NFL Poll and NCAA Bowl Predictions

With both NCAA Football and the NFL seasons coming to a close, Virginia Orange's Owen Gotimer and I thought it would be important to discuss the possible postseasons for the nation's top teams.

To the right, please select a Super Bowl representative for the AFC and for the NFC.

Below, take a look at the teams I have squaring off in NCAA Bowl Games around the country around New Year's Day.

BCS National Championship
     1 Alabama vs. 2 Florida State

Rose Bowl
     3 Ohio State vs. 8 Stanford

Sugar Bowl
     4 Auburn vs. 19 UCF

Orange Bowl
     6 Clemson vs. 11 Michigan State

Fiesta
    7 Oklahoma State vs. 16 Fresno State

New Mexico Bowl
     Washington vs. Colorado State

Las Vegas Bowl
     San Diego State University vs. 22 UCLA

Idaho Potato Bowl
     Bowling Green vs. San Jose State

New Orleans Bowl
     UTSA vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl
     Rutgers vs. North Texas

Hawai'i Bowl
     Rice vs. UNLV

Little Caesar's Bowl
     Boston College vs. Ball State

Poinsettia Bowl
     Utah State vs. Army

Military Bowl
     Syracuse vs. Tulane

Fight Hunger Bowl
     BYU vs. Arizona

Pinstripe Bowl
     Houston vs. Maryland

Belk Bowl
     Cincinnati vs. UNC

Russell Athletic Bowl
     20 Louisville vs. Virginia Tech

Buffalo Wild Wings
     18 Oklahoma vs. Minnesota

Armed Forces Bowl
     East Carolina vs. Boise State

Music City Bowl
     Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt

Alamo Bowl
     Texas vs. 13 Oregon

Holiday Bowl
     Kansas State vs. 12 Arizona State

AdvoCare Bowl
     Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo

Sun Bowl
     23 USC vs. Miami (FL)

Liberty Bowl
     Marshall vs. Ole Miss

Chick-fil-a Bowl
     24 Duke vs. 17 LSU

Heart of Dallas Bowl
     Notre Dame vs. Middle Tennessee State

Gator Bowl
     Iowa vs. 21 Texas A&M

Outback Bowl
     Nebraska vs. Georgia

Capital One Bowl
     15 Wisconsin vs. 5 Missouri

Cotton Bowl
     9 Baylor vs. 10 South Carolina

BBVA Compass Bowl
     SMU vs. Mississippi State

Go Daddy Bowl
      14 Northern Illinois vs. Arkansas State

Meineke Bowl
     Texas Tech vs. Michigan

Is the NHL’s lack of suspension for Ray Emery a calculated marketing move?

The NHL has always struggled to compete for fans with leagues like MLB, the NFL, and the NBA and even the NCAA and last year’s lockout did not help. Frustrated fans turned to other sports for entertainment and have had difficulty getting back into the hockey spirit causing ticket prices to fall dramatically.

But one thing that the NHL has something that separates it above all other leagues: its allowance of fights.

Friday’s line brawl between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals was an extreme example but guarantees that there will be grudges held and mitts ready to be dropped when the teams meet again on December 15^th and two days later, December 17^th.

Typically, the league attempts to avoid player injuries and huge line brawls in order to at least somewhat maintain the integrity of the game but after Ray Emery’s “bout” with Capital’s goaltender Braden Holtby, the league has not suspended the Flyer’s net minder. Emery made his way down the length of the ice and continuously sucker punched Holtby despite Holtby’s unwillingness to drop the gloves.

While Ray Emery did not start the line brawl, Holtby blatantly did not want to fight. Ray Emery’s comment was "I basically told him to protect himself. I gave him a chance to protect himself."So understanding that Holtby did not want to fight, Emery still went after him. A lack of suspension leaves players "between a rock and a hard place"; either get a retaliation penalty or get the ever-living $H!7 beat out of you.

The NHL cited that fighting can only be penalized during the game by the referees based on the league’s rule.

The utter beat down is currently the talk of the hockey world and made ESPN’s premier show, SportsCenter, despite the show’s aversion to hockey highlights compared to football, basketball, and baseball.

In fact, a simple Google search of “Flyers”, loaded an article and video of the fight.

The fight even got the Capitals’ Twitter page going. “Only one thing to say after all of that. #Scoreboard. #CapsFlyers”; the Capitals made reference to the 7 to 0 scoreboard in favor of D.C.’s team even without Star Player Alexander Ovechkin.
The fight is definitely making its rounds through the World Wide Web, and sport fans that may pass by a hockey game on TV, may be more tempted to stick around to see a fight or two. It will be interesting to see the next few meetings between these two clubs and the viewership numbers that go along with them. They are sure to be hostile.

The Effects of Marketing Individual Players on the NCAA

Johnny Manziel has been, is, and will continue to be the star of NCAA Football (at least until the NFL Draft).

Texas A&M is taking full advantage of the Heisman Trophy winner by using his face and name to increase the university’s visibility. In December 2012, the university already had a billboard in the infamous Times Square with a picture of Johnny along with the phrase “They call him Johnny Heisman.” (Rovell, 2012).

According to an August 22^nd tweet by Reporter Darren Rovell, the fundraising department of Texas A&M Athletics raised $20,000 by auctioning off the right to sit with Manziel at dinner (Rovell, 2013).

The latest episode of “Johnny Mania” took place September 14^th against the top-ranked Crimson Tide. The game that took place at Texas A&M’s home facility, Kyle Field, was a rematch of the 2012 game in which the Aggies upset Nick Saban’s powerhouse program.

While the game received and deserved national attention, it did not appear to be a rematch of Alabama and Texas A&M, rather the Crimson Tide versus Johnny Manziel and CBS is probably to blame for that.

CBS set aside a camera that would be strictly focused on Johnny Manziel. The goal of having Manziel always front and center was to catch any and everything Manziel did. Manziel has become so popular that CBS was obligated to set aside a camera for Manziel specifically. Mr. Football is not helping the situation either (Deitsch, 2013).

But all of the marketing attention of Johnny for Texas A&M and the NCAA is not positive. This is because the marketing attention he receives shows a good, well-behaved Manziel and the media attention shows anything but a well-behaved Manziel.

It may not seem fair but Manziel is under the microscope. Media is constantly following him so everything Manziel does is scrutinized.

In June of 2012, Johnny was arrested for disorderly conduct and possession of a fake ID. While this was pre-Heisman Trophy, it never would have surfaced had Manziel not become so popular.

A year later, Manziel made headlines for his off-field antics again after he used Twitter to post “Shit like tonight is a reason why I can’t wait to leave college station…whenever it may be.” He was responding to a parking ticket he received at Texas A&M but understandably, A&M doesn’t want their famous quarterback to be talking about leaving A&M as soon as possible (Newsday, 2013).

In January, Manziel was photographed with a bottle of alcohol. Under-age drinking happens consistently across the country and this actually was not the case; under-age persons can drink with consent of their parents if their parents are present and Mr. and Mrs. Manziel were at the club. Regardless, Johnny received a considerable amount of criticism for the photo.

Manziel was even ignorant enough to attend a University of Texas fraternity party. The University of Texas happens to be one of Texas A&M’s rivals and Manziel was easily recognized and escorted from the fraternity house while students threw beer at him (Newsday, 2013).

Lastly, and probably most notable was Manziel’s antics that showed during the Texas A&M opener. Manziel was suspended for the first half of the game versus Rice University for allegedly selling memorabilia he signed for a profit of $10,000 (Rovell, 2013). Once Manziel entered the game in the second half, he was quickly side lined for taunting a Rice defenseman after having already signaled at another Rice athlete that he would not sign an autograph for him.

Because of Manziel’s behavior, Peter King from Sports Illustrated issued this comment:

But Manziel, to many teams right now, would be undraftable because they’re scared of his mood swings and off-field questions. But it only takes one team out of 32 to fall for him. And some team will, unless he self-destructs between today and draft day (Daniels, 2013).

While Johnny has the right to do what he wants, his actions will continue to be scrutinized if he is not careful which will hurt the reputation of Texas A&M, the NCAA, and himself.

A Happy Story in A Small World

Every class I have ever taken has had exams, tests, evaluations, whatever you want to call them. There needs to be some way to evaluate your progress. This morning’s Finance 345 exam was not going to be an easy one, so last night a group of Sport and Recreation Management students and I packed ourselves into a study lounge in Rose Library.

The studying went very well (at least I think it did, I haven’t gotten the results back yet) and as we were leaving, a classmate of mine that I’ve had several classes with over the last few years, Zack, said he was not looking forward to his ride home; he had ridden his bike from Urban Exchange, a downtown apartment complex several miles from the library. I drive my Uncle Jeff’s old Expedition, so I offered to put his bike in the back and get him a ride home.  We did to the bike and my car what we had just done to the finance facts and our heads and headed downtown.

We got to talking and I asked Zack where he had done his internship, which is a graduation requirement of all JMU SRM majors. He told me that this summer he had interned with the Brooklyn Nets. Knowing Uncle Jeff’s friendship through their high school basketball playing days with the Nets’ General Manager, I asked Zack “Did you get a chance to meet Billy King?” Zack responded with a yes and said something I did not expect. Billy and Zack’s dad also played high school basketball together.

Immediately, my face lit up and I nearly slammed on the breaks. “At Park View?!” Zack was stunned. I told him about my uncle having played with Billy as well and that Zack’s dad, Chris Graham, must have known and played with my uncle. For the rest of the car ride, I was halfway between shocked and excited. I don’t think I left Zack with a split second to respond.

I got Zack dropped off and started driving home. Still shocked and now in an empty car, memories of Uncle Jeff zoomed into my head but because I was excited, I couldn’t help but smile. The longest time gone and you are still helping me out; I truly can’t believe it.

Monday marks six months without Uncle Jeff and I miss him very much but remember this is a happy story because he just helped me make a new friend. Thanks Uncle Jeff! And Happy Friday guys!

JMU Students Discuss What Schools are doing to Increase Student Football Attendance

One of the greatest things about JMU is the atmosphere created by the students. From before I was even enrolled, students were up and cheering about what it means for them to be a Duke. Come move-in day, the process was run so smoothly, I was confused; I did not understand how my stuff upstairs in my room when I had not lifted a thing yet. Of course we have our FrOGs to thank for their hard work every year.

After August 1787, more commonly known as FrOG week, our first large event as a student body is Football’s Home Opener. In my case, it was against Morehead State, but when the games start, they all possess that ability to give even the fans the wildest adrenaline rush complete with tailgating, fireworks, a cannon, and of course, purple and gold streamers. But with all the excitement that goes into the beginning of the game, it seems our student body has an apathetic tendency come half time.

Yesterday afternoon, Seniors Cameron McKinley and Dejor Simmons led a group of Sport and Recreation Management students including myself in a discussion about what may steal spectators in the second half. Weather definitely played a factor in whether or not a student would stay, several other interesting reasons also arouse.

Factors such as time of the game played into even simple activities like getting food from dining halls (brought to our attention by SDC President Connor Butler). Dining halls close and students need to leave the game to punch before the students no longer can.

Of course, there’s competition from other teams. Fortunately, today’s Alabama versus Texas A&M starts at 3:30PM EST but if the games were switched and JMU started before the big rematch, how many students would leave to catch Johnny Football show off his skills against the defending National Champions? My guess is that fewer students would remain at the stadium.

Wi-Fi accessibility might help solve this problem, because students could watch the game on their mobile devices, but given a warm room and large TV or the elements and a 2-inch screen, there are still some doubts about whether or not students will stay.

And finally, the biggest appeal to students that leads to apathy is alcohol. It is impossible to ignore. When given the choice of free alcohol or a free football game especially for the under-21 population is easily made. Without the ability to come and go as they please, students will leave for additional alcohol (since their “buzz” has diminished) and Saturdays’ off-campus festivities will begin.

Cameron and Dejor made it clear that this is not just a problem here; even the University of Alabama has problems with student apathy. Their problems aren’t all that dissimilar to JMU’s sometimes; Alabama’s scores become so favorable toward the Crimson Tide, that students know that their team is going to win and head home. JMU has experienced this before, including at last year’s St. Francis game.

While I would hope that the majority of JMU students would consider staying for today’s second half, I understand the draw to leave. My question is: How can JMU accommodate you? Why might you be leaving a JMU Football Matchup?

As always, please comment below by clicking the comment button and I look forward to seeing you at the game versus St. Francis.

            You can also catch Cameron McKinley and Dejor Simmons articles here and follow them on Twitter with their handles, @CameronMcKinle2 and @simmonsboy_5.

Privatize College Athletics: A Chance to Eliminate Conflict between Universities and the NCAA once and for all

One of the largest questions that the NCAA faces from season to season seems simple yes-or-no question; “Should student-athletes be paid?”

With the recent announcements that the NCAA will end its relationship with EA Sports and that six current NFL Players are filing lawsuits against NCAA and EA Sports for allowing for the players’ likenesses and the likenesses of all college football players, to be used in the NCAA Football video game series without compensation, this question is once again being raised.

On top of football, we have a looming problem with NCAA Basketball and the NBA and the transition of players from one level to the next. Players are given scholarships to go to a university, ideally to complete their educations, but then remain with the schools only one year before signing with an NBA Basketball team, thus not finishing their degrees and rendering the money spent on one year of schooling for the player, wasted.

Then we have the problems inside the classroom. While often not spoken of because the topic is considered taboo, professors of student-athletes all over the country are pressured into (whether coerced by a member of an athletics program or through plain guilt of not wanting to be responsible if a student-athlete is unable to play or worse, loses his/her scholarship) making sure that the student-athletes are given ample grades so that the student-athlete may continue to play for the NCAA. Meanwhile, university students that are not student-athletes can comprehend classroom material tenfold compared to the student-athletes with inflated marks. Once all the students from the university have graduated, if the student-athlete with higher marks than he/she deserved is hired by a company because of his/her degree, and does not meet the needs of the business, the employer assumes that all students from that university were held to the same standard to obtain their degrees. The employer no longer hires from that school because the employer assumes that students with the same degree as the student-athlete all fall below the quality of employee for which the employer is searching.

In addition, tax dollars from United States citizens everywhere are spent on college coaches that could otherwise be spent on the welfare of the states. In 40 states, the highest paid public employee is a college coach; 27 football coaches, 12 basketball coaches, and 1 hockey coach. Sadly, the majority of the population is ignorant to the impact of college athletics on their lives, even though for most of them, it affects them more than they could imagine.

And while the negatives of college athletics are easily offered, there are many positives.

            My all-time favorite family event (yes, even greater than opening presents on Christmas morning and Thanksgiving dinner) is a summer barbeque. I love the smell of charcoal, the taste of hamburgers and hotdogs, and the sound of laughter amongst family and friends and there is only one event that can compete. Closely related is the football tailgate which remains one of the greatest traditions of all time.

            Without stable football programs (and basketball programs, as I hope to one day discover with my girlfriend and her family, specifically her father who is an alum of Duke University), we would have no reason to tailgate. We have student-athletes of whom we should be thankful.

            In addition, university bookstores often sell sporting apparel in the form of jerseys, hats, and the ever popular foam finger.  Apparel sales would plummet if athletic programs did not exist. And even Nick Saban cannot take all the credit for what happens on the field, after all his student-athletes are the ones sending and receiving vicious blows.

            I have not even touched on the fact that millions of employees across the United States have jobs (even part-time jobs like mine) that without the efforts of athletics programs and by extension student-athletes would not exist.

            While town hall style debates on the subject like the one on Costas Tonight on April 4, 2012 could continue and civil litigation will continue to be taken to court, I believe there is a much better direction that college athletics programs and college-aged athletes should head to ensure their future.

            The NCAA believes that it may legitimately collapse if student-athletes start receiving compensation, and they have a valid argument. Thousands, if not millions of student-athletes have passed through or otherwise have been a part of the NCAA and if the courts rule on behalf of Eric O’Bannon and his new found “teammates”, the NCAA could be responsible for paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to every single student-athlete, current or former. With the potential for millions of dollars being paid to former and current athletes, three questions come to my mind: “Where would the money come from?”, “What if the money runs out?” and “What would that hold for future student-athletes and college athletics programs as a whole?”

            As you can see based on the title of this post, my idea suggests privatizing college athletics. By privatizing college athletics, college-aged athletes would no longer be subject to the rules of the NCAA which are designed to keep a fair balance between the average college student and his/her student-athlete counterpart.
            First of all, separating the two, separating the two allows for the payment of players which eliminates the need for Parts III and IV of Form 08-3a, a form that all NCAA athletes are required to sign if they want to play, and the backbone of Jay Bilas’s argument for pay-to-play. Parts III and IV deal specifically with the amateur status of an athlete and the promotion of NCAA Championships and Events.

            Of course, there’s a catch. Privatized college athletics programs would be considered entities separate from the universities they used to belong. In fact, they would not be considered “college athletic programs” merely semi-professional programs next to or in the middle of universities.

            Now that they are separate entities, college-aged athletes would no longer be entitled to scholarships directly from their former universities, only pay, which the athlete could use to pay from his/her education if he/she so chooses.

            Without the student being attached to the athlete, there is no longer a conflict of interest for professors who would have otherwise inflated grades to help student-athletes remain eligible.

In addition, this eliminates the difficulties between the NCAA and the NBA regarding players that play for a single season before entering the NBA Draft and therefore wasting a year’s worth of scholarship.

Tax dollars go back in the pockets of state governments and in turn the governments could respond by contributing money toward alternative causes relevant to each state, including the possibility of allocating additional funds toward public universities that would have seen a decrease in revenue from campus bookstores and the like that no longer sell collegiate sports apparel.

Job growth would likely increase, due to the opening up of player agent possibilities and therefore legal consul that would be needed to represent the teams.

The looming question here is “Who would buy the programs?” The glory of it all is that university athletic programs have donor programs. If the new semi-professional programs incorporated and offered to allow the donors to buy stock, instead of contributing to the programs, the programs would be well on their ways to privatizing and the donors still remain attached the programs that once belonged to the university.

Finally, as we’ve seen in the English Premier League, corporate sponsors are valuable tools. Corporations could purchase the remaining shares needed to keep the teams functioning and there is no incentive to alert logos by the new teams because the goodwill held by the logos is much too valuable. If Coca-Cola bought the athletics programs from the University of North Carolina, fans who would normally buy tickets would no longer be satisfied if the Tarheels colors were red and white.

Corporations have the added bonus of it being a marketing deal. “The Crimson Tide” owned by “Tide” would be an invaluable asset to “Tide” if the “Crimson Tide” program continued to win national championships like it has in recent history.

I’ll admit it. I have not ironed out all of the details. I don’t even know my own opinion on the topic but it may be a way to keep college-aged athletes competing and entertaining schools throughout the country. I believe that this option provides the most benefits to everyone in the great United States.

Please comment. I would love to hear your opinions of my idea. 

Scalping incident leads to arrest...and it shouldn't have

Please note that while I do mention specific teams in this post, I have the utmost respect for all of them, and if I were not working down at school this summer, I would likely be attending multiple events for these teams and I do one day hope to work for one of these teams.

That being said, I think there is always room for improvement and this can be a stepping stone for Washington D.C.

After hearing about Joe Carr’s arrest near Nationals Park for ticket scalping, I quickly came to the decision that it is a terrible idea to arrest people for ticket scalping in Washington D.C. Much like Joe pointed out there are bigger things to worry about in the District than ticket scalping. I have made a short list of reasons why Joe should not have been arrested.

Crime

Drugs and murder are things that deter people from living in certain areas of the country, especially if they live a more luxurious lifestyle. The southeast corner of the District is not the greatest area.  Those that lead a glamorous life have more money, which is what the Nationals want (they are a for-profit company), are prone to not live in the area. If police attention was focused more on drugs, murder, and gang violence, perhaps the area would be cleaned up enough to allow for some nicer apartments to be built for the lavishly living folk and with the convenience of being just a few blocks away, they would probably attend more games.

If there is only a chance of me making it to a game, I am not buying a ticket.

 If there’s no chance of me being able to sell my ticket in the case that I can’t go, then I’m not buying one from the team. However, I might consider buying a $30 ticket if I could go back and sell it for $20 if something comes up. The money is made by the team once, I buy the ticket. If I give it away, it's not illegal and I'm out $30 instead of $10, not exactly the experience I would hope to remember.

The Economy

                The idea behind the economy is that you need people to come to your area, spend their money, and take back less value than what they came with. This is why souvenir items can cost you can arm and a leg. But now that Joe has had a bad experience in Washington, when his friends ask about his trip, he is telling them how horrible it was, and they are going to consider other cities first.

Sporting Event Security

                While this might be considered by many to fall under crime, I’m keeping it separate. Positive game experiences can be made or broken by who you sit around. If there is a rude, intoxicated spectator yelling and screaming at the players, I’m much more likely to have a negative experience and not want to come back. A higher police presence inside the stadium would probably be beneficial.

                In addition, the last act of terrorism in our great nation did happen at a sporting event. I’m not trying to scare people, just trying to state a fact. If there was greater police presence including the use of K-9 Units, I would absolutely feel safer at games. It’s not that I don’t feel safe already, but given the NFL’s new security policies, I’d feel much safer going to a Redskins game in Upper Marlboro than a Nationals game near Anacostia.

Like I said earlier, I hope this is a stepping stone for Washington D.C. I love this city and I do not want everyone to have a bad taste of it. Hopefully even Joe will give the District another chance.