The Debate goes on. Who is the "best of" in all aspects of sports. We take on this challenge in The Never Ending Debate.

Who has the best home field/court advantage in college sports?

 Daniel: The Kansas Jayhawks have one of the best home court advantages. At Kansas University the Jayhawks play in one of the biggest stadiums but still manage to fill the seats with devoted fans. Jayhawk fans are most remembered by the "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, K U" chant. They are also known for body painting and ludacris cheering. The Jayhawks always have a good team and it makes it even harder to play them in such a frightening atmosphere.

 Thomas: There is no doubt in my mind that Cameron Indoor Stadium gives the Duke Blue Devils the best home court advantage in the nation. Cameron Indoor can only hold around 10,000 people which means the fans are extremely close. "Extremely Close" is a understatement; the fans are literally breathing down opponent's necks. Players fear playing in Cameron Indoor. Duke is 840-195 all time in Cameron Indoor. There is no stadium like it. Basketball is the focus at Duke and they have one of the best fan bases along with the home court advantage. Duke also holds one of the best basketball legacies. Duke feeds of the energy and the fans feed off the intense basketball.

What is the best dynasty in all of professional sports?

 Daniel:The Celtics have to be the best dynasty in all of professional sports. They have won 17 championships and they haven't been around as long as the Yankees. The Celtics have possesed legends like Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, and Kevin McHale. They currently have superstars like Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. Most of the time the Celtics are apart of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. Getting to the NBA Finals seems to be easy for this organization. They have great fans and great players. This is why the Celtics are considered in my mind the best dynasty in all of sports.

Thomas:The Yankees are the most dominant dynasty in all of sports. Comparing the Celtics to the Yankees, the NBA has been around since 1946 and in that time the celtics have won 17 championships. MLB has been around since 1902. The Yankees have won 26 World Series. They have appeared in 39 which is 37 percent of all the World Series. Statistically the Yankees have better number in appearances than the Celtics. Going beyond the numbers, the Yankees have a legendary management crew and have some of the best fans in the world. They also had the most legendary ball park in all of baseball. The following picture represents how legendary the Yankee players truly are.

These are some of the biggest names in baseball and they belong to the Yankee Organization. The Yankee organization is such a dominant dynasty and will continue to be for years to come. 

[Photo courtesy of jamesfischer's Flickr Photostream. "Homeless in Sugamo 1] 

I read an interesting story a few minutes ago (because Google News Search is my best buddy). Apparently the city of Los Angeles, USA, is moving towards criminalizing homelessness.

Los Angeles isn’t the first city to do this. In 1999, a study by America’s National Housing Institute found that 73% of American cities “prohibited or restricted sleeping on the streets and begging.” [Americans: I am aware that I am constantly using your statistics. You are unfortunately a nation with a very good statistical system – so using you as an example is not a matter of victimisation, ,merely of accessibility.]

Let’s think of some reasons for initiating such laws:

1.    Homelessness and beggars negatively affect a city’s image and thus also its tourist influx. Tourists equal money, which thus supplies more resources for a city’s budget.

2.    High homelessness = high crime

3.    Criminalizing homelessness will serve as a deterrent to homelessness.

4.    Millions of Dollars/Pounds/Rands (etc) are used every year to build boarding houses for the homeless and to fund soup kitchens. The homeless must use these instead of loitering on the streets.

Now let’s debunk them:

1.    Countries like South Africa and India have thousands of homeless people. The world knows this and still the tourism industries of these countries form a huge percentage of their income. Similarly, L.A. will be known for Hollywood and Casinos and flashing lights and so on firstly and only then, perhaps, for the hobo sleeping on the park bench.

2.    Homelessness is not the cause of crime, it is a contributing factor. It would be safe to say that as many crimes are committed by people with a house and food and an extra change of clothes as those without it. Even if homelessness were the sole cause of crime, criminalizing homelessness would not solve the problem, because it is not the root of the problem. The root is the CAUSES of homelessness.

3.    Telling a person that he may not sleep in the park or under a bridge does not deter him from being what he is. It simply creates a bigger problem: where do they go now?

4.    It is not uncommon to find overcrowded, unhygienic homeless shelters. Nor is it uncommon for these shelters to be overrun by crime, drug dealing and bullying. Many a beggar would much rather sleep on an open field than in a  crowded bunker bed; and would rather eat a half-eaten Big Mac from the dustbin than watered down soup and old bread.

So finally, the take-home message is simple. Quick fix solutions don’t work for a simple reason: they create a scapegoat instead of digging deeper and finding a root to dig out.

In what might be America's greatest 4th of July tradition (and certainly it's most gluttonous) competitive eaters from around the globe congregate at the original Nathan's hot dog stand in Coney Island, N.Y. to stuff their faces with as many hot dogs as possible in a ten minute period. 

The Nathan's hot dog eating competition is in it's 94th year running and has become increasingly popular in the last decade as larger than life, face-stuffers, Joey Chestnut and Japanese arch rival Kobayashi have taken this sport to a new level with their unparralled abilty to eat humungous qualities of Nathan's famous nitrate-filled, sodium laden, tube steaks. Last year, Joey Chestnut beat out Kobayashi by wolfing down a whopping 64 hot dogs in ten minutes -- in case you're wondering, that's about one hot dog every ten seconds for ten minutes!!!  Awesome? Disgusting?  Disgustingly Awesome???  This year, Chestnut says he hopes to put down seventy hot dogs (although Vegas has its doubts and has set the over/under at 61).

While, just watching the competition gives me heartburn, personally, I have to admit I am pretty intrigued and in awe of these "athletes", which leads me to the question:

Is competive eating a sport or just a disgustingly intriging display of gluttony?

Check out this video of Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest against a bear...and then vote sport or non-sport.

My vote - Definitely sport!!! Happy Birthday America!!

Everything's bigger in Texas -- including the blowouts.

Remember the high school girl's basketball team that won 100-0 in January causing a national debate? Well, ESPN just did an interview with former Covenant School coach Micah Grimes, who was fired after running up the score on the Dallas Academy.

And guess what? Given a second opportunity, you'd figure the guy would apologize. He didn't. He said he didn't think they did anything wrong. Come on...

This is absolutely CRAZY!!! The Covenant School was pressing in the fourth quarter, dropping threes and cheering until they got to 100 points. The Dallas Academy, on the other hand had a total of eight girls on their b-ball team and only twenty girls in the entire school.

So what do you think? Should Micah Grimes ever be given a second chance? To be fair, he was pretty young (30 years old) and inexperienced. On the other hand, one-hundred to freaking zero!!! Would you allow him to coach again or should he start looking for a new profession?

In this recession, schools are being forced to cut their budgets left and right.  Teachers are getting pink slipped at record rates and program after program is being cut.  Often, athletic programs are the first to go.  Is it right to cut sports programs first? Or are they indispensable for the unique role they play in our culture?