One of the local stations (I think it's KMBC out of Kansas City, but the callsign is cut out of the screen) was a bit confused on which Kansas team took part in the Final Four tonight.  Wichita State battled Louisville much closer than anyone anticipated, before eventually falling short... or maybe it was Kansas State.  In not one but two images, we see the headline "KState falls to Louisville." We also see the "State" taken away from Wichita State in the second screengrab just for kicks.  Confusing Wichita State with Kansas in the Final Four I could understand, but Kansas State?  Now that's a funny joke.

Via AJHildreth, avobach22

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Florida State at Miami -- ESPNU, noon
Cornell at Dartmouth -- Fox College Sports Atlantic, noon
Ohio State at Minnesota -- Big Ten Network, 2 p.m.
Texas Tech at Kansas State -- Fox College Sports Central, 2 p.m.
Cal at Arizona -- ESPNU, 4 p.m.

College Basketball Viewing Picks

Curling
Men's World Championship, Victoria, British Columbia
Gold Medal Game -- Universal Sports, 7 p.m.

Cycling
Paris-Roubaix -- NBC Sports Network, 8 a.m.

Golf
PGA Tour
Texas Open, San Antonio, TX
Final Round -- Golf Channel, 1 p.m./NBC, 3 p.m.

LPGA Tour
Kraft Nabisco Championship, Rancho Mirage, CA
Final Round -- Golf Channel, 5 p.m.

IndyCar
Grand Prix of Alabama -- NBC Sports Network, 3 p.m.

MLB
American League
New York Yankees at Detroit -- TBS, 1 p.m.
Seattle at Chicago White Sox -- WGN America, 2 p.m.
Anaheim Angels at Texas -- ESPN2, 8 p.m.

Baseball Tonight -- ESPN, 12:30 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 1 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, 7 p.m.
Plays of the Week -- MLB Network, 10 p.m.
Quick Pitch -- MLB Network, 11 p.m.

NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series, Martinsville, VA
STP Gas Booster 500 -- Fox, 12:30 p.m.

NBA
New York at Oklahoma City -- ABC, 1 p.m.
Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers -- ABC, 3:30 p.m.
Dallas at Portland -- NBA TV, 9 p.m.

NBA GameTime -- NBA TV, 6 p.m.

NHL
St. Louis at Detroit -- NBC, 12:30 p.m.
Dallas at San Jose -- NHL Network, 4 p.m.
New Jersey at Buffalo -- NBC Sports Network, Sports 7:30 p.m.

NHL Tonight -- NHL Network, 3 p.m.
NHL Live -- NBC Sports Network, 7 p.m.
NHL Plays of the Week: 03/30/13-04-05-13 -- NHL Network, 7 p.m.
NHL Tonight -- NHL Network, 9:30 p.m.
NHL Live -- NBC Sports Network, 10 p.m.

Running
Paris Marathon -- Universal Sports, 2:30 a.m.

Soccer
English Premier League
Liverpool vs. West Ham United -- Fox Soccer Plus, 8:25 a.m.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Everton -- Fox Soccer, 9 a.m.
Queens Park Rangers vs. Wigan Athletic -- Fox Soccer, 11 a.m.

Goals on Sunday -- Fox Soccer, 1 p.m.

MLS
Chicago vs. New York -- ESPN2, 5 p.m.

Sports Talk
Outside the Lines -- ESPN, 9 a.m.
The Sports Reporters -- ESPN, 9:30 a.m.
The Fab Five -- ESPN Classic, 6 p.m.

Tennis
WTA Tour
Family Circle Cup, Charleston, SC
Final -- ESPN2, 1 p.m.

Davis Cup
Quarterfinal, Boise, Idaho
USA vs. Serbia
Reverse Singles Rubber #4 -- Tennis Channel, 2 p.m.
Reverse Singles Rubber #5 -- Tennis Channel, 5 p.m.

Long-time NBA broadcaster Dr Jack Ramsay will be retiring at the end of this season, according to a report from Fox Sports Florida. The 88-year old Ramsay has apparently been devastated over the loss of his long-time broadcast partner Jim Durham in November, and this will be the final run for his broadcasting career, which began at ESPN in the mid-90s.

“It’s not quite the same,’’ said Ramsay, who has worked with different partners this season on ESPN Radio. “I did it all these years with one partner, Jim Durham, and he passed away after the first game this year. We had a great rapport and I really enjoyed working with him, and working with him is really why I extended my tour of duty.’’

Ramsay is a survivor of both melanoma and prostate cancer, but is health is apparently fine.in his advanced age. In his post-coaching career, Ramsay has also worked with the Miami Heat in addition to ESPN, serving as their TV analyst from 1992 to 2000.

It's great to see Ramsay walking away from the game on his own terms, but it's a bittersweet moment for those of us who have enjoyed his broadcasting over the years. It'll be interesting to see the direction that ESPN goes with in regards to their radio broadcasts too, with the death of Durham and Ramsay's retirement necessitating a complete overhaul.

[Fox Sports Florida]

Houston Astros broadcaster Alan Ashby has apologized for his comments after Yu Darvish lost his perfect game on Tuesday with two outs in the ninth inning.

"I'd like to apologize if my comments last night were misinterpreted or construed as insensitive. I have the highest respect for Yu Darvish; he's a great player and his performance last night was outstanding. He showed a great deal of poise in the face of a difficult moment last night, which speaks to the strength of his character."

The comment Ashby made about Darvish was "That’ll force a guy to learn some of the language here in America," as he cursed in the dugout following his removal from the game. I think the whole situation got a little overblown, as it didn't seem like Ashby was inferring that Darvish was somehow a worse person because he prefers not to speak English, but instead that the profanity spilling out of his mouth after he lost the perfect game is something that any foreign player would pick up in a situation like this.

[MLB.com]

All Times Eastern

Arena Football
San Jose SaberCats at Arizona Rattlers -- CBS Sports Network, 8:30 p.m.

Boxing
World Championship Boxing, Macau, Communist China
Flyweights: Zhou Shiming vs. Eleazar Valenzuela -- HBO2, 2 p.m.

College Baseball
Liberty at Coastal Carolina -- ESPNU, noon
Texas Tech at Kansas State -- Fox College Sports Pacific, 3 p.m.
Oklahoma at Texas -- Fox Sports Net, 3:30 p.m.
Missouri at Georgia -- ESPNU, 8 p.m.

College Basketball Viewing Picks

College Lacrosse
Hobart at Ohio State -- Big Ten Network, noon
Syracuse at Princeton -- ESPNU, 5 p.m.

Curling
World Championships, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Canada vs. Denmark -- Universal Sports, 2 p.m.
Men's Semifinals -- Universal Sports, 7 p.m.

Golf
PGA Tour
Texas Open, San Antonio, TX
Third Round -- Golf Channel, 1 p.m./NBC, 3 p.m.

LPGA Tour
Kraft Nabisco Championship, Rancho Mirage, CA
Third Round -- Golf Channel, 4 p.m.

Mixed Martial Arts
UFC on Fuel 9: Latifi vs. Mousasi -- Fuel, 2 p.m.

UFC Prefight Show -- Fuel, 1 p.m.
UFC Post Fight Show -- Fuel, 5 p.m.

MLB
American League
Anaheim Angels at Texas -- Fox, 4 p.m.
New York Yankees at Detroit -- Fox, 4 p.m.
Cleveland at Tampa Bay -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

National League
St. Louis at San Francisco -- Fox, 4 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Atlanta -- WGN America, 7 p.m.

Interleague
Kansas City at Philadelphia -- MLB Network 7 p.m.

MLB Player Poll -- Fox, 3 p.m.
Fox Saturday Baseball Pregame Show -- Fox, 3:30 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, 10 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 10 p.m.
Quick Pitch -- MLB Network, 11 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, midnight

NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series, Martinsville, VA
Martinsville -- Speed, 1:30 p.m.

NBA
Philadelphia at Miami -- ESPN, 7:30 p.m.

NBA GameTime -- NBA TV, 9 p.m.

NHL
Edmonton at Los Angeles -- NHL Network, 4 p.m.
Boston at Montreal -- NHL Network, 7 p.m.
Calgary at Vancouver -- NHL Network, 10 p.m.

Hockey Tonight -- NHL Network, 6:30 p.m.
NHL Tonight -- NHL Network, 1 a.m. (Sunday)

Soccer
English Premier League
Stoke City vs. Aston Villa -- Fox Soccer, noon (same day coverage)
Norwich City vs. Swansea City -- Fox Soccer, 2 p.m. (same day coverage)
West Bromwich Albion vs. Arsenal -- Fox Soccer, 8 p.m. (same day coverage)

MLS
Columbus vs. Philadelphia -- UniMás, 5 p.m.
Colorado vs. Real Salt Lake -- NBC Sports Network, 7:30 p.m.

Sports Talk
ESPN Sports Saturday -- ABC, 4 p.m.
30 for 30: Survive and Advance -- ESPN Classic, 4 p.m.
Hoop Dreams -- ESPN Classic, 10 p.m.

Tennis
WTA Tour
Family Circle Cup, Charleston, SC
Semifinal
Serena Williams vs. Venus Williams -- ESPN2, 1 p.m.

Davis Cup
Quarterfinal, Boise, ID
USA vs. Serbia
Doubles -- Tennis Channel, 3 p.m.

It's hard to believe that the sports radio format almost died before it had a chance to get off the ground. In 1981, Scott Rasmussen, the son of ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen, tried to launch a national sports radio network called Enterprise Radio. At its peak, 74 stations across the country picked up weeknight and overnight sports talk programming. In fact, current New York Yankees voice John Sterling was one of the first hosts on the network and Kevin Harlan and Sean McDonough were among the network's interns. However, due to a lack of advertiser support and consequently, a lack of funding, Enterprise died after a short nine months.

The sports radio format was resurrected in 1987 by Jeff Smulyan and his Emmis Communications at a former country station, WHN 1050 AM in New York and rebranded as WFAN. Greg Gumbel and Jim Lampley were among the station's original hosts. The 'FAN languished at 1050 AM, lost a ton of money and almost flipped formats. However, the station got new life when it changed frequencies to a stronger 660 AM, brought on Don Imus as its morning drive host and changed its focus from national to strictly local sports and the format took off.

Ed Note: This article appears via Bloguin's college football blog Crystal Ball Run.

Interesting couple days on the Plains.

First, there was Selena Roberts’ portrayal of an Auburn football program running wild around the time of its 2010 national championship run. On Thursday ESPN took a turn going after the Tigers, hyping an investigation into an alleged cover-up of failed drug tests and rampant use of synthetic marijuana.

Allegations of impropriety aside, neither article will go down as a masterpiece in the canons of investigative journalism. Both are jumbled and incoherent, particularly with regard to establishing timelines. Despite claims of investigations spanning months, the end products smack of the kind of shoddy narratives that can result when news outlets realize they’re competing to break a big story.

ESPN's John Barr was on the Rutgers campus for the facepalm-inducing press conference of Rutgers president Robert Barchi and the news of AD Tim Pernetti resigning.  Although it can't be seen on-screen, someone at Rutgers threw a water balloon at Barr and his ESPN crew.  Barr relays what happened and then compares the reception the media was getting on the Jersey campus to what happened at Penn State.  That's not a comparison you want to be drawing at the moment Rutgers, but the leadership at the school seems incompetent enough to guide the media full speed ahead in that direction.

Video via SportsGrid

It's never too early to be looking forward to the 2013 NFL season.  It probably is always too early to be looking forward to the 2013 NFL preseason, but alas, the NFL has released the schedule and so I now forward it to you.  At least the NFL and the networks are sparing us the abomination of the fourth week of preseason from national television.  Thank you Jesus.  The games begin in Canton on August 4th with the Hall of Fame Game between the Cowboys and Dolphins.

Sunday August 4

NFL Hall of Fame Game - Canton, Ohio

Dallas Cowboys vs Miami Dolphins (NBC 8 PM)

Preseason Week 1

Thursday August 8

Cincinnati Bengals at Atlanta Falcons (ESPN 8 PM)

Preseason Week 2

Thursday August 15

San Diego Chargers at Chicago Bears (ESPN 8 PM)

Friday August 16

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New England Patriots (Fox 8 PM)

Sunday August 18

Indianapolis Colts at NY Giants (Fox 8 PM)

Monday August 19

Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins (ESPN 8 PM)

Preseason Week 3

Thursday August 22

Carolina Panthers at Baltimore Ravens (ESPN 8 PM)

Friday August 23

Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers (CBS 8 PM)

Saturday August 24

St. Louis Rams at Denver Broncos (CBS 8 PM)

Sunday August 25

New Orleans Saints at Houston Texans (Fox 4 PM)

Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers (NBC 8 PM)

Nero, Warren G. Harding, Kenneth Lay, Matt Millen, King Richard III.

These are some of the worst, most inept leaders in history.  Soon NCAA President Mark Emmert's name will be added to the list.

While at the Final Four, Emmert met with a bloodthirsty, ravenous media already calling for his head on a silver platter during a contentious press conference.  Emmert's answers with regards to the downward spiral of the NCAA and its mounting problems before the presser have produced skepticism and criticism.  His answers during the question and answer session only served to transition the skepticism to astonishment and the criticism to outrage.

Emmert's complete and total failure as the headless chicken leading the sham of big time college athletics makes professional commissioners look like venerated elder statesmen in comparison.  Heck, it makes FIFA look as well put together as Apple.

After a defiant, arrogant, out-of-touch display where he did his best to dodge the media's arrows, Emmert's detractors became even more vocal as they took to websites and Twitter.  Here's a brief collection of the media's thoughts on NCAA President Mark Emmert...