Press Box: Flyers goaltender Bryzgalov critical of fans
NHL
Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov reportedly said many of the city's hockey fans forget that players "are not robots, living people."
Bryzgalov, whose team was eliminated by the New Jersey Devils this week, criticized the Philadelphia fans in a Russian-language interview with SovSport.
"What I lived through this season I wouldn't wish to an enemy," Bryzgalov said Thursday. "... I need to keep working. I understand the fans. They paid their money and want the show. But many forget that we are not robots, but living people. We have feelings, worries."
Bryzgalov had a 33-16 record and a 2.50 goals-against average in the first year of a nine-year free agent deal with the Flyers. He allowed at least three goals in all but one of his 11 playoff games this spring.
"I got very tired this season, to be honest," he said. "... Now I know what it's like to be a goaltender in Philadelphia. Maybe from the outside it looks like there's nothing to it. You only realize it on your own."
Bryzgalov had played parts of five seasons in Anaheim and then four full seasons before coming to Philadelphia. He has taken a lot of the criticism for the Flyers' struggles this postseason.
"People are so concentrated on the negative that they only see the bad in me," Bryzgalov said. "But I think you need to be kinder to each other.
"I have eight more years to work under my contract with Philadelphia," Bryzgalov said. "If I am criticized, then I will endure it. You can't tie up people's tongues. It is their right to let the emotions go."
CFB
Boise State University reportedly is having second thoughts about joining the Big East Conference.
School officials have had meetings with the Mountain West Conference about remaining in their current league, according to CBSSports.com reports Friday.
"We are actively monitoring the changing landscape in college athletics and remain committed to making the best long-term decisions for Boise State," a Broncos spokesman said.
The Broncos are poised to join the Big East in 14 months with fellow MWC member San Diego State. However, in the past week the Big East has seen its commissioner resign and Louisville reportedly has pursued joining the Big 12 or the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Boise State, which has emerged as a football power in the past decade, was sought by the Big East last year as the conference was trying preserve its Bowl Championship Series automatic bid. However, the Big East reportedly may no long be considered a football power conference and may lose its automatic BCS bid.
The Big East, which is scheduled to gain six other members over the in 2013, is poised to lose long-time members Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia to other conferences. That's despite the fact it is located more than 2,000 miles from the next nearest member.
Boise State is planning to join the league as a football-only member with its other sports joining the Western Athletic Conference. There is reportedly concern from Boise State that the football reasons to join the Big East are eroding.
A key factor in Boise State's future, according to CBS Sports, is that the school hasn't officially informed the MWC that it is leaving. If it decides to remain in the MWC by July 1, 2013, it would cost Boise State $5 million to the Big East, which already has a contract with the Idaho school. After that date, it would cost Boise State $10 to leave the Big East.
Also part of the landscape is the disintegration of the Western Athletic Conference, which last week had San Jose State and Utah State bolt for the MWC. Those moves, according to CBS Sports, may have Boise State keep its non-football sports in the MWC.
--Big East interim commissioner Joe Bailey said this week Boise State and San Diego State remain committed to the Big East.
"Well, my sense is that unless you hear differently, I think that there's full commitment from their standpoint," Bailey said. "You can't there's an expectation market and then there's the reality market. And the reality of it is that those schools have indicated, to my knowledge, to the executive committee and to the other members, that they have a big belief that the Big East is a really good partner for them."
--Florida State Athletic Director reportedly has denied the school is looking to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference for the Big 12 Conference.
"We're in the ACC. We're committed to the ACC," Spetman told the Orlando Sentinel. "That's where our president and the board of trustees has committed to, so we're great partners in the ACC."
Spetman addressed the subject after blogs and message boards had been discussing a move by the Tallahassee, Fla., school as fact.
"I'm not out negotiating," he said.
Adding to the subject was last week's announcement of a $2.4 million shortfall in the school's 2012-13 athletic department budget.
Fueling the fire was reports of the Big 12's newly negotiated television deal that would earn each of the league's schools $20 million a year -- $3 million more than FSU would get in a new ACC TV deal.
"With the new TV deal, it shows some real positives for us to be successful," Spetman said.
Spetman also debunked reports that he was meeting with the Big 12.
"They've said I've been in Texas all this week," Spetman said. "My wife was wondering how I was getting back and forth every day."
As late as last season, there was talk that FSU was exploring a move to the Southeastern Conference. School president Eric Barron denied those reports.
"We weren't actively seeking that," Spetman said Friday.
CBK
George Mason University officials decided Friday not to move the school from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Atlantic-10 Conference.
The school, which advanced to the men's basketball Final Four in 2006, had been discussing the move, but have opted to stay in the CAA, according to the Washington Post.
"We felt it was in our best interests to stay," George Mason athletic director Tom O'Connor said.
Tom Yeager, the CAA commissioner, said he was happy the George Mason programs would stay in the conference it joined in 1985.
"We respected the process George Mason University went through and are pleased it decided that continued membership in the CAA is in the best interest of the university and its athletic programs," Yeager said in a statement.
While Mason is staying, the CAA could be losing other schools. Virginia Commonwealth may leave for the Atlantic-10, Old Dominion has been talking to Conference USA and Georgia State will leave for the Sun Belt Conference in 2013.
GOLF
A war of words is brewing between two of golf's biggest names.
Two days after Tiger Woods mocked Nick Faldo's commentary about Woods, Faldo stung back Thursday during the Golf Channel's broadcast of The Players Championship.
"I hated it when analysts and commentators were saying, 'He's thinking this. He's thinking that,' " said Faldo, who is a regular member of the Golf Channel's broadcast booth. "But this analyst here, I've walked the walk. I've been there and the bit I'm trying to describe is self-belief. I've had self-belief when I was playing my best and I also lost self-belief, and that's obviously when you get to the end of your career.
"I can generally recognize when a player is on the range, striping it, which Tiger's been doing basically all season. But for a player, if you cannot walk from the practice ground to the first tee ... for me, he doesn't have the self-belief he really needs."
Faldo has three British Open titles, won three Masters Tournaments and has spent 98 weeks ranked as golf's No. 1 player. Woods has won 14 major championships and has spent 545 weeks ranked as the sport's top player.
Faldo earlier this month made a similar statement, also saying Woods didn't have "self-belief." Woods didn't take Faldo's original comment too kindly.
"I always find it interesting (the critics' comments) since they're not in my head," Woods said. "How do they know what I'm thinking? They must have some kind of superpower I don't know about."
Woods has struggled since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational two months ago. He shot a 2-over-par in the first round of The Players Championship and was in danger of missing the cut for the second consecutive week on the PGA Tour.
