A big day for Indiana sports

Today was a big day for Indiana sports. Let's review:

• The #15 ranked Purdue Boilermakers battled its arch-rival #14 Indiana Hoosiers on the Assembly Hall hardwood in Bloomington.
• Reports on ESPN.com say Indiana University will suspend Kelvin Sampson with the intent to fire him.
  
• The City of Indianapolis announced its bid for the 2012 Super Bowl.
• The Indy Racing League and Champ Car open wheel sanctioning bodies announced their merger.
• The Indianapolis Colts put its franchise tag on TE Dallas Clark
• The Colts signed OL Ryan Lilja to a long term deal.
  

Today easily yielded five full length blog posts. Per my role as blogger of primarily Indiana related sport, I feel I must comment on each of them. But, due to time constraints, I will briefly touch on each of them and save you the time.

Indiana v. Purdue ... Indiana won this game 77-68. Typically that makes me giddy; few things in my sporting life are as great as an IU win over Purdue. I can't help but wonder, though, if the team more deserving lost the game. From a pure karmic stand point, the Hoosiers deserve nothing because of the Kelvin Sampson ordeal. The Boilers? Well, they probably deserve everything right now. They play hard, play the game the right way, and it appears Matt Painter has a respectable program. The Boilers embody the essence of college basketball; the Hoosiers do not. It pains me to say that, as well as to admit that I did not watch most of this game. The Sampson scandal has turned me off of IU basketball.

Kelvin Sampson suspension and firing ... Sometimes winning is not the most important thing. I'm glad that IU has a good basketball team this year, but it is not worth the scandal. IU Athletic Director Rick Greenspan needs to make the call.

Indy's 2012 Super Bowl bid ... I blogged last year about the loss of the 2011 Super Bowl. My thoughts from that post still stand. What I will add is that it also makes sense for the city because the Super Bowl is the ultimate "dog and pony show" for the city and potential conventioners looking for prime convention space. Think of all the money invested as one big marketing ad, and any revenue the city generates as a result of the Super Bowl, both directly and indirectly in the future, will add to the ROI for this project.

I also like Indy's chances. The two top competitors, Houston and Arizona, have already hosted a Super Bowl in their new stadiums. The NFL has made a habit of rewarding cities that build new stadiums. If the habit holds true, the bid seems like a slam dunk.

IRL / Champ Car merger ... It was a matter of time before this happened. It's a shame the split lasted as long as it did because of the affect it had on open-wheel racing in America. If the split never happens, racers like Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish and Juan Pablo Montoya probably never go to NASCAR. Sebastian Bourdais, Jaques Villeneuve and Montoya might not ever try their hand at Formula One. Michael Andretti would've had something like 10 more chances at the Borg Warner trophy. Formula One might still race in Indy, if my assumption that a bigger open-wheel racing fan base translates to a bigger Formula One fan base.

What's done is done, so we cannot dwell on it now. The merger is better late than never. Now we will have one brand of open-wheel racing, with one set of car specifications and one set of drivers to follow (it's a shame that Sebastian Bourdais, Sam Hornish and Dario Franchitti all left for greener pastures a year earlier).

It will be important that we not judge the success of the merger this season. The season starts in just over a month, and it will be nearly impossible for the majority of Champ Car teams to procure IRL spec equipment in time to field fully competitive entries. Rather, the true success of the merger will likely show 3 to 5 years out after the league and its teams have started to realize the benefits of economies of scale for its marketing, driver recruitment and R&D initiatives.

As I blogged here last March, I still believe the IRL should find a way to associate itself with NASCAR.

Franchise Tag for Dallas Clark ... obviously I would prefer an announcement of a brand spanking new 5-year deal for Dallas. Beggars can't be choosers, though, and this announcement means at least one more year of Dallas Clark in the Indy offense. This is big for the Colts, because Dallas makes a lot of things work on offense, be it the run, pass protection, an outlet for Manning when Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison are covered, or a distraction that creates single coverage for Wayne or Harrison.

What's more is that, with the exception of Edgerrin James, the Colts have worked in good faith with franchised players to get a long term deal in place. I will still hold out hope for that.

Long term deal for Ryan Lilja ... this announcement was buried in the Dallas Clark press release. This is also a noteworthy move, because it means the Colts only have one potential hole to fill on the starting offensive line (Jake Scott). Now the Colts can further address depth at this position or defensive end, which right now look like the only glaring needs for 2008.