Kentucky remains No. 1 in men's hoops poll

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/13/2012 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kentucky remained the top team in the latest Associated Press men's college basketball poll.

The Wildcats, who first had a two-week stay at No. 1 starting in late November, are the top team in the nation for a fourth straight week. They received 63 first-place votes and a total of 1,623 points from a nationwide media panel for the third consecutive week.

Syracuse, which preceded Kentucky at the top with a six-week run, held firm at No. 2 with the other two first-place votes. Missouri moved up a slot to third and fellow Big 12 member Kansas vaulted three places to fourth, while Duke leapt five spots to fifth.

Ohio State, which lost to Michigan State at home on Saturday, tumbled three places to sixth and the Spartans moved up four places to seventh. North Carolina, which lost on a last-second shot to Duke last week, fell three places eighth. Baylor was sixth last week, but tumbled to ninth after losing to both Kansas and Missouri.

Georgetown, despite an overtime loss to Syracuse last week, moved up two spots to 10th and is followed by UNLV, Marquette, San Diego State, Florida, Wisconsin, Murray State, Michigan, Indiana, Louisville and Florida State. Florida tumbled six spots from eighth after losses to Kentucky and Tennessee, and Murray State dropped seven places from ninth after suffering its first loss of the season at home against Tennessee State.

The last five teams ranked this week are Saint Mary's, Virginia, Notre Dame, Gonzaga and Wichita State. Gonzaga returned to the poll after a one-week absence following a 73-59 win over Saint Mary's, and Wichita State, which posted an 89-68 win over previously-ranked Creighton and is ranked for the first time this season, are tied for 24th.

Notre Dame is also ranked for the first time this season. The Fighting Irish have won six straight games, a stretch that started January 21 with a victory over then-unbeaten Syracuse.

Creighton was 17th last week, but its loss to Wichita State was its third in a row. Mississippi State also dropped out, as did Harvard, which was 25th before a loss Saturday at Princeton.

This week's ranked matchups include a Big Ten tussle on Thursday between Wisconsin and Michigan State in East Lansing and another Big Ten battle Saturday as Ohio State visits Michigan. Saturday's slate also features the BracketBuster contest between Saint Mary's and Murray State.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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