SI.com - SI On Campus - The Vent: 07/09/2006

7/14/2006 12:06:00 PM

Page Six: College Sports

Though technically not a celebrity, we defy you to top lounging with former Arizona guard Miles Simon in a Nerf pool.

Photo by Matt Waxman

Hangin’ on the football field with King Hussein, going back-to-back with Spud Webb after a college slam dunk contest – I’ve already spilled my Top 10 Celebrity Encounters of the Athletic Kind. Today, we want to hear your tales of rubbing elbows with the glitterati at college sports events.

Did you overhear Chris Berman drop a “You’re with me, leather” line on a USC song girl? Was Ric Flair kind enough to put you in a figure four leg-lock during a Florida Gators football game? Time to flap those gums.

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7/13/2006 12:06:00 PM

European Vacation

OJ Mayo still has a year of high school eligibilty left, but would he consider giving up college ball in 2007 for a chance to play in Europe for a year?

Brian Spurlock/SI

The NBA age limit that prohibits a player from entering the league directly from high school was intended to strengthen both the pro and college game. However, if Sonny Vaccaro and several agents have their way, the college game won't reap the rewards of this new policy. A story in Sunday's New York Times stated that agents are contacting the nation's top high-schoolers and persuading them to forego college to play a year of pro ball in Europe. In other cases, the agents are telling players to work out with a trainer for a year and sign a shoe contract to supplement their income. Vaccaro was considering the creation of a dream team that would tour Europe, though he backed off when David Stern addressed the culture of exploitation in youth basketball.

Nonetheless, the loopholes in the age limit have been identified. Although many of the top names from last year's high school class are bound for the NCAA (Greg Oden to Ohio State, Kevin Durant to Texas, and Thadeus Young to Georgia Tech), there is a strong chance that a player who has financial troubles will give college ball the proverbial middle finger and head overseas in pursuit of a paycheck.

Is this a bad thing? Should we care? Should the NBA care? What are your thoughts?

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7/10/2006 11:54:00 AM

Dumb and Dumber

Where does Zinedine Zidane's head-butt rank among stupidest all-time plays be an athlete in a major sporting event?

Photo by EPA

Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt to the chest of Italian defender Marco Materazzi during Sunday's World Cup finale between France and Italy is destined to go down in the annals of bonehead plays by athletes. Although it didn’t directly cost France the World Cup, it certainly could’ve used Zidane’s famed right leg in the shootout that determined the champion. We’re also fairly confident that Zidane has added his name to the conversation of memorable meltdowns by top athletes.. But where exactly does he rank? Is this worse than Chris Webber’s timeout call in the 1993 Final Four that may have cost Michigan the national championship? Or is it more on a par with George Mason’s Tony Skinn, who punched Hofstra’s Loren Stokes between the legs with 55 seconds left in the Colonial Athletic Association semi-finals last March?

What other memorable bonehead plays can you recall?

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