Links and videos from recent happenings around the sporting world. If you come across good articles, videos, etc. – please pass them along, I’d love to take a look.

College Football:

Ohio State football players finally talk and they’re headed to camp with a chip on their shoulder. I’ve been fairly critical of the situation at Ohio State but it’s hard to criticize the other players on the team that weren’t breaking rules. It’ll be fun to see how hard and how well they play despite the controversy in Columbus.

Phil Steele offers four suggestions for the surprise team of the year and the top non-AQ team for 2011. Any idea who his surprise teams are?

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen told the Western Governors Association that the formula for success for any team is culture developed with Talent, Motivation, Preparation, and Confidence.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is now seeking a legal team to take on the BCS.  Originally Shurtleff’s idea sounded like a pipe dream but it appears to be steadily gaining momentum.

The smoke has slowly been rising in Eugene but thanks to Willie Lyles detailing his relationship with Oregon and Chip Kelly there could soon be fire. Lyles is quoted as saying he believes Oregon paid $25,000 for “”my access and influence withrecruits.” Yikes.

Photo via zimbio.com

After speaking with Yahoo! Sports, Lyles told The Oregonian’s John Canzano how Oregon left him holding the bag in the recruiting scandal. Ducks fans better hope Lyles didn’t tell the NCAA everything he’s been telling the media.

No one knows if Oregon will be punished for the Lyles-Seastrunk-Kelly controversy but it’s clear that Chip Kelly isn’t doing things “the right way” at Oregon.

The Upset Blog examined the Transition Outlook for Boise State as the Broncos move into the Mountain West Conference this season.

Boise State left the WAC for the Mountain West but Idaho Statesman’s Brian Murphy says the Broncos should be thankful to the WAC. Murphy might be right – I can’t wait for the new conference opponents and hopefully tougher competition but without the WAC, who knows where the Broncos would be..

Nebraska is also moving to a new conference (B1G Ten) – SI.com’s Stewart Mandel looks at the logistics and challenges of changing conferences for the Cornhuskers.

Here’s an interesting read from Teddy Greenstein about how ESPN’s lowball offer to the B1G Ten back in ’04 triggered the conference’s expansion. (HT SPORTSbyBROOKS)

Harvey Updyke (the Toomer’s Corner tree poisoner if you need a reminder) had his trial delayed until November – just in time for the Iron Bowl.  That should be a fun month in the State of Alabama!!

Here are the projected win totals (over/under) for all BCS, MWC and Independent teams for the 2011 football season. Boise State’s has the highest projection at 11 with a handful of others – including Alabama, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma and Oregon – at 10.5. (HT The Upset Blog)

BYU verbal commit Tanner Mangum (Eagle High School) and Boise State verbal commit Nick Patti are among the 24 high school quarterbacks selected to compete in the Elite 11 quarterback competition later this month. For those that don’t know, the Elite 11 quarterback competition features the nation’s premier high school quarterbacks.

As I mentioned last week, the Pac-12 is exploring all options including partnering with Google or Apple to distribute their product via the internet. On Friday, Google was in preliminary talks to buy Hulu meaning the Pac-12 could be a huge winner.

With all the recent investigation and scandals in college football SI.com’s Andy Staples wrote a guide to smarter NCAA rule breaking – Cheating for Dummies. This is a great read and seems to be a great guide for coaches everywhere looking to break some NCAA rules – Staples knows his stuff.

Soccer:

It seems more and more likely that Arsenal is going to lose a handful of talented players including talisman Cesc Fabregasand Samir Nasri during this summers’ transfer window resulting in a bad case of deja vu for the Gunners.

Photo via zimbio.com

The always dramatic David Hirshey says Arsenal’s reported fire sale shows the club is imploding. Clearly the club is in transition but I’m not ready to say it’s imploding. If Hirshey didn’t act like the world was ending every time he sits down to write perhaps his opinion would have more value.

After the U.S.’s disappointing Gold Cup loss to Mexico people were suggesting American soccer is struggling because the best athletes are playing other sports.  The Big Lead’s Ty Duffy says it’s because the U.S. doesn’t develop their talent and I have to somewhat agree.

U.S. National Team and Portland Timbers defender Jay DeMerit’s unlikely, inspirational rise in the soccer world has been made into a documentary but still needs additional funding to hit the big screen.

Copa America started last Friday in Argentina with a slew of unexciting games. If you missed the action this last weekend but want to catch some of the upcoming games here’s Grantland’s Copa America Preview.

Surfing:

A goofyfooter’s dream roars to life in Indonesia – Lombok Lefts photos.

Joel Parkinson surfing a TON of rights in Queensland:

(HT SurfingMagazine.com)

National Hockey League:

Colorado Avalanche draft pick Gabriel Landeskog  wrote a draft diary about his experience of being drafted No. 2 overall.

NHL veteran Paul Kariya announced his retirement last week after taking a full year away from the game in an attempt to recover from the effects of multiple concussions. Kariya had some strong words about limiting and eliminating head injuries in the game – rightfully so.

The Avalanche are retiring Peter Forsberg’s number 21 on opening night (Oct. 8th) against the Red Wings. I’ve watched a lot of hockey over the last 12-or-so years and when Foppa was healthy (never a guarantee) I can’t remember a more dominant player in the league.

Jaromir Jagr signed with the Philadelphia Flyers (one-year for $3.3 mil) snubbing the Penguins over money. The Red Wings were also in the mix for the Czech’s services but backed out when Jagr re-opened the bidding. I’ve never been a Jagr fan – I think it’s that hideous mullet – but it’ll be fun to see him play at the highest level agin.

National Basketball Association:

A year after The Decision, Sports Illustrated provides a behind-the-scenes look at the details of how it was put together.

As if the NFL Lockout wasn’t annoying enough, the NBA has followed suit but their lockout could actually threaten the entire season.  I don’t usually get too excited about the NBA until the playoffs roll around so this isn’t exactly devastating news to me. That said, it is convenient turn on a regular season NBA game when there’s nothing else to watch.

Golf:

Tiger Woods ruled himself out of the British Open due to his nagging knee injury and as a result my interest in the event was cut in half. Golf better hope for a Rory repeat or some other exciting story-line to keep the public interested.

Entertainment:

U2 lead vocalist Bono brought “Blind Guitar Player” Adam Bevel on stage at a concert in Nashville because Bevel held a sign reading “Blind Guitar Player, Bring Me Up”  - pretty damn cool:

(HT Hot Clicks)

Any good articles or videos I missed? Happy Humpday Everyone!