Bet the Hoosiers; Robinson Visits; First-Ever Deep Throat Photo

Do you believe in Bovada?

Do you even know what Bovada is?

What does it have to do with Indiana basketball?

And what's up with this photo?

Glad you asked.

Oh. We'll get to the photo in a minute.

Bovada is a Canada-based online gambling service. You can use it to play poker, play games, and bet on all sorts of sporting events. As such, Bovada uses its gambling expertise to estimate odds.

For the upcoming college basketball season, it makes IU as the national championship favorite. It gives the Hoosiers 7-1 odds of winning the title and breaking their 25-year national championship drought.

Louisville is next at 8-1. Kentucky is third with 10-1 odds. Michigan and Ohio State project as having the Big Ten’s next best prospects. Both are 20-1 shots.

Indiana has already been projected as the VERY EARLY preseason No. 1 by a number of media outlets. Now, a gambling site likes the Hoosiers. If you look at the roster and see what the Hoosiers return and what they’ll bring in, well, you can understand the optimism.

Optimism doesn’t guarantee a championship. No matter. For a lot of IU fans, basketball season can’t come soon enough. If that means time warping through the rest of the spring, summer and fall, so be it. If that means accepting the fact the Indiana-Kentucky series is over, so be it.

And if that means betting your house on the Hoosiers, well, you’re on your own. We just provide information.

*****

Stanford Robinson had a good visit at Indiana on Monday. Make that a great visit. He got to buzz around campus in a golf cart. He got to see Assembly Hall, Cook Hall, the basketball-specific weight room. He got to hear how he would be used if he ends up a Hoosier.

Why is this important? First, the 6-4 Robinson is the nation’s No. 88 player in the Class of 2013. Schools such as North Carolina State, Virginia, Pitt and Virginia Tech have offered him.

Second, he’s a Team Takeover teammate of 6-8, 250-pound center Beejay Anya, the nation’s No. 20 player (and No. 2 center) according to Rivals.com, who also is being recruiting by Indiana and just about every big-time program in the country.

Third, Robinson attends Paul VI High School in Fairfax, Va. That’s significant because new assistant coach Kenny Johnson once coached at Paul VI. Johnson also had a major role in Team Takeover, a prominent Virginia travel ball program that already has sent Indiana Maurice Creek and Victor Oladipo.

Crean isn’t shy about using Indiana’s national reputation to enhance his long-distance recruiting even while he continues to hit the in-state talent hard.

Robinson and Anya would be significant signings as the Hoosiers continue to build for long-term success.

*****

Big Ten athletic directors are meeting in Chicago this week to discuss a lot of things, and a college football playoff is one of them.

A four-team playoff is set to start in 2014. Options for determining who those four teams will be include a selection committee such as the NCAA basketball tourney uses, just taking the top-four teams in the polls, or take the four highest-ranked conference champs or some sort of combination.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is also pushing to make bowl eligibility start with a 7-5 record instead of the current 6-6.

The proposal right now would include national semifinals shortly after Christmas with a national title game set for around Jan. 1.

Conference commissioners from the top 11 leagues, plus Notre Dame, are set to meet in late June to come up with a specific playoff plan. University presidents are set to receive a specific proposal by July 4.

In the end, it's possible that the four-team playoff could be expanded to eight, or even more.

Yes, things are that fluid. But then, as you’ve seen conferences come and go in the last year or so, nothing is sure but that change is inevitable.

*****

We broke the rules and secretly got a photo of Hoosier Deep Throat, at great risk to the world, the economy and Tom Brady’s hair style.

In a public service gesture, we have posted the photo above to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Hoosier Deep Throat exists. It is, without a doubt, the only known photo of Deep Throat.

Sure, it's a little dark, but for those who can see the big picture, it is a clear as crystal.

So now you know.

The question is --- do you believe?