaving the ACC. Florida State athletic director Randy Spetman recently told the Orlando Sentinel the school was committed to the ACC. But Florida State board of trustees chairman Andy Haggard told Warchant.com, a website that covers FSU sports, that the board "would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer."

The ACC has 12 members and will be adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse as soon as 2013. The Big 12 has 10 members after it replaced Texas A&M and Missouri, which are headed to the Southeastern Conference next season, with West Virginia and TCU.

"I want to assure you that any decision made about FSU athletics will be reasoned and thoughtful and based on athletics, finances and academics," Barron wrote. "Allow me to provide you with some of the issues we are facing:"

Barron outlined four points made by those who support a move:

? The ACC is more of a basketball conference than a football league.

? The ACC is too North Carolina centric and the conference's TV contract gives the stronger basketball schools an advantage.

? The Big 12's powerful football schools are a better match for Florida State.

? The Big 12's impending new TV contract might make Florida State $2.9 million more per year than the ACC's new deal and Florida State needs the money.

Barron countered that the ACC shares its football and basketball revenue equally. The only revenue that is not shared equally is certain media rights for women's basketball and Olympic sports, and that is to Florida State's benefit.

He also said Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M have left the Big 12 over the past two years because the conference does not share revenue equally. The Big 12 is on the way to changing that. Its members having agreed in October to start sharing equally revenue from its most lucrative media rights deals. The Big 12 does allow its members to hold some media rights and run their own networks, such as Texas' Longhorn Network.

Barron wrote the Big 12 is at least as Texas centered as the ACC is North Carolina centered and that the Texas schools are expected to play each other. He wrote that the "most likely scenario" leaves Florida State playing Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State and West Virginia.

Florida State already has problems selling out its home games. Barron wrote that playing those schools would not cure that problem.

He also writes that the possible financial gains the Tallahassee-based school could make under the Big 12 TV contract might not be enough to make up for the cost of competing in that league.

Other FSU sports teams would have to make longer road trips and that could eat away any of the financial benefits of a better TV deal in the Big 12.

Barron also stated a move to the Big 12 could cost the school its rivalry game against Miami. Plus, "It will cost between $20-$25 million to leave the ACC ? we have no idea where that money could come from."

Lastly, he added: "The faculty are adamantly opposed to joining a league that is academically weaker ... "

"I present these issues to you so that you realize that this is not so simple (not to mention that negotiations aren't even taking place)," Barron writes. "We can't afford to have conference affiliation be governed by emotion ? it has to be based on a careful assessment of athletics, finances and academics. I assure you that every aspect of conference affiliation will be looked at by this institution, but it must be a reasoned decision."

Associated Press

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Rosie Pope, Pregnant in Heels Host, Welcomes Baby Girl!

Looks like Rosie Pope just got the ultimate Mother's Day gift. Bravo's Pregnant in Heels host gave birth to her first daughter on Sunday.

Weighing 7 lbs. and 9 oz., the baby is "healthy and beautiful," Pope and hubby Daron, who also have two sons, say in a statement.

"We are all doing very well and are so in love with her, as are her older brothers and our extended family."

Throughout her labor, Rosie Pope delivered updates on Twitter.

"Ahhhhh contractions are so bad, I've asked for the epidural but it's not working. Please start working!" the TV personality wrote.

Her husband took over Tweeting once things got ... you know.

"Rosie now itching legs, nausea coming on really strong," he wrote. "She's talking about only one thing: healthy baby girl."

Finally, dad said, the baby was born.

"We can't believe we're a family of 5 now!" the proud papa posted. "Such an amazing journey, we feel so incredibly blessed!"

[Photo: WENN.com]

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Ex-Microsoftie Robbie Bach: I wouldn't have made Zune MP3 players, we were just 'chasing Apple'

It took some time after Robbie Bach left Microsoft for the Zune device line to wind to a close, but that hasn't stopped the former music (and gaming) executive from suggesting that it should have been ramped down much, much sooner. While discussing the best way to get a startup company humming at a Northwest Entrepreneur Network event, Bach mentioned his view that Microsoft should never have started down the MP3 player path to start with and should have instead gone service-only. The Zune was a too-little-too-late reaction to the iPod, according to him, and the option to squirt your songs apparently wasn't enough of a lure:

"We just weren't brave enough, honestly, and we ended up chasing Apple with a product that actually wasn't a bad product, but it was still a chasing product, and there wasn't a reason for somebody to say, oh, I have to go out and get that thing."

We've had some affection for the Zune in the past, but there's no denying that it faced an uphill battle from the start. Sales leveled off almost immediately, and the damage was primarily to smaller competitors like Creative and SanDisk that couldn't throw their weight around the way Microsoft did.

Ex-Microsoftie Robbie Bach: I wouldn't have made Zune MP3 players, we were just 'chasing Apple' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 May 2012 21:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Full Feeds Service Discontinued

Unfortunatly the time has come for this scraper to come down (seemingly it may come as a shock to some that this is not provided by the BBC). I wrote this back in 2005 and have modified it a couple of times since mainly so that I could more easily consume RSS on the move. In short, I no longer use it, I find consuming live news is not actually something an RSS reader does very well and I face a constant battle against sites trying to use these feeds to monetize BBC content and failing to pay any attention to etag or last modified headers (hello palin-pedia.com et al). Please update your RSS subscription as the last remenants of this will be removed soon , the official BBC RSS feed you are looking for is: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/world/rss.xml

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What My Mom Taught Me: Celebrities Dish!

To gear up for Mother's Day, iVillage asked celebs (Kate Hudson! Jennifer Garner!) what they've picked up from their moms

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Watch: Matt Damon & Jodie Foster Provide Water to Moms

This Mother's Day, Matt Damon and Jodie Foster would like to challenge you to honor mothers everywhere by helping Water.org end the water crisis around the world.

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98% Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a mouth watering, passionate documentary about the worlds' most acclaimed Sushi chef, and I'm not sure whether to recommend eating first, or going to the film hungry. No sushi that you have at your local $6.99 lunch special could possibly live up to the ideals (just by looking at his creations) that the obsessive compulsive Jiro reveals on director Gelb's HD camera. No sushi at your $100 per person with Sake will live up to it either.The quiet reverence in which Jiro is held by all the characters in the film, (a food critic, his sushi chef sons - terrified of letting down their fathers exacting legacy, the fish market and rice vendors) eventually rubs off on any viewer of this film. The man's obsessive compulsion and striving for excellence, even in his 85th year are truly humbling, especially for those of us who feel like we are too easy going and need to work on our attention to detail. The film delves into Jiro's early life. He was born poor and abandoned by his parents, yet possessed an inexorable inner drive that carried him to the height of sushi making. The film implies that this inner drive is innate, and makes me wish I had more of it myself. However, the film doesn't quite reveal how Jiro became Jiro. This much is clear - the man simply will not settle for anything less than full blown excellence, from the tunas he buys for his shop, to the work of his revolving door of apprentices and most emotionally, his terrified yet proud sons. He has no interests in life, except for making better and better sushi, and as in the title, this is what he sees in his dreams. Therefore, I'm not sure he'd be the most delightful company at a party but he's great company in this film. The film opens up at the fish market with Jiro's son shopping for the days ingredients, and a strange, mostly unexplained trip that Jiro makes to meet his childhood friends in his home village (that where the above mentioned grave scene takes place). He is like a hometown boy made good and everyone gets their picture taken with the maestro.Gelb uses a very simple storytelling technique by letting the players tell their own stories as pertaining to Jiro. Jiro himself is open and self critical, and answers all questions honestly, but he is not a poetic man with any kind of Freudian insight to his inner workings. We can see him at the grave of his parents, dutifully honoring them, then under his breath he says 'I don't know why I take care of them. They never took care of me.' A staggering and deep insight, one of the only ones in the film, but that's all you get. As for style, it effective but not very arty or pretentious. Gelb lets the HD sushi in close ups tell their own delicious story. As for people, we are mostly in close ups, and close quarters at Jiro's joint. Amazingly, Jiro does not have a lavish restaurant, but a hole in the wall in the lobby of an office building where he serves her creations at a 10 seat establishment that is reserved at least a month in advance. The film is very narrowly focused, and it does not hold interest for its entire 81 minute running time. It would been a more effective piece at about an hour or less, but I recommend it most highly, though it may not appeal much to non-foodies.

April 13, 2012

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