* The only way the Buccaneers could screw this season up any more is to–win a game. Last Sunday’s 34-17 loss to Detroit, left them with a 2-11 record. No team is worse. As of now, the Bucs head into the final three games with the overall No.1 pick in the 2015 draft. Win a game–and that scenario will likely change.
* Among the four major professional sports leagues, the National Hockey League is the least flush. While in better financial shape since the 2004-05 lockout and subsequent salary cap imposition, it still has issues. It would like fatter TV contracts, and with seven (of 30) Canadian franchises, it counts on a stable Canadian dollar.
The loonie now trades at just over 88 cents–and the impact matters.
It affects the salary cap when the portion of league revenues generated by the seven Canadian teams decreases. And it impacts TV money, a major portion of which comes from Canada–from Rogers Communications. But the Canadian dollar is not expected to head south as it did in 2002, finally bottoming out as a 62-cent loonie.
* New Rays manager Kevin Cash, a Gaither High product, is the sixth Tampa native to become a MLB manager. The three most famous: Al Lopez, Tony La Russa and Lou Piniella.
* It’s that time of the year again in college football: the announcement of bowl-game matchups. Statewide, UCF plays North Carolina St. in St. Pete’s Bitcoin Bowl; Miami plays South Carolina in the Independence Bowl; Florida plays East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl; and Florida State plays Oregon in the Rose Bowl, the only one that truly matters.
There are now 38 bowl games, including the Outback, where Auburn and Wisconsin will meet on Jan. 1. Arguably, no more than a dozen really matter to anyone but the participating teams, traveling boosters, network sponsors and chambers of commerce. Some don’t even sound like bowls–GoDaddy, TaxSlayer, Boca Raton, Foster Farms and Belk among them. BTW, Belk used to be the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
This is no longer a merit-based ritual. The Outback participants, for example, have seven losses between them. Thirteen of the participating teams don’t even have winning records. It will be 14 if Navy loses to Army on Saturday. But at least they’re in. We know, alas, schools that didn’t come close to bowl eligibility–and just fired three assistant coaches.