The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, November_14, 1994 - 3 Sheridan Oddsmaker talks about gambling, fixes, " Foreman, Jordan and Clinton In January of 1969, Danny Sheridan picked the New York Jets to win Super Bowl III over the Balti- more Colts against overwhelming odds. The Jets stunned the Colts and the country, and Sheridan began his career as a sports analyst and ldsmaker. Sheridan, a Mobile, Ala. native, provides exclusive betting linesfor USA Today and hosts a College Football show on CNN. Last weekend, Daily Sports Writer David Rothbart spoke with Sheridan about gambling and other issues in sports. Daily: Michael Jordan insists he's aseball player now. They've retired s Bulls jersey in Chicago. What are theodds he'll come back to basketball? Sheridan: I'd make him a slight favorite to return. He'd be a7-5 favor- ite to come back. D: How about the odds of major league baseball starting on time in April? S: Baseball will start on schedule. I'd set the odds for them to start in *pril at least 3-1 in favor. To play baseball at all, a million to one (in favor). D: Whatdo you think of the strikes in pro sports? S: I hate it. It kills the little guys - thevendors,thestadium workers. Base- ball players and owners care as much about the fans as Saddam Hussein cares about the Kurds. If I was a season- ket holder, I wouldn't go to any Tames the first half of next season. D: The Wolverines play abig game with Ohio State this weekend. Who do you have favored? S: Michigan should be a slight favorite. If Moeller goes down there and beats Cooper, Cooper won't be coaching Ohio State long. This is the last straw. You have to beat your rivals to survive in sports. * D: What about Gary Moeller? Michigan's had a tough season and some people are holding Moeller re- sponsible. S: IfIwere Moeller, I'dkillthe guy who put Notre Dame, Colorado and Penn State on the schedule. It's great for college football, but it's not great for a coach's longevity. They should teams named after bodies of wa- like Pacific. Moeller is definitely safe, though. He's a good coach. He's just got to shoot the Athletic Director or who- ever makes up their schedule. D: How do you determine your betting lines? S:I have power ratings. I do a lot of research. A betting line is not a pre- diction. It is the betting public's per- ption of how two teams match up. VYou have a perception of North- western before the season - they're shitty. You have a perception of Michigan, that they're good. When they play, people won't bet it even. T~betting line is designed to do one thing only - get equal betting on blth sides of the sporting event. T- SHIRT PRINTING HIGH QUALITv LOW PRICES 1002 PONTIAC TR. 994-1367 D: How prevalent is gambling among college students? S: I've been all over the country. Every campus, every fraternity house, has a bookmaker. Every dorm. I'm not talking about some forty or fifty-year- old wearing gold chains, I'm talking about students as bookmakers. D: How would you characterize healthy gamblers as opposed to un- healthy gamblers? S: Gamblers Anonymous has blown things way out of proportion. I don't smoke and I don't think people should smoke, but I'm not going to tell people what to do. In this country, we smoke a lot, we drink a lot. We're a free country. Sometimes people do take it to an excess. mated half the adult male population will bet on it. Do you think that trans- lates into TV ratings? That's why they can get million-dollar ads. Guess what the highest-rated TV show of the year is? Oh, what a shock. The Super Bowl. The NFL has a $3.5 billion TV contract. It translates into $42 million a team. The NFL gets the highest TV ratings. What a coincidence - the biggest contract, the highest ratings, the highest bet sport. A marriage made in heaven. The NFL doesn't want gambling to stop. Who in their right mind would watch Tampa Bay play Cincinnati if they didn't have a bet on it? They have a guy in the NFL office who checks with legal and illegal bookmakers every day on the betting line. The (NFL) is smart. The book- makers know if there is any unusual activity. It's the bookmakers of America that keep the sport clean. D: How often is a game fixed? S: There's never been a fix in col- legeorpro football. There will neverbe one because the bookmakers talk to each other. If there's anything funny going on, they can tell. Look at our institutions. The church is an embarrassment. There's scandals in the church, in the Presi- dency. Pro football has never had a scandal in 75 years. You can't bet big money without setting off an alarm. D: What about other sports, like college basketball? S: At Tulane, there were three or four guys shaving points. They were betting $5,000 on Tulane games once a month. The first sign of a fix is an inordinate amount of money being bet, and the bet being right. The book- ies got suspicious and (uncovered it). The bookmakers keep sports clean, not because they're choir boys but because they have a vested interest. D: Michael Moorer was beating up on George Foreman for ten rounds. Then he got hit a couple times and just fell down. Did he take a dive? S: There was no fix. Moorer would have had to cash in on it, but you can't bet too big without people knowing what's going on. Sure, he could bet $10,000, but he made $9 million for the fight. D: So there are no fixes in sports? S: Very few. The Securities Ex- change Commission has a fix every 30 seconds. It's the most corrupt in- stitution in the world. Bookmakers, however, run a tight ship. People think (the bookmakers) are going to get a kid on drugs, get kids in trouble, but you can't fix a game. If you're going to fix a Michigan game, how much do you have to pay aplayer? Is Jalen Rose going to jeopardize his career for $25,000? Say you pay a scrub. He gets his ass thrown out of the game if he turns it over acoupleof times. He can't change1 the game. Even if Jalen (messes) up for a whole half, the coach will yank his ass. Let's say Jalen does take the money. You can't go and bet big. You have to be able to cash in on it, but the network is too tight. You can't do it. D: Let's look at the NBA. Who's your favorite to win the Champion- ship? S: I have Phoenix and Seattle as my co-favorites. The odds against them would be 4:1. Next, I've got the New York Knicks at 5:1. Houston 6:1. Orlando 7:1. I've got the Detroit Pistons down at 10,000:1, against. D: The Pistons are a new team this season. Grant Hill looks unstoppable. What are his odds at winning Rookie of the Year? S: I'd make him the favorite at 3:1 against. Michigan's gottwo good rook- ies in the league - I'd give Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose 10:1 odds. D: College basketball is starting up. Michigan has another fabulous recruiting class. Can they finally win the national championship? S: Fisher's a great coach. As long as he's there, the team will be talented. Michigan can't be counted out of the national championship picture. Arkansas is the favorite, but Michi- gan is a Final Four team. They're about ten deep. Coming out of the Big Ten, you're battle-tested. Michigan and Indiana are two of the eight teams I think can win it all. See SHERIDAN, Page 8 2 BRE1TFORREST Forrest Fires Four years of Michigan Stadium mementoes s the last few seconds ticked off the clock at Michigan Stadium late Saturday afternoon, seniors on the Michigan football team couldn't resist taking it all in one last time. Neither could I. The Wolverines and their opponents have provided countless thrilling moments at home the past four years. Here are the top six plays: No. 1: The catch, 1991. Fourth and one in the crucial moments against Notre Dame. Not only did coach Gary Moeller go for it, he decided to air it out. Elvis Grbac pumped once, then threw the only pass he could to Desmond Howard in the back corner of the north end zone. The touchdown not only clinched the first Wolverine win over the Irish in the previous five meetings, it put Moeller's stamp on the team. The play sent Howard on his way to the Heisman and served notice that Michigan was no longer content to run off tackle. No. 2: The Miracle at Michigan, 1994. Enough has been written about this one, but Colorado's game-winning, last second touchdown pass remains one of college football's most stirring moments. The Wolverines were on the verge of making it through the nation's toughest nonconference schedule unscathed and ranked among the top few teams in the country. But Kordell Stewart and Michael Westbrooke spoiled it all with their 64-yard toss, tip and catch. Once again, Michigan found an incredible way to lose. No. 3: The pose, 1991. Howard sealed his destiny with a 93-yard fourth quarter punt return in his last home game against Ohio State. At the end of the run, as Howard stood in the south end zone, he struck a Heisman pose. It was strange to see such braggadocio from a Michigan player, but it was warranted. Howard was so far ahead of everyone else in the Heisman race, and as one Buckeye assistant said at the time, "That just about seals it for him." After the game Moeller denied that Howard had actually struck the pose; he could not see it from the sideline. In the only game marred by rain the past four seasons, Michigan muddied the Buckeyes 31-3 and went on to the Rose Bowl. No. 4: Caught by Klein. Caught by Klein, 1993. Illinois quarterback Johnny Johnson scrambled, eluded a sack and fired a 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jim Klein with 41 seconds remaining. Klein's fourth down score put Illinois up 24-21 and secured the first Illini win at Michigan Stadium since 1966. With many spectators already on their way home, a Ricky Powers fumble set up the dramatic finish to a game that never should have been close. Michigan lost to the Illini and dropped to 4-3 on the year. No. 5: He could go all the way, 1992. Tyrone Wheatley caught Houston's opening kickoff at Michigan's one yard line. Little blocking was needed as he burned down the left sideline for a 99-yard touchdown return. The play was just the beginning for Michigan on that day, as it went on to beat the Cougars, 61-7. It was only a start for Wheatley as well. The speed he displayed on the runback allowed the sophomore to overtake Powers for the starting tailback job and move on to greater glory. No. 6: Collins goes deep, 1993. Early in the third quarter against Illinois, Michigan was in trouble. Deep in their own territory and ahead by only four points, the Wolverines needed a score. On second down and six, quarterback Todd Collins faked a handoff and rolled out to the right side. He hit wideout Derrick Alexander near midfield with a perfect strike. Alexander motored the rest of the way for a 90-yard score - the longest pass play in Michigan history. Foreman D: The NCAA, NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA have called gambling a threat to the livelihood of sports. Are they rightfully alarmed? S: Those hypocritical bastards love people to bet on sports. Every weekend, 40 million Ameri- cans illegally bet on college and pro football. Between 4 and 5 billion dol- lars is bet each weekend. It's a hun- dred billion-dollar industry. Every paper lists the spread. Be- cause the interest is there, whether the coaches like it, whether the NCAA likes it, the NFL. The Super Bowl is the most heavily bet (on) sporting event in the history of mankind - $4.5 billion on one game. It's esti- I ;al Ktat7154 Term papers Resumes Applications Letters Etc. FREE LIVE SERVICE LOCAL GIRLS waiting to talk to you CALL 24 HOURS 305-430-3825 REG. 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