Links O' War: Saturday August 3rd, 2013

Here are your morning links!

TCU SPORTS

Former TCU safety commits to the Arizona Wildcats - AG's Wildcat Report
Former TCU safety commits to the Arizona Wildcats - AG's Wildcat Report

Big 12 football title up for grabs » Abilene Reporter-News
For the first time in three years, the Big 12 Conference has the same teams coming back from the previous season.

John Werner: Big 12’s best, worst feature? Parity - WacoTrib.com: Baylor Bears Football
With seven straight national titles on its resume, nobody can really argue that the SEC isn’t the most dominating conference in the country.

OTHER SPORTS

In search of baseball's dumbest rule - Baseball Nation
Help us find the most pointless, silliest rule in the baseball rule books.

UFC 163 preview show - MMA Fighting
MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani and Guilherme Cruz break down the top storylines for UFC 163 on Saturday night.

This Week In GIFs: The ugly, angry future - SBNation.com
This week, we're treated to perhaps the greatest crop of animated sports GIFs we've seen all summer. Vote, and help us determine the greatest.

Greg Oden signs with Miami Heat - SBNation.com
Greg Oden has decided to make his NBA comeback with the Miami Heat, signing a two-year, minimum-salary contract, with the second year a player option.

Sounders sign Clint Dempsey from Tottenham - SBNation.com
Sources have confirmed to SB Nation that Clint Dempsey has signed with the Seattle Sounders.

Report: MLB believes Alex Rodriguez linked to steroids every year since 2009 - SBNation.com
Evidence from the Biogenesis clinic investigation may show that Alex Rodriguez has been using PEDs every year since 2009.

What even Riley Cooper knows - SBNation.com
It's tough to misunderstand what Riley Cooper did. Some people seem intent on doing it anyway.

Halfy Hour: Greatest sports video games of the '90s - SBNation.com
Dan Rubenstein and Matt Ufford are joined by Vox Media bro Russ Frushtick, senior editor of gaming site Polygon, to discuss the greatest sports video games of the 1990s.

WGC-Bridgestone Invitational 2013: Leaderboard, live updates, scores and more from Firestone C.C. - SBNation.com
The world's best prep for the season's final major at this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone C.C.

J.B. Shuck robs a home run - SBNation.com
There are catches at the fence ... and there is this by Angels left fielder J.B. Shuck that robbed Jose Bautista of a home run.

Hawaii fires offensive coordinator Aaron Price on first day of practice - SBNation.com
Head coach Norm Chow will expand his role after already making a personnel change.

GEEK/TECH/NERD/ETC

Google looks to lure local reviewers away from Yelp with City Experts program | The Verge
On Friday, Google quietly announced City Experts, a new program that offers perks to those who frequently review local restaurants, bars, and businesses in Google Maps. To be a City Expert, you of...

Planning a trip to Mars? the Intergalactic Travel Bureau can help | The Verge
It’s not hard to send your friends a vacation postcard from Saturn — even if you never actually visit. All it takes is a visit to the Intergalactic Travel Bureau, a combination of science...

In vengeful move, CBS blocks web episodes for Time Warner Cable internet subscribers | The Verge
CBS stations have disappeared for many Time Warner Cable subscribers today, after the companies' negotiations over retransmission fees failed to reach an amicable conclusion. But cable TV users...

Why does Yahoo! buy failed startups? It's the only way it can get good developers | The Verge
Yahoo bought Rockmelt today, a startup that debuted with a wave of media fanfare touting it as the company that would reinvent the browser for the age of the social web. It didn't catch on,...

What is Facebook doing at a hacker convention in Vegas? | The Verge
If you're a fly-by-night computer hacker who prefers IRC to Instagram and goes by your handle instead of your real name, a company like Facebook is basically The Man. But the social network is back...

The Weekender: avoiding hackers, deciphering cameras, and solving a century-old mystery | The Verge
Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Every Saturday, we'll bring you some of the best and most important reads of the past seven days, from original reports, to in-depth features, to...

University of California wants to let you read all its peer-reviewed work | The Verge
Following the death of Aaron Swartz, governments and higher education seem to have stepped up their efforts to make scholarly research more readily accessible. Now, the world's largest public...

Verizon, BT, and Vodafone reportedly assisted UK's massive Tempora spying effort | The Verge
In June, The Guardian reported that Tempora — the surveillance program that is essentially the UK's version of PRISM — was tapping into undersea fiber-optic lines to access massive amounts of...

Congressional bill would clear companies to vaguely disclose US surveillance requests | The Verge
Nine members of congress introduced a new bill on Friday that would give tech firms, telecommunications companies, and internet service providers the legal clearance to publicly share the number of...

The Moto X proves Google still needs the Nexus program | The Verge
The Moto X has finally been revealed and although it’s the first phone that truly reflects the new company’s post-Google philosophies, it’s thoroughly a Motorola phone, not a Google phone....

John Carmack's private space program 'in hibernation' after progress stalled | The Verge
Armadillo Aerospace, the private rocket-building enterprise founded by gaming godfather John Carmack, is being put on hold. At QuakeCon, Carmack told New Space Journal that in the face of a failed...