Sporting Madness

BIRMINGHAM, AL—The world of college football is going nuts at the moment with realignment, expansion and potential superconferences that could exacerbate the divide between the haves and have-nots . Other NCAA conference commissioners are raiding opponents , desperately trying to keep their conference alive , desperately trying to save their own job , lurking quietly or plotting world domination , but SEC commissioner Mike Slive has been rather quiet lately—despite extending an offer to Texas A&M and reportedly (or maybe not ) to Missouri as well, allowing the ACC's raid on the Big East to dominate the headlines . Slive chose to break his silence at a Birmingham bar Tuesday night, walking out on stage with rock legend Mark Knopfler and debuting a new song the two of them have been secretly working on. Unfortunately, video cameras were not allowed, so to get a sense of what went down, watch this video of Knopfler's original (now permitted in Canada !) and substitute in...

Things aren't going so well for Mark Cuban , owner of the Dallas Mavericks. First, it's reported that he's out of the running [ Matt Snyder , FanHouse ] to buy the Chicago Cubs [ Al Yellon , Bleed Cubbie Blue ], and now it comes out that the SEC has filed charges of insider trading against him [former Journal editor-in-chief Matt Hartley , The Globe and Mail ]. As Hartley details, the crucial charge relates to a massive stock sale in Internet search engine company Mamma.com (now Copernic Inc.): "The SEC alleged in [a] document that Mr. Cuban sold 600,000 shares of Mamma.com Inc. - now known as Copernic Inc. - after learning from executives that the Internet search engine company planned to make a public stock offering. The documents allege Mr. Cuban, a shareholder in the Canadian company at the time, was invited to participate in the offering provided he kept the information confidential. The complaint, filed by the U.S. regulator in the U.S. District Court for the...