Mammoth Blog

NATHAN GREEN has never been strong on self-belief. Nor blowing his own trumpet. Now, if he is so inclined, he can shout from the rooftops that he is a winner on the US PGA Tour.

The 34-year-old from Toronto on the NSW Central Coast triumphed in Toronto on the other side of the world, winning the Canadian Open on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off with two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen over the Jack Nicklaus-designed Glen Abbey course.

Green joins Geoff Ogilvy (twice) as the only Australian winners on the US tour this year. His victory was worth $US918,000 ($1.1m), boosting him to 43rd on this year?s money list with earnings of $US1,282,017. Four rounds in the 60s ? 68, 65, 69, 68 ? gave him an 18-under tally, which Goosen matched with an eagle on the 72nd hole to force the play-off.

He looked remarkably composed in the play-off and why not? He went through his baptism of fire about three years ago in his rookie year on the PGA Tour in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in California. He played with home-town favourite Phil Mickelson in the final round and then found himself in a play-off with the great man himself, Tiger Woods, along with dual Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal.

Woods won. Doesn?t he always? Victory that day took Woods?s play-off record to 9-1 and it is now 11-1.

??I was definitely a lot calmer today than I was then,?? Green said of his encounter with Woods in 2006.

??It?s been a bizarre week, a long week. To win in Canada where I spent a lot of years playing the Canadian Tour is a great way to have a first one [PGA Tour victory].??

Yes, it took five days to complete the championship with Green playing 31 holes on Monday (Canadian time) to complete his third round, play the fourth round and then the play-off.

His first win as a professional was in the Toronto area on the Canadian Tour in 2000 and he can thank a hole-in-one earlier that year for that. An ace on the 12th hole at Huntingdale in the Australian Masters gave him a cheque for $500,000 and, with that in his pocket, he embarked on his golfing odyssey that reached a new peak with victory on Monday.

??Without that, I probably wouldn?t be here today,?? he said. Now he has his player?s card until the end of 2011.

On his own admission, he?s had difficulty in the past finishing off a tournament when in contention ? and with the year slipping away his chances of retaining his playing rights were diminishing. Until Monday, he?d made a lot of cuts this year with no great result, but patience and perseverance are his greatest virtues.

??I was sort of slipping further and further down [the money list to 132nd going into the Canadian Open],?? Green said. ??I couldn?t afford another slip up. I had to do something quickly just to make sure I kept my card.??

And, his saviour might very well have been the torrential rain and thunderstorms that plagued the tournament all week.

??The one benefit for me was I didn?t have to sleep on it [the fact that he was in contention going into the final round],?? Green said. ??I was hitting the ball well and able to take that straight into the final round.??
source>>>

Barring any scheduling surprises, Tiger Woods is about to try something new.

He had played three weeks in a row on the PGA Tour in every season since he was a rookie -- including a career-high five straight weeks in early 1999 -- until last year, when two knee surgeries crimped his schedule.

That third consecutive tournament, however, has never been a major.

This year looks like it will be different. Woods decided to play this week at the Buick Open, where he is a two-time winner and has never finished worse than 11th in eight previous starts at Warwick Hills.

Next week is the Bridgestone Invitational, and while Woods has yet to make that official, he has never missed a World Golf Championship in America when he wasn't on crutches. Besides, he is a six-time winner at Firestone, one of his favorite golf courses.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: PGA Tour | Tiger Woods | FedEx | Anthony Kim | Buick | American Express | Bridgestone | BMW

Then it's off to Hazeltine for the PGA Championship, his last shot at winning a major this year.

That he chose to play the Buick Open was only a mild surprise. Woods likes the golf course, and although he ended a decade-old endorsement contract one year early because of the economy, there remains a sense of loyalty to his longtime relationship with Buick.

"We've had a great relationship with Tiger for nine years, and this is his way of showing that," said Larry Peck, Buick-GMC's national promotions manager. "He provides such a lift."

Woods didn't offer much insight on his Web site, saying only that he was looking forward to the Buick Open and "the golf course suits my eye," a loose translation for "I see myself winning."

What his appearance at Warwick Hills should not suggest is any sense of panic.

Woods has not played more than two weeks in a row since returning from reconstructive knee surgery. Even though he is leading the PGA Tour money list by more than $500,000 and his three victories are more than anyone else, he has played only 10 times this year.

Some have suggested he needs to play more.

Then there was his last tournament, nothing short of a disaster. Woods played a six-hole stretch at Turnberry in 7-over-par and wound up missing the cut in the British Open by one shot, only his second missed cut in a major and his first weekend off in three years.

Swing coach Hank Haney worked with him last week in Florida, then offered a self-deprecating assessment as he headed to the airport.

"He's doing really good," Haney said. "He had a bad tournament, and I'm getting fired."

He has been working with Woods for more than five years and knows what kind of scrutiny to expect. He was on the range at Augusta National when Woods vented about how poorly he was hitting the ball, and speculation soon shifted to Haney being shown the door.

Haney looks more at the big picture.

Woods hit the ball great at the Memorial, then finally got some putts to fall on the final day to shoot 65 and win. He hit it just as well at Bethpage Black and never got anything to drop at the U.S. Open. And he continued to play well at Congressional, where Woods won a duel with Anthony Kim to capture his AT&T National.

Turnberry was a surprise, nothing more.

"There wasn't cause for that much alarm," Haney said. "He's played so well, it was a little easier to brush off."

Even so, there is a sense of urgency this time of the year.

Woods is at the halfway point of his schedule -- that includes The Presidents Cup, tournaments in Asia and Australia, and his Chevron World Challenge in December -- but he has only two months left in the meat of the PGA Tour schedule.

And there is only one major left.

Woods rarely plays the week before a major, but there has always been an exception or two for the PGA Championship. He has played five times the week before the PGA Championship, and last year won at Firestone by eight shots before winning the PGA at Southern Hills.

The last time he played three in a row? That was during the inaugural year of the FedEx Cup in 2007, when Woods tied for second at the Deutsche Bank Championship, then won the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.

He has played at least three straight weeks 21 times in his career, and twice won all three events (Disney, Tour Championship and American Express at the end of 1999; and the PGA Championship, Firestone and Deutsche Bank in 2006).

Whether he can win three in a row this time will be as trivial as the other two streaks.

What people will remember is whether Woods wins the last one. source>>>

Sometimes you have to take the road less traveled to find bargains. Nearly everyone has found the way to eBay, and that's the problem. Too many buyers can drive up prices. To find a deal, search where fewer buyers may be looking. Here are three sites that offer online auctions ranging from warehouse club merchandise to thrift store gems and manufacturers' and retail electronic overstocks.

SAM'S CLUB

www.samsclub.com/auctions

You have to be a Sam's Club member to bid ($40 annually), but you could save that chunk-o-change on one item. Shipping charges are what UPS charges, nothing more. Proxy bids are allowed. The site also allows "popcorn" bidding, which extends the deadline until the last bid has stayed up for 10 minutes. Some items have a "buy now" option. Recently, a Philips 42-inch LCD TV that sold for $980 at Amazon.com went for $701 at the Sam's site, including tax and shipping online.

- Categories: Apparel, electronics, jewelry, home furnishings, tools and automotive and toys.

- Strength: Electronics.

- Returns: 30 days, but auction items cannot be returned to warehouse stores.

GOODWILL

www.shopgoodwill.com

Don't like shopping in thrift stores? The website is odor- and clutter-free. More than 70 Goodwills nationwide, including Minnesota's, post merchandise online. All of the items posted from Minnesota can be picked up at the store on W. University Avenue in St. Paul to save shipping costs. To find local items, click on the "search" icon and then choose "MN, St. Paul" in the "Seller" drop-down menu. About 90 items are added daily from the St. Paul store, especially antique-y or collectible items. Brian Becker, director of marketing for Goodwill Minnesota, said that recent auctions on local items included an 18K gold hummingbird brooch (sold for $280), an antique Bernina sewing machine ($222) and an antique banker's fan ($600), although most items sell for much less. Some items have a "buy now" option.
- Categories: Jewelry, art, musical instruments, cameras, computers, collectibles.

- Strength: Collectibles.

- Returns: Within seven days, but only if the item was received damaged or misrepresented.

UBID

www.ubid.com

The site sells overstock items, sometimes refurbished inventory from manufacturers such as HP, Apple and Sony. A reconditioned iPod Touch (8 GB) was $175 on the "Buy now" feature, a few dollars cheaper than a reconditioned one at Apple.com. Many of the models aren't the most current, which explains the discount. Transaction fees ranging from 50 cents to $4 are added. If you tire of the auction, check out RedTag.com, which, along with Ubid, was once part of Tom Petters' holdings.

- Categories: Computers, TVs, art, jewelry, watches, automotive and home and garden.

- Strength: Refurbished electronics.

- Returns: Not usually allowed, unless the item is misrepresented. source>>>

EBay, in a bid to drum up more business, said Monday it plans to reward top-rated sellers on the online auction site.

The San Jose, California-based company said sellers who receive the highest ratings from buyers will receive 20 percent discounts on the fees they pay to eBay and feature more prominently in search rankings.

EBay said the system would be in place by October, ahead of the Christmas holiday shopping season, and that 150,000 sellers in the United States were expected to immediately qualify.

It said the program would launch in Britain and Germany at the same time as it does in the United States.

Sellers with as few as 100 transactions a year and 3,000 dollars a year in sales can qualify for the program based on buyer feedback, eBay said.

"For buyers, the new eBay Top-Rated Seller status makes it easy to find the highest quality sellers on eBay based on the feedback of other buyers," said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces.

"For sellers, the Top-Rated Seller status recognizes and rewards their commitment to consistently delivering the highest level of customer satisfaction," she said.

EBay's move is seen as an attempt to boost stagnating online sales.

The Internet auction pioneer reported last week that its net profit plunged 29 percent in the latest quarter due to a drop in its online Marketplaces business and the strength of the US dollar.

The Marketplaces unit, consisting of electronic commerce websites including eBay, Shopping.com, StubHub, and Kijiji, logged 1.26 billion dollars in revenue, a 14-percent drop from the same quarter a year earlier. source>>>

EBay on Monday unveiled another round of changes to its online marketplace, designed to help turn around slipping sales as consumers have turned to sites with higher levels of customer service. EBay introduced new minimum standards for professionalism in its marketplace, and it unveiled a new designation - and discounts - for what it will now call "Top-Rated Sellers."

Behind the changes, eBay has a new way to calculate whether or not a merchant is providing sufficient customer service. Already, eBay asks every buyer to rate his or her experience on a scale of 1 to 5, based on factors such as shipping time and a product living up to its billing. EBay used to insist that its sellers had to receive reviews averaging out to 4.3 in order to meet the site's minimum standards.

But some sellers balked at that system. One problem: buyers might think that a rating of 4 is decent -- even though, by eBay standards, it turns out to be sub-par.

Now eBay is shifting the focus just onto really bad customer experiences. "Buyers have different interpretations of what they consider a high score, but leaving a 1 or 2 is a clear sign of dissatisfaction," the company said in its announcement. "Many sellers have told us it's easier and more productive for them to focus on providing a level of service to buyers that minimizes 1s and 2s rather than on trying to achieve all 5s."

Starting in October, eBay says sellers cannot have 1 or 2 ratings for more than 3% of their transactions. In April 2010, standards will get even stricter, with no more than 1% of 1s or 2s allowed.

Low instances of 1s and 2s are also a main requirement for the new "Top-Rated Seller" designation . These sellers cannot get ratings of 1s or 2s on more than 0.5% of their transactions. EBay isn't getting rid of average ratings altogether. "Top-Rated Sellers" will still also have to average a 4.6 rating overall to keep the designation.

"Our whole goal is to reward sellers that create great experiences," said
Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplace Operations, in an interview. Using a threshold system, she said "is going to reflect the quality of a seller in a better light."

That shift may actually give an edge to smaller sellers on the site, who have more time to pay attention to what went wrong in the case of a really low rating, said Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, a company (partially owned by eBay) that helps other larger merchants sell on eBay. "Sellers are concerned about that one," he said. "We all want higher-quality sellers, but it's very hard to react to a 1 or 2-star rating."

EBay also introduced changes to the "best match" search algorithm it uses to help shoppers find listings, including placing more emphasis on relevant titles and less emphasis on items that get lots of clicks but nobody ends up buying.

The company also is offering a novel piece of software to sellers to explain why their listings are - or aren't - showing up at the top of eBay's search results. This software, dubbed the "Search Visibility Tool," explains what sorts of attributes in a listing are helping or hurting and what you can do to adjust some of them. Gaming eBay's search engine listings has been the source of countless books and articles dating back to when eBay arranged results based on which auctions were ending the soonest.

"We're trying to be phenomenally more transparent," said Norrington. "This is not about optimization in a fancy way, but [explaining] why you are ranking where you are in search."

Walt Kolenda, a longtime eBay seller who blogs under the name Auction Wally, said he's taking a wait-and-see attitude on the tool. "If the new dashboard feature is truly transparent, and it allows good sellers to tweak their listings with solid info gleaned from said dashboard, it will be a beautiful thing," he said. source>>>

: Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau says he wants former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress to serve time in prison, the New York Post reported. Morgenthau told the newspaper that Burress, who shot himself with an unlicensed gun in November, was willing to agree to spend a year in jail, but prosecutors insisted on two. source>>>

It's a sign of a lagging economy: American pro and college sports teams seeking new revenue through increasingly bold marketing relationships with gambling interests. It's why team logos have begun appearing on state lottery tickets and why some basketball games have been played at casino hotels.

Now officials in Delaware and New Jersey, facing their own budget problems, say it's time for a bolder move: full-scale, legalized sports betting in states other than Nevada, currently the only place such activity is allowed. They are pushing hard to add legalized, in-casino sports betting to their states' gambling offerings, which include horse racing, lotteries, slot machines and -- in Atlantic City -- table games.

The plans are being resisted by the nation's four major pro sports leagues -- the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball -- as well as the NCAA. Despite marketing arrangements schools and pro teams have with gambling, sports officials are asking a federal court to stop the Delaware effort, saying widespread legalized betting would threaten the integrity of their sports by creating incentives for cheating and game-fixing.

That view is not unanimous among sports owners, however.

Joe Maloof, whose family owns the NBA's Sacramento Kings and the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs as well as the Palms casino resort in Las Vegas, says well-regulated sports gambling would help prevent such problems.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: New Jersey | New York Yankees | Boston Red Sox | New York Mets | World Series | Delaware | Cincinnati Reds | Nevada | National Football League | Washington Redskins | Baltimore Ravens | Cleveland Browns | Baseball | Seattle Seahawks | Federal Bureau of Investigation | Sacramento Kings | Houston Texans | Vancouver Canucks | Atlantic City | Duke University | Jon Corzine | Major League | Pete Rose | Tim Donaghy | NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship | Heath Shuler | Jack A. Markell | Adam Silver

"With all the different casinos in different states that have legalized gaming, why not legalize sports betting?" Maloof asks. "When it's regulated, it's safer. There's no hanky-panky."

As one of four states that once had a form of sports betting, Delaware was exempted from the federal ban on sports wagering that was passed by Congress in 1992 and took effect Jan. 1, 1993. Led by Gov. Jack Markell, the state plans to capitalize on its exemption by allowing bets on NFL games beginning with the start of the 2009 season. The NFL, the NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball and the NCAA last week sued in U.S. District Court in Delaware to block the plan, citing state and federal laws.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey -- which is not exempt from the ban -- state Sen. Ray Lesniak and Gov. Jon Corzine are involved with a lawsuit filed in March that seeks to have the federal sports-betting ban declared unconstitutional.

Last week two U.S. senators and three congressmen -- including Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., a former NFL quarterback -- joined the fray. They wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to fight the lawsuit and Delaware's plan.

Compared with previous challenges to the USA's sports-betting system, "I'm not aware of anything close to this," says Paul Haagen, a Duke University Law School professor and sports law expert. "I am sure the current economy is playing a significant role in terms of the shape of state budgets. The other part is that there's either an acceptance of gambling or the acceptance that this is inevitable. There's a sense of the traditional cultural resistance (to sports betting) is weakening."

He adds that if Delaware and New Jersey officials succeed in their quests to open sports betting, "I would expect to see that kind of activity spread, just as you saw the spread of state lotteries."

Drawing a line on gambling

Sports betting in the USA is restricted by the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The law contains one grandfather provision for states that had forms of sports betting between Jan. 1, 1976, and Aug. 31, 1990; that covered Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon.

The law also gave other states with existing casinos a one-year window after its effective date in which to establish sports betting that then would be allowed. New Jersey never had legalized sports betting and didn't use the one-year window to start it. That was probably a mistake, Corzine says.

Gambling generates tax revenue and economic impact not only from the betting but also from ancillary spending by visitors to casinos.

Delaware's plan could give it a competitive edge as a gambling attraction not only over Maryland and Pennsylvania -- which have joined Delaware in adding slot machines to horse racing and lotteries -- but also over New Jersey and its Atlantic City casinos. Delaware projects an addition of $55 million in annual revenue if its sports betting plan goes ahead.

Sports betting would make Atlantic City a more attractive venue for boxing and other big-time sporting events, Corzine says. "We're trying to make Atlantic City a destination resort. ... We certainly don't want to be at a disadvantage with other venues" that can offer sports betting.

Even as the pro sports leagues and the NCAA oppose Delaware and New Jersey, teams, schools and conferences are earning millions from varied business deals with gambling concerns -- just one part of corporate sponsorship initiatives that have reached further as the economy has soured.

In May, NFL owners voted to allow clubs to sign deals with state-sponsored lotteries for the first time. Since then the Washington Redskins, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks have gone into business with state lotteries for 2009.

They're following the path blazed by MLB and NBA clubs such as the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics, who have slapped their trademarks on lottery tickets in recent years. For years, the NHL has allowed teams to partner with state and provincial lotteries, and teams such as the Vancouver Canucks have done so.

The WNBA's Connecticut Sun are named after a casino resort, the Mohegan Sun, and play home games at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville. (The WNBA All-Star Game was held there last weekend.)

Major-college athletics programs accept sponsorships from state lotteries and Indian tribes with casino hotels; San Diego State, for example, has an arena naming-rights deal with the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. The West Coast Conference holds its postseason basketball tournaments at the Orleans Hotel's arena in Las Vegas, and the Western Athletic Conference will do so in 2011 and '12.

Then there's pro sports' flirtation with Las Vegas, with the NBA and MLB staging events there.

"I understand what they're trying to do with the logos," New Jersey's Corzine says. "But it isn't perfectly consistent with this other view (of opposing legalized sports betting). And it's not consistent, frankly, with tolerating it in other places."

MLB President Bob DuPuy says there's a clear distinction between inviting fans to buy a Yankees or Red Sox lottery ticket and encouraging them to bet on what happens between the lines.

"It's part of promoting the game. Logos allow people to associate themselves with the team they have an affinity for. Those games have no bearing on competition on the field," he says.

Baseball knows the corrupting influence of gambling all too well, from the "Black Sox" scandal, in which eight players conspired to throw the 1919 World Series, to the lifetime ban of career hits leader Pete Rose, who bet on the Cincinnati Reds when he was their manager. The NBA endured a betting scandal involving then-referee Tim Donaghy, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to wire fraud and transmitting betting tips to gamblers.

League executives worry about the potential for point-shaving and other gambling scams if legalized sports betting spreads. "Remember, the office of the commissioner was formed in response to gambling," says DuPuy, citing the 1919 scandal. "Obviously, we have a certain level of sensitivity. ... We are opposed and concerned about the proliferation of sports books betting on the outcome of baseball games. We sell the integrity of the game -- and more betting on the outcome is troublesome."

NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver takes a wider view. "We have a global business where many countries like the U.K. and China have legalized sports betting," he says. "We can't live with our heads in the sand and pound our fists that we don't want betting on our games. We realize there is enormous interest in betting on our games. ...

"Over time, there is no question that it will be more accepted (in the USA). What we need are safeguards that can be put in place so that it won't affect the outcome of games. ... There's a long tradition of sports gambling in the state of Nevada. They have enormous infrastructure to monitor it. It's unclear if other states that went into the business would be able to establish similar safeguards."

Even so, the prospect of betting in Delaware on individual games -- as opposed to parlay wagers that can be won only if bettors correctly choose the outcomes of multiple games -- was the tipping point for the pro leagues' and NCAA's lawsuit against the state, says their lead attorney, Kenneth J. Nachbar. Single-game wagering is far more attractive to bettors than parlay wagering, which is what Delaware offered in the 1970s.

"We are not challenging what Delaware conducted in 1976, which was parlay betting limited to NFL games," Nachbar says.

"The only aspects that are being challenged are single-game betting and betting on sports other than the NFL. Delaware has never had sports betting on anything but NFL games."

Markell, the Delaware governor, says, "We figured there would be a challenge."

'The hypocrisy of it is just mind-boggling'

If they're so concerned about gambling, why are pro sports leagues venturing into that realm at all, asks Lesniak, the New Jersey state senator.

"The hypocrisy of it is just mind-boggling," he says. "The only reason they're objecting is they're not getting a piece of the action. Sports betting's legal throughout the world. Billions of dollars are bet here illegally in the U.S. It hasn't destroyed soccer and the other sports overseas, and it won't destroy sports here."

Legal or not, FBI Special Agent Mike Plichta says, there always will be an unseemly element to sports betting where individuals will try to fix games.

"There's more money on it now than ever before," says Plichta, a unit chief who monitors organized crime activity. "Because it's bigger, it's also more attractive to criminal organizations to be involved. I strongly believe they are out there right now trying to fix games."

In May, seven former University of Toledo football and men's basketball players were indicted along with two Detroit-area businessmen accused of contriving a game-fixing scheme. In a separate indictment unsealed the same day, authorities alleged a former horse racing jockey attempted to fix races in Florida, Delaware and other states.

There also are those who don't see that great of a leap between the sports betting occurring legally outside the USA and the betting occurring in the USA. Office pools based on NFL games and the NCAA men's basketball tournament are common, and fantasy sports leagues involving entry fees and end-of-season payouts have exploded in popularity.

"We are in a halfway position now," Duke's Haagen says. "Given the number of friendly pools and the acceptance of betting lines in the newspaper, there's been a substantial movement toward acceptance (of sports betting). Would more people place bets if a state is promoting the act? Yes. More people drank after Prohibition ended source>>>

After driving three hours to watch a basketball recruit play a game at a tournament in Memphis earlier this month, Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings turned around minutes later and went home.
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Isaac Brekken for The New York Times

College coaches watching a tournament involving potential recruits last week in Las Vegas.

Just after sitting down with some fellow college coaches, two tournament employees told Stallings that he had to pay $295 for a packet of rosters and information that doubled as an admission fee for college coaches. The coaches in attendance told him that they had been required to do the same thing.

Stallings said he had paid a $10 admission fee and did not want or need the packet, so he hit the road out of principle.

Ryan Luttrell, the tournament organizer, denied trying to force Stallings to buy the packet. But Stallings said he would not cut a deal with Luttrell and left because it would not be fair to the other coaches.

"I'm not protesting or insisting that my moral compass is better than anyone else," Stallings said. "But mine won't allow me to do something like that that is that blatantly wrong."

Tournament organizers and summer basketball coaches have long charged significant fees for packets of information about potential Division I recruits -- player rosters, phone numbers and e-mail addresses -- that are the lifeblood of the billion-dollar college basketball business.

But with the economy sagging, college recruiting budgets being slashed and tournaments in the April recruiting period being eliminated because of an N.C.A.A. rule change, the costs and the complaints have risen sharply this summer.

Coaches have been especially irate at tournaments where the packet is a mandatory part of admission, in some cases making it cost hundreds of dollars to watch one game. They point to the N.C.A.A., which approves all the tournaments coaches can attend, as an enabler.

Not all packet purchases double as admission costs. But this week in Las Vegas, where five tournaments featured thousands of players, the packet costs ranged from $180 to $275, with cash being preferred.

A black market of bootleg packets and copies of receipts flourished so freely that tournament directors policed copy centers to prevent coaches from making duplicates. At numerous events this summer, coaches have changed out of their university-logoed shirts to watch games disguised as fans to save hundreds of dollars.

"It's a crazy racket," said Yale Coach James Jones, who once paid $350 to watch one player play a single game in South Carolina. His other option was to buy the tournament organizer Jeff Schneider's $600 recruiting service.

"It's extortion," Jones said.

Stallings's experience offers a window into the complicated subculture of recruiting. The Memphis tournament, called the River City Showdown, was put on in part by a local Amateur Athletic Union program, the Memphis Magic. Stallings said Luttrell, one of the tournament's organizers, told him that part of the $295 was going to help ship the Memphis Magic A.A.U. team around the country to play in other tournaments.

Many college coaches pay the fees because they do not want to alienate the teams' coaches, who often control the recruiting of their players.

Luttrell denied the tournament was a direct fund-raiser for the Memphis Magic but said he was hired to put on the tournament by Eric Robinson, who runs the Memphis Magic program.

Stallings said that college coaches directly supporting a summer basketball program in which prospects are playing is, "by definition," a violation of N.C.A.A. rules. "If I'm knowingly giving you money, I'm not allowed to do that," Stallings said. "It's really an indirect funneling of money to summer programs, which again is not what the institutions should be doing."

While not all tournaments have direct financial relationships with summer basketball teams, most coaches are keeping their thoughts to themselves. While many coaches agreed that the cost of tournament packets was egregious, few spoke on the record. Those who declined included the Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the U.C.L.A. Coach Ben Howland and the Ohio State Coach Thad Matta. "It's one of the important things on our agenda," said Michigan Coach John Beilein, the head of the N.C.A.A.'s new Ethics Coalition. "That's all I'm going to say."

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo refused to pay $100 for admission to the Summer Jam tournament in Milwaukee earlier this month after one of his assistants had already paid $250 for the packet that doubled as an entry fee. Izzo said the tournament director should visit him if he had a problem.

Antonio Curro, the tournament director, defended his prices, saying that he provided food for the tournament coaches and that he needed to feed his family. Curro also cited the costs of gym rental, employees and referees. He said that three coaches sneaked into the gym to avoid paying the $250 and that he made them purchase the packet because bootlegs were so prevalent.

"Everything we did was legitimate by the N.C.A.A.," he said. "There is no rule for anyone setting the price."

The N.C.A.A. spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said, "It is misleading for event organizers to state that the N.C.A.A. allows them to charge elevated prices."

While Izzo confirmed the story about the Milwaukee tournament, he declined further comment. His silence and the hesitancy of other prominent coaches to speak underscores the importance of their relationships with summer basketball programs.

"That's exactly what's wrong with our business," Stallings said. "There's a mentality where coaches want to cover themselves and not get out there and say what's right and call out the people that are wrong.

"That's precisely why things are the way they are. That's why we have culture issues in our game. It's a darn shame. The people who could have influence and do have a voice, they choose not to use it because it doesn't help them. They don't want anything unsettling their smooth little boat ride."

Traditionally strong programs rarely need the expensive packets. Universities like North Carolina, Texas and Connecticut rarely recruit more than a dozen players, so they're already familiar with them.

At the other end of the spectrum, Texas-Pan American Coach Ryan Marks, whose recruiting budget is $25,000, needs the packets to identify and reach out to undiscovered players. "We could spend a fifth of our recruiting budget on packets in July alone," he said.

While the packets usually cost hundreds of dollars, they rarely have pertinent information, like players' jersey numbers.

"I refuse to pay $250 for a blank piece of paper," the Louisville assistant Steve Masiello said.

Still, the packets and the issues surrounding them have become an accepted part of the recruiting process.

"The N.C.A.A. should get involved," Jones said. "These events have to be sanctioned. They need to have these guys validate some of the things they're doing." source>>>

Just getting settled into my place at the Big Ten meetings.

No surprise: Ohio State is the preseaosn favorite, according to a media poll. Penn State is second, followed by Michigan State.

Only the top three are listed.

Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor is the preseason offensive player of the year. Spartan linebacker Greg Jones gets the defensive nod
source>>>

Revenue Sharing or Cost Per Sale (CPS) marketing is very closely associated with affiliate marketing and compensation programs. In fact, 80% of affiliate compensation programs are derived from revenue sharing.

Revenue sharing is when E-commerce web site operators, using revenue to advertise, pay a percentage of sales revenue (excluding tax, shipping and other third party cost paid by the customer) to the affiliate marketer for customers who have been generated by the affiliate's advertising methods.

Another revenue sharing model is completely different than the affiliate programs. In this model, online revenue sharing is a result of people working together, and registering online like a corporation, and then sharing total proceeds.

Cost Per Sale (CPS)-Sites that sell products directly from their web site or can otherwise determine sales generated as the result of an advertising lead (affiliate) can calculate the cost-per-sale of Internet advertising.

Another definition of CPS is a pricing method which typically pays a transaction percentage for the acquisition of a purchasing customer.

There are many ways to become an affiliate or utilize affiliates in your own Internet marketing strategies. The online revenue sharing model, is basically a sales distribution system for the Internet. source>>>

Unsold ad inventory on your web site can be not only a loss of income, but also an eye sore. Depending on the style of site, you can fill those empty slots with eye-catching graphics and hopefully turn some of those eyes into revenue generators by filling them up with affiliate marketing links. While the majority of affiliate programs only pay on a completed sale, others pay on leads and clicks, it's just a matter of finding them.

We've gathered up 13 top performing affiliate networks to help you locate the perfect program for your site. And while a good chunk of them are focused on site visitors in the United States, we've also found some for you that service countries throughout Europe and parts of Asia.

We've also thrown in a fourteenth bonus site that isn't a network, but is instead a large directory of affiliate programs from numerous different networks so you can concentrate on finding the perfect program without having to hunt and peck through dozens of sites for it.

Adsmarket.com: Adsmarket offers advertisers across categories such as dating, health, finance and more. Payments are made via PayPal or check within 30 days of payment from the advertiser. If for some reason the advertiser is late with the payment, Adsmarket will still pay you for the sale. continue>>>

Anastasia's highly progressive Affiliate Program today announced the launch of a new white label service which provides Anastasia's affiliates with the unique opportunity to start their own international dating business. The program allows the creation of affiliate dating sites from scratch using Anastasia's proprietary templates and ladies galleries.

Flexibility and simplicity in creating a professional affiliates website
were at the core in the development of the new system.
User friendly interface and a wide range of website creation master tools
allow partners to:

1) Add and update unique content on their new site (welcome
texts, news, etc...);

2) Generate multiple ladies' galleries and target their sites
to a particular audience using Anastasia's state of the art search
engine;

3) Choose bright, well designed templates for their new web-sites;

4) Host their sites free with Anastasia.

Among the highest commission rates (US$250 for each first order and US$125 for each order) in the industry plus constantly updated quality promo materials and Anastasia's goodwill are factors that attract more and more affiliates every day and provide all the necessary assistance in achieving a high income.

Anastasia's Affiliate Program, which was launched in 2003, has already seen a significant rise in participation from webmasters all over the world. Today more than 20,000 members enjoy the opportunities and success of participating in Anastasia's Affiliate program.

Joining Anastasia's Affiliate Program cements affiliates growth and sound future.

About Anastasia

Founded in 1993, Anastasia is the industry's leading international introduction and romance tour company with over 36 million online visitors yearly and more than 600,000 letters exchanged onsite daily. Anastasia's Affiliate Program incorporates over a thousand dating agencies from most major cities of the former USSR and many more affiliate members worldwide.

To learn more about Anastasia's Affiliate Program go to http://www.anastasiasaffiliate.com source>>>

Jamey Johnson, Wilco, Jason Mraz and Phosphorescent have joined the concert lineup for Farm Aid 2009 on Oct. 4 in Maryland Heights, Mo., near St. Louis. The roster will also feature Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. The annual event raises money and awareness for family farmers. Nelson is the subject of Phosphorescent's latest album, To Willie, which features covers like "I Gotta Get Drunk," "The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)" and "The Party's Over." source>>>

Taylor Swift helped the North Dakota State Fair set an attendance record on Saturday (July 25), with more than 50,646 people attending the event in Minot, N.D. It's the first time daily attendance surpassed the 40,000 mark, fair organizers said. Swift joins Huey Lewis & the News as the only entertainers to sell out a concert during the event, with more than 16,000 in attendance. Swift's next concert will be Friday (July 31) in Boston. source>>>

"I'm gonna tell you, this has got to be the coolest show I've ever done here tonight," Alan Jackson said Saturday (July 25) to some 35,000 fans who traveled by boat to attend his concert on Lake Martin near Alexander City, Ala.

In addition to the crowd estimate, law enforcement agencies also reported that more than 4,000 boats showed up for the concert that also featured the Carter Twins, Jypsi, Matt Stillwell and Caitlin & Will. Jackson's performance was filmed for a concert special to air Sept. 4 on CMT.

An avid outdoorsman, Jackson told CMT Insider he looked forward to the informal show on Lake Martin.

"This Aquapalooza show has been going on for several years at different lakes," he said. "It was just good timing for me. It worked out that we were available to do this, and they let us come and be part of the show. It's a great event. And it's on a lake that I love."

It's not the first time Jackson has performed in such an isolated setting.

"I've done a few lake shows in Tennessee up on Center Hill [Lake]," he said. "Those are some of the best shows because, you know, you can't charge people to come. It's just kind of fun and laid back. People that love the water and love being on the lake and on their boats, they look for something to do and an event to go to -- whether it's a restaurant or a Fourth of July fireworks or something like this concert. It's a cool thing to be able to go on your boat and sit around and hang out with your family and friends and goof off and have fun and enjoy the music."

The concert attracted fans from as far away as California and Michigan, and many used inner tubes to paddle close to the stage. Jackson arrived in a vintage 1923 Hacker-Craft boat and reminisced about his visits to Lake Martin while growing up in Georgia.

"It's been twenty-something years since I've been here," he said. "It's been really cool to come back and be able to do a concert here on the water."
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