Collegiate Bass Fishing Returns

The National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship was held on Lake Lewisville again this past week, and Arkansas atoned for its football team sucking by taking the championship.

the Sooners choked, and came away 22nd.

Five teams made the final day, Arkansas, Cash Machine U, Texas Tech, TAMU-Kingsville, and Baylor. Robert Griffin was of no use to the fishing team however, and they caught only 2 fish totalling 3.3 pounds, compared to 5 fish for 17 pounds for Arkansas.

Arkansas claimed Baylor stole their bait bucket to get 2 fish of that size. The Baylor duo denied the accusation, prayed over the fish and fed the entire gathering.

Dead Battery Derails Sooners

The Sooners Collegiate Bass Fishing team's national championship dreams were laid to waste this weekend after a dead battery lead them to be disqualified at the end of day one. The team was unable to make it back to the way-in station by the appropriate time. A strong showing on the second day wasn't enough to get the Sooners back into the title chase. Cash Machine U's fishing team, which apparently was able to pool enough gas money to participate, and ended up second in the tourney.

Arkansas-Little Rock won the tourney.Final result are here.

College bass fishing is an evolving sport. There is 1) College Bass Fishing, which is sponsored by Under Armounr and is a partner with ESPN outdoors, and 2) Collegiate Bass Fishing, where the Sooners won their Big 12 Championship; and 3) National Collegiate Bass Championships, which is the National Championship that Cash Machine U won last year.

I think this is like AP and Coaches Polls in college football. Only different.

Big 12 Champions!

We're in the dog days of blogging now, when there seems to be nothing going on, with the exception of the Fulmer Cup tourney, where Alabama recently blew away the field. Fortunately, the Collegiate Bass Anglers Association is there to save the day.

Seems the Sooners won yet another Big 12 Championship last weekend, this time in the CBAA tournament at Lake Eufaula. For the uninformed out there, Eufaula is the childhood hometown of Sooner greats J.C. Watts, Lucius, Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon, so it's been a good spot for us for 35 years or so now. Pardon me, I digress. Back to the fishing. The Sooners, ranked #6 in the country, took advantage of the 2nd ranked Texas A&M team's absence from the tourney. The Aggies "did not send a team primarily due to sky-rocketing fuel costs". Surely Coach Fran could spare some loose change from his settlement to help the boys out. I spoke to Reveille VII about this, and he was too mad for comment. I'm sure this would not have happened on his watch.

The BassZone also provided coverage of the event. SoonersSports.com failed to mention the event. As noted in the BassZone's excellent coverage by Gene Gilliland, "Baylor and Missouri do not yet have fishing teams...". Seems like this would be an opportunity for those underutilized Baylor QBs to break into the starting lineup.

Bass Fishing Controversy

LandThieves Press outdoor editor Dick Cheney has uncovered a budding controversy in the collegiate bass world. Seems the collegiate bass folks put together an "Athlete Advisory Council" put together a mathematical model to rate the various bass fishing teams. To quote Commissioner Heckaman,

Another primary concern was how to best evaluate a one-boat team vs. a multiple-boat team at any given event. On one side of the coin you have a one-boat team who has the equivalent of a crap shoot -- all or nothing. This team will either perform exceptionally well (Top 10) or crash and burn (Bottom 10), with no help in sight. On the other side of the coin you have multiple- boat teams. A multiple-boat team that has one boat with a poor/average performance (#30) can be lifted up in the ranking by another boat with a strong finish (#1). Conversely, multiple-boat team that has a boat with an exceptional performance (#1) may be pulled down in the rankings by another boat with an average/poor performance (#30)."



For example, Cash Machine U won the national tourney at Lake Lewisville; Virginia Tech won the national tourney in Arkansas (look for ESPN segment on tie in of fishers to last May's student shooting), while Western Kentucky is the highest ranked team.



As a result, LandThieves proposes it's own statistical model for the fishing teams:



Rating = (BAL - SPF + RMPH + DDS); the rating system is explained furtherL



BAL - Blood Alcohol Level of the athletes at the end of the fishing period * 100

SPF - the SPF rating of the sunblock used by the athletes will be deducted from the total points

RMPH - top speed achieved in reverse while backing the trailer into the water

DDS - average number of teeth per angler



It is our opinion that this formula will allow us to have a solid leading indicator of the fishing teams capabilities.

VIP Connection from Bass Fishing Coach

By Joe Huff


I was able to find some loose change in the sofa and subscribe to Cash Machine U Bass Fishing Coach Joe Bob Slocum's VIP Connection newsletter. Now that the whole "VIP Connection" series has been outed I felt I could break the confidentiality of this part of the last one of the series, as the Aggies travelled to Lake Lewisville for the National Championships.

• They have this Garden Ridge Pottery Store up here. That place is awesome! I love me some pink flamingos.
• I'm not going to tell anyone else, but one of the boys is having trouble with his wrist. He says it's from "excessive casting". I hope he's right.
• The Bonfire/Fish Fry for the boys was completely ruined by the PETA people last night. I guess they've moved on from that whole Michael Vick thing.
• Lake Lewisville is a big lake. I put an "X" on the side of the boat so we could remember where we were fishing today.
• The 8 track tape player on the boat ate my .38 special "Wild Eyed Southern Boys" 8 track. If anyone has an extra copy, please email me at joebobslocum@gmail.com
• The boys got really hammered at Sneaky Pete's earlier tonight. I hope they're not too drunk too fish tomorrow. Mickey Mantle used to play baseball after tying one on the night before. Surely these boys can sit in a freaking boat with a pole in their hands for a few hours with a hangover.
• We don't have any traditions at the TAMU fishing program. We had the "Small Mouth Bass" tradition for awhile, but found out later that was illegal in most states.