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11/12/2011 - Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Kenseth won the pole for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, while Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, the top-two drivers in Sprint Cup Series points, grabbed the eighth and ninth starting positions, respectively, in qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway.
Kenseth, the second-to-last driver to make his qualifying attempt in the 46- car field, turned a lap at 137.101 mph around the newly repaved and reconfigured one-mile track. The Roush Fenway Racing driver claimed his third pole of the season and the seventh of his Sprint Cup career.
"The car had a lot of grip, and I thought it was really good in [turns] three and four," Kenseth said. "These guys have done a great job. I'm certainly not known for being a good qualifier. My cars have been really fast. [Crew chief] Jimmy [Fennig] and this whole team have done a really good job giving me fast race cars this year."
A.J. Allmendinger earned the outside pole with his lap at 136.446 mph. It's the third front row appearance for Allmendinger in four races at Phoenix. His Richard Petty Motorsports teammate, Marcos Ambrose, qualified third.
Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five.
The new racing surface at Phoenix has made it very challenging for teams so far this weekend. In practices and qualifying, drivers have dealt with loose race cars, and track conditions have rapidly changed throughout the day.
"I hope it stays like it is right now to be honest," Stewart said. "I feel like we're better in this scenario than the other guys. It is a fine line, but at the same time, it makes the drivers do their job, and that's what I like."
Jamie McMurray took the sixth spot, followed by David Reutimann. Kasey Kahne qualified tenth.
Edwards enters the season's penultimate race with just a three-point lead over Stewart, who has won the last two races -- Martinsville and Phoenix. Edwards won last year's fall event at Phoenix.
Kevin Harvick will start 27th. Harvick is currently 33 points behind Edwards. Kenseth trails his Roush Fenway teammate by 38 points.
In his first race back since being suspended from last Sunday's event at Texas, Kyle Busch qualified 34th -- the worst among the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field. Busch will have to start from the rear of the field in the 312-lap race due to an engine change his team made during Friday's practice sessions.
The race is scheduled to start just after 3:00 p.m. (et).
<< Defense comes up big as West Virginia tops No.23 Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Geno Smith passed for 372 yards and a
touchdown, and West Virginia used two big defensive plays to earn a 24-21
victory against No. 23 Cincinnati.
Julian Miller recovered a fumble in the end zon
<< Weeden throws 5 TD passes as Cowboys roll over Red Raiders
Lubbock, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Weeden completed 31-of-37 passes for
423 yards and five touchdowns, as the second-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys
stayed perfect with a 66-6 rout of the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Joseph Randle carri
<< Cousins leads No. 13 Michigan State past Iowa
Iowa City, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kirk Cousins had three touchdowns passes, all
in the first half, as No. 13 Michigan State built a big lead Saturday on the
way to defeating Iowa, 37-21.
Cousins threw touchdown passes to B.J. Cunningham a
<< No.15 South Carolina runs past Florida
Columbia, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Connor Shaw ran for 88 yards and two
touchdowns, as 15th-ranked South Carolina used a strong ground game to beat
Florida, 17-12, in an SEC Eastern contest at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Shaw attempted
No. 5 Syracuse opens season with win over Fordham >>
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kris Joseph had 16 points, Dion Waiters scored
14 and the fifth-ranked Syracuse Orange opened the 2011-12 campaign with a
78-53 victory over the Fordham Rams at the Carrier Dome.
Brandon Triche finished wi
In the FCS Huddle: Georgetown can see the next step >>
Bethlehem, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For now, Dan Lenihan's weight lifting belt
will have to suffice for Georgetown football.
It's not too bad of a prize considering what it means to Hoyas players on a
daily basis.
But when Lehigh hea
Michigan QB Robinson leaves game >>
Champaign, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson left
Saturday's game against Illinois in the third quarter after taking a pair of
hard hits on back-to-back plays.
He was thrown out of bounds following an 11-yard r
Ball sets record, Wisconsin rolls past Minnesota >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montee Ball scored three touchdowns to set
the Big Ten single-season record, and No. 16 Wisconsin had no trouble Saturday
in a 42-13 victory over Minnesota.
Ball cut left through the line and broke a tac
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.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
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