Well, she was just 17,
You know what I mean,
And the way she looked was way beyond compare.
So how could I dance with another (ooh)
When I saw her standin’ there.
– The Beatles, I Saw Her Standing There

9. The courtship of Billy Donovan. While we don’t claim to be college hoops experts (and judging by our hoops brackets, you’d say the same), the media circus surrounding Florida coach Billy Donovan’s future in ‘The Swamp’ as a bit ridiculous. Sure, the media has thrown out some facts like his in-laws and other family members have moved to Florida, his mentor Rick Pitino is down the road from him should he take the Kentucky job and that the coach is dedicated to the Florida program to almost a fault, but it reeks of another case of the leverages.

All it takes is an agent who wants a raise for his client (and an increase in his commission) and a higher profile job and you got yourself some nice little attention and payday for Donovan.

8. MLB’s Mexican standoff. Major League Baseball and the owners of iN Demand (Comcast, et. al.) continue to race towards a deadline to see who blinks first. If you’re not up to speed, MLB has decided to exclusively air its content exclusively on DirecTV satellite systems for the next seven years at a pricetag of just over $700 million. Part of the deal includes DirecTV’s willingness to provide a new baseball-only channel on an appropriate channel tier. Congress decided to get involved (as noted above) and we’ve reached the point that millions of baseball fans will be shut out of games that happen to subscribe to cable rather than satellite.

(Updated: Comcast appears to have posted that they will NOT agree to any demands of MLB and are suggesting their subscribers head to MLB’s broadband package for their baseball fix.)

More after the jump »

News and notes on the eve of a new baseball season…

Toledo football player faces federal charges for point shaving (Detroit Free Press/USA Today) It’s been awhile since we had one of these in college sports. We guess the NCAA will just issue another pamphlet to its athletes on gambling, eh?

Scotland Yard to further review Woolmer death (Reuters) Remember kids — cricket is serious business.

Kobe lights up the nite, buries 53 on Rockets in loss (AP/Yahoo! Sports) He scored 50+ points for the fifth time in seven games. How many assists? A whopping two.

Carlos Guillen, Tigers agree on four-year extension (AP/ESPN) That’s $48 million over 4-years.

‘Thorpedo’-ed? Swimmer Thorpe tests for abnormal levels of two banned substances (AP/USA Today) Tests for swimmer Thorpe conducted six months before he retired show testosterone and luteinizing hormone. There’s just something about French labs, ain’t that right Floyd Landis?

Apple to Provide MLB Content Via iTunes (BizofBaseball)

Apple, Inc. announced Friday that it will be providing Major League Baseball video highlights for the 2007 season on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com), allowing access to games on the go.