Is the gap growing between the “Power” and “Non-Power” Conferences?

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By Alex O’Connor

Marshall has had a historic football season, where they currently sit at 9-0 and are the clear frontrunners in Conference USA. Marshall is also one of three undefeated teams left. As conferences have been realigning rapidly not only in football, but basketball, there has been an increasing concern that the “power” conferences are getting more powerful each time there is a new alignment. NBCSports has noted that Marshall’s streak is special, but there is a large amount of hesitancy on whether or not it will matter if they finish undefeated.

Currently, Marshall is ranked twenty-first in the country, according to the latest AP Top 25, and they are notably unranked in the College Football Playoff Rankings. With the addition of the new playoff system, the twelve committee members are using new statistics to measure the quality of the eligible schools. The most notable new statistic is “FPI”, which stands for the Football Power Index. Per ESPN.com, FPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward for the rest of the season. Given the opponents Marshall has faced in and out of conference, there is no indication that they are anywhere near the top four teams in the country. The establishment of FPI has only furthered the gap between power and non power conferences.

In regards to the media, there is always a desire to find an underdog, or a team that can come out of nowhere to shock the bigger teams. This is especially prevalent in college football. fbschedules.com noted that Marshall going undefeated in this new playoff format will be a true determination if the non-power conferences are actually playing for that grand prize.

A recent example of a small school having major success in the previous format was Boise State. In 2006, Boise State won all twelve of their scheduled games. Though they were and still are in a non power conference, (WAC) they were still slotted into a major BCS Bowl Game which was the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. They ended up winning that game by one point over Big 12 powerhouse Oklahoma. For the time being, Boise State gave smaller schools at the glory of a big college football bowl game. Now that only four teams compete for the National Championship and the former big BCS bowl games will have considerably less attention than the final four teams. The new playoff system has only made it harder for non-power conference teams to break into the national spotlight and the balance of authority is shifting heavily towards the power conferences.

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College Hockey: Skating in the Right Direction

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By Ellen Chlumecky

Hockey has never been the most important or popular sport in the United States. While all leagues of hockey have their large fan bases, but the NHL, college hockey, high school hockey, and youth leagues are still barely making the top of the list for most popular sport in the United States.

While hockey is still barely at the top of the list, they have been making head way in the past couple years. As I previously stated in an earlier article, the 2014 NHL season has started to make a huge splash in different media outlets other than just the NHL Network. While ESPN still rarely shows hockey video clips, NBC Sports Network has been devoted to showing hockey games even more than any other network in the United States.

The most recent addition to the NBC Sports Network family is NCAA college hockey. Last year, NBCSN only showed the NCAA Frozen Four, which is the championship, and a few games here and there. While very important to all college hockey programs to make this huge step, the championships are only just one important part of the season. Which is why it is such a big deal that NBCSN is now showing college hockey regularly now. While so far they have only shown Boston College and Notre Dame, two of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I, but for them to regularly start showing college hockey games is something that was unimaginable a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago, the only way you could go see some college hockey games was to attend the game in person or if you lived locally you might be able to catch the game on a local sports television show. For the college hockey programs across the United States this is a huge step especially when college football and basketball tend to take a lead when it comes to ESPN and other larger sports networks.

I am not saying that the NBCSN has perfected the spread of college hockey yet. NBC Sports Network has still yet to add a college hockey tab to their website. While they do still have college hockey clips to watch on their website, they are far from making it a big deal. The college hockey season is only about ten games in so I believe that NBCSN can blow college hockey up and make hockey a true contender in that list and a game that people are excited to watch.

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49ers’ Aldon Smith to Pay to Play in 2014

By Matt Rogers

It was reported on ESPN today that Aldon Smith, San Francisco 49ers’ All-Pro Outside Linebacker, will be paying the 49ers to play in the team’s last seven games of the season rather than returning early, as he reportedly had hoped. Smith is currently serving a 9-game suspension for separate violations of the league’s substance abuse policy and personal conduct policy. For this reason, Smith will be ordered to pay the 49ers for forfeiture of a signing bonus that was agreed to when Smith was drafted by the team in the 2011 NFL Draft.

The amount that Smith will be ordered to pay is determined from his salary, which was $525,000 for the final seven games of the season, and the signing bonus valued at $661,000 . This is substantial because nothing like this has ever happened before in any of the major sports leagues, at least in the United States. This occurrence sets a precedent that athletes, at least in the NFL, will be held more accountable for continuously ignoring not only the policies agreed up by the players’ union and the league owners, but also ignoring the laws.

Smith has had at least two DUI charges that have been reported, which lead to his substance abuse suspension. What lead to his suspension for going against the personal conduct policy was what essentially lead to  such a harsh punishment to be handed down on Smith. It was reported in April 2014 that Smith was detained for allegedly becoming belligerent with airport officials, eventually that he had a bomb in his possession. This is a crime that is taken extremely seriously, especially after the tragic events that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Ultimately, Smith was not charged, but he was still subject to a lengthy suspension under the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The suspension that was handed down was the aforementioned 9 games, which was a result of the multiple DUI charges and the incident that occurred at the airport in April.

Though Smith was suspended, he was not suspended for a whole season, making him eligible to return in the 49ers’ Week 11 matchup against the New York Giants. This would mean that Aldon Smith be paying to play in the final seven games rather than sitting out the entire season and still paying the team back the signing bonus.

A precedent like this is something that professional league’s should definitely adopt in the future because when a contract is signed, and a signing bonus is agreed to, there are certain parameters that are also agreed to by both sides. It was also interesting that this was reported on national TV, especially during a year where the league has seen two of its highest profile players, Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, facing criminal charges for domestic violence and child abuse.

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Where is Boxing? Hopkins Claims Race is the Issue

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In an interview this past weekend, light-heavyweight boxing champion Bernard Hopkins was quoted as saying the reason his story in boxing goes un-avoided in the media is because he is black. This Saturday Hopkins 55-6-2 (32 KO’s) takes on Sergey Kovalev 25-0-1(23 KO’s) in a light-heavyweight championship bout in Atlantic City, NJ.

“It’s because I’m black. What do you think if my name was Augustine, Herzenstein, Stern? Cappello? Marciano?…If I was any of those names of any other background, I’d be on every billboard and every milk carton and every place to be. If we’re talking ‘American Dream,’ here’s a guy who almost threw his life away and he took this great country’s great attributes and used it — do for self, work hard and be a law-abiding citizen. I’ve done that for 26 years.”

Hopkins, who has the record for the oldest fighter to win and defend world titles, will only be 2 months away from turning 50 years old this Saturday. Hopkins was released from prison in 1988 after serving over 4 years before he began his boxing career.

It’s not an unknown fact that boxing’s popularity has taken a hit in the recent decade. Despite new marketing approaches, campaigns and TV commercials, boxing has struggled to make money in pay-per-view events that do not include Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s name.

What happened to the excitement of the 20th century boxing fight? The trash talk of Sugar Ray Leonard, the pre-fight antic of Muhammad Ali, the posters around every major city advertising the title fight? All of these things are missing from boxing today.

So is race really the reason, Hopkins story and his fight v. Kovalev goes unnoticed in the media or is it just attributed to the lack of popularity towards boxing? Not in my opinion. This isn’t the first time Hopkins has made media headlines for something controversial he has said to the media.

See here. Oh, and here is this.

I’m not here to personally attack Mr. Hopkins. I just don’t put much into his claims of race being the issue his story in boxing isn’t covered, when the largest superstar in his sport is of the same ethnicity. However what Hopkins does point out is that boxing lacks the media attention it once had. The even harsher truth is that boxing has a serious problem coming ahead for them when Floyd Mayweather retires fall of next year.

Mayweather is the perfect example of why race is not the issue at hand. Mayweather, an african-american, is the most popular fighter in the United States. In a sport that lacks the demanding respect and popularity it once did during the 20th century, Mayweather is even known by people around the world by people who have never even seen him fight.

While boxing has always had its media superstars like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and currently Mayweather as mentioned, there is yet to be a boxer anywhere near comparable to Mayweather’s media-attention level.

The UFC is also to blame for the unpopularity of boxing today. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and other Mixed Martial Arts leagues like StrikeForce and Bellator now dominate the youth demographic. The sport, which includes boxing, also adds the excitement of Judo, Wrestling, Jit-Jitsu and other forms of hand combat which is a main factor in its popularity rise over boxing. The sport is faster paced and includes increased brutality compared to boxing which can also contributes to the excitement that has drawn fans in.

The United States has a great history in the sport of boxing. However, in our modern-day the United States may not even be the best country in boxing anymore. For the sake of the sport, and the future of it here in the United States, the boxing community as a whole will need to evaluate and make changes for the betterment of the sport.

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Trouble On Tinder

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By Kate Roth

In the past few years social media has emerged as one of the top go to methods for retrieving any sort of news around the world, including sports. No matter what sport you are interested in, there is always something happening on social media to keep you updated with your favorite teams and players. Often fans can even stay connected with the players by following their personal social media sites.

This has proven to be both good and bad for athletes. Yes it is great for them to be able to share some their personal life with their fans, but social media can also lead to negative situations for athletes all too often.

Twitter and Facebook seem to be the normal sites that we find athletes getting themselves in trouble with by their comments, but now even the popular social media dating app, Tinder is causing some trouble for two young athletes.

Greg Betzold and Jake Marchment two young players both only 19 years old playing in the Ontario Hockey League, part of the junior Canadian Hockey League, have found themselves suspended for 15 games after sending abusive comments to women through the social media site.

The two players who originally though the conversations they were having would stay private, quickly saw them go public all over the news after the women took screen shots of their conversations and posted them online for all to see.

Once the OHL was informed of these incidents they acted quickly and informed the players, teams and press that even though these were private actions in the two players lives it was still unacceptable behavior and they would have to serve a 15-game suspension as consequence.

Betzold and Marchment took their own private Twitter accounts to apologize for their actions. Both stated that they wanted to make clear that they thought these were private conversations, but none the less it was childish and unacceptable behavior.

With the amount of off-field drama that college, semi-professional and professional sports have had this year, it is clear to see why the OHL acted so quickly.  Not only did the league serve up a pretty heavy suspension for first time offenders, they also made sure to alert the media of the issue right away and assure them that the situation was being handled by the league.

The OHL is a league designed to develop young players as they prepare to enter into the NHL. By acting quickly on this situation and making an example out of these two players, the OHL is showing that they care about their players and are there to help develop them not only as players, but also as young men.

Hopefully other athletes, especially young ones, can learn from the mistakes made by these two players and all other players who have found themselves in some trouble through their actions on social media. While it can be a great way to stay connected to the fans, the athletes need to know their limits and realize that nothing they post on any of these sites is private.

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Derrick Rose Looking on the Bright Side

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By Ellen Chlumecky

Derrick Rose’s return created a huge excited buzz around Chicago and the NBA in general. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what this phenomenal player was going to bring to the court when he returned. Unfortunately, as soon as he was in, he was back out again.

On Friday, October 31st, the Chicago Bulls played against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The excitement around the game was huge. Everyone wanted to see the big comeback of Rose battling against Lebron James. But luck was not on Rose’s side on Friday. Rose sprained not one, but both of his ankles on Friday’s game. While one of the ankle injuries isn’t labeled as serious, it didn’t seem like an ideal situation. Leaving Bulls’ fans thinking that their beacon of light was once again out.

In true Derrick Rose fashion, when interviewed about the injuries, our fearless leader almost seemed to shrug it off. He stated that he stayed out of the rest of the game because he wanted to stay smart about staying off the ankles as to not cause further problems. Rose made it clear that he was not going to let this stop him but he was not going to run blindly into it and force another serious injury.

While Rose was a scratch on Tuesday for the Magic game, he still remains positive. Coach Tom Thibodeau is also just as confident as Rose that this is just a minor setback. Thibodeau states that coming back from a long injury always takes some time and that’s what Rose needs. The coach wants him to come in every day trying but at the end of the day, it’s about time. NBC Sports even defended Rose’s honor by saying that Rose’s current injury is just a minor fluke and that it’ll just take a little time for him to recover. They stated that this injury could happen to anyone.

While they seem to be confident that Rose will be back in brand spanking new condition, others do not seem to have the same view. After the game, Twitter was blown up about how Rose was made of glass and how he has no hope to return to 100%. Some Bulls fans, some non-believers, think that because of these ankle injuries he will never return to the Derrick Rose he once was. No major news media has stated that Derrick Rose cannot return from this, probably because they don’t want to state anything prematurely.

Non-believers can think what they want, but Derrick Rose is determined as ever to prove himself. I wrote an article about Derrick Rose’s return last week and he ended up with the ankle injury. I hope after writing this one, he doesn’t break an even more important body part. I do not want to be a jinx for my favorite NBA player.

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Lauren Hill’s Final Hoop Dreams Fulfilled

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By Kaleb Page

The game of basketball is something that Lauren Hill has loved for a very long time. Her love of the game took her from playing in Lawrenceburg, IN to being a member of Mount St. Joseph University’s basketball team (Division III) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Being a member of this team is quite the remarkable accomplishment based on the hard reality Lauren faces every day.

In November of Lauren’s senior year in high school, she went to the doctor after having occasions of feeling dizzy, slow and at times numb. After going to the doctor she received news that she had an inoperable brain tumor; a life expectancy of two years. Even after receiving that news, Lauren played her senior year and signed on at Mount St. Joseph to continue playing.

Flash forward to the start of her freshman year and the news on her tumor had grown even worse. When she went for her latest MRI her life expectancy was reduced to this December. It all seemed like her dream of being a college basketball player would never come true as her condition would be too bad for her to take the court. In a great gesture not only by the NCAA but by the university as well, the first game of the season was moved up to this past Sunday November 2, 2014 (two weeks earlier than normal).

Seventeen seconds into the game Lauren got a lay up, her first score as a college basketball player. This moment brought a stop to the game as her teammates rushed the court and everyone cheered the moment that was. Then the final basket of the game came on another Hill layup that capped off a win by Mount St. Joesph over Hiram College 66-55. A great day that saw not only local support from the people of Cincinnati, but nationally as well with the likes of LeBron and Candice Parker sending out messages of how inspired they were by Lauren’s courage and determination.

Her story is something my words on this post probably could do no justice to. For anyone who has not seen it on ESPN, SportsCenter or any other media outlet; the piece put together by Tom Rinaldi is amazing. He does it time and time again finding these stories that need to be told. He frames them in such a fantastic way and flows the story along that makes you not only connect to what you are watching, but more importantly to the people involved.

He definitely gave this story the platform it deserves and let Lauren be the face of pediatric cancer that her doctor mentioned was needed today. I assure you watching this piece will not only inevitably make you feel sad, but it will also make you want to tell Lauren Hill she is inspirational. For all the things she has stacked against her and the obstacles put in her path; she went forward until she met her goal.

More and more we see people give up on their goals and not even have the horrible circumstances put on them like Lauren did. That is why Lauren is not just the face of pediatric cancer. She is also the face of the ultimate perseverance to accomplish anything you put your mind to. When you put all your hard work, effort and time looking to achieve a goal or goals; nothing can stop you.

Look at Lauren Hill, she will show you that first hand.

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Racist Tweets Sent to Midfielder Toure

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By Alex O’Connor

Manchester City midfielder, Yaya Toure has been the target of recent racist remarks on Twitter. On Monday, Toure received several racist messages in a matter of a few hours. Toure rejoined Twitter yesterday and was greeted with several racist remarks. Toure describes the messages as a “disgrace” and has noted that he wants “Those people to understand what they’re doing is wrong.” Per BBC Sport, the Greater Manchester Police have received the complaint and are thoroughly investigating the issue. Toure was off of Twitter for over five months due to un-warranted distractions. Unfortunately, there have been additional distractions only a day into reestablishing his Twitter.

Though Toure is facing adversity on the social media spectrum, an anti-discriminatory organization known as Kick it Out has come to his aid. Kick it Out is an international organization that vies for equality and inclusion in all aspects of sport, having their primary focus in soccer. Kick it Out’s official statement read: “We are disturbed by the fact that someone can be treated this way. It makes footballers start to question why they should use these platforms. We are offering Yaya Toure our full support.” This response shows immediate defense to Toure while hammering home the message that racism has no place in soccer.

One specific tweet was caught by authorities and was proved to be written by an avid Chelsea fan. The tweet read: “shut up n*****.” The UK’s DailyStar reported that the fan had apologized, but directly to Toure. His apology was given through Twitter, and was sent to the DailyStar. They are connecting the insincerity of the apology, claiming that his apology was not administered the right way. This is another way in which social media has hurt not only Toure, but the original messenger.

Toure took a five month break from Twitter, because of distractions to his playing. However, just over a year ago, Toure was the subject of racist messages from fans during a Champions League group stage game in Moscow, Russia. There were even suggestions that black players should boycott the upcoming 2018 World Cup in Russia. As a result, the Etihad Stadium in Moscow will be forced to not have any fans present when Toure and Manchester City travel to Moscow. This is a significant revenue loss not only for the stadium and surrounding city, but the entire sport as a whole. Governing bodies are going so far as to prohibit fans from even watching a soccer game in person. In the midst of this situation and Toure’s most recent entanglement, City manager Manuel Pellegrini is confident the latest issue will not effect his performance on the field. Toure has had several poor experiences with social media, and now this incident has proven to be detrimental to the entire sport.

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Rule 64: Eliminating Embellishment in the NHL

By Savannah Malnar

Toughness has always been an important attribute to any athlete no matter the sport. In hockey, this trait is so imbedded into the sport that it actually can dictate penalties. The NHL has always made calls against embellishment, but this season they decided they weren’t doing enough about it and instructed the officials to “crack down” on players who embellish or dive during a game under NHL Rule 64, which states that “any player who blatantly dives” or “embellishes a fall or a reaction” will get a 2 minute penalty.

What this rule is showing is basically the NHL saying, “Yeah, we understand you got hit, but because you’re being a wimp about it you’re going to get 2 minutes in the box too.”

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the NHL’s senior executive vice president, Colin Campbell, did say, “Embellishment in the game is a real problem today. We understand players are trying to draw penalties. We feel it’s out of control.”

Last season, the term “diving” was used for these calls; this season the term has changed to embellishment. The NHL saw this as a more fitting word as only three of the 52 diving penalties in the entirety of last season were for faking getting high sticked/tripped/illegally checked/etc. The referees have already started to call out embellishment early in the season, as of October 30th there were already 17 embellishment penalties called.

The hockey media may be a large part of the NHL deciding to encourage these penalties. As I referenced earlier, toughness is a large aspect of the sport. The media tends to portray hockey as a violent sport, littered with big hits and fights; but they don’t portray it as a bad thing. It’s easy to find articles online featuring the best hits of the week.

The media and fans practically worship players who get injured and continue playing. An example from last season would be Philadelphia Flyers center Brayden Schenn taking a skate to the stomach, getting a few repairs on the bench, and then continuing to play in the game and eventually scoring the game winning goal. Words like “impressive” and “amazing” were used to describe it.

Because of this culture, players who incorporate acting skills to draw penalties are not appreciated. But at the same time, referees cannot see everything. Fans and media call for consistent and accurate calls, but forget that the referees have an extremely different angle than those watching the game on television or from the stands. The players understand this, and may defend their embellishment as simply a way to aid the referees in catching penalties that may not be caught if the player was “tough” and didn’t react to a high-stick to the face.

Embellishment is a tricky penalty to be called but the NHL is right to tighten up on not allowing it. Whether it is right or not, hockey is known for the toughness of the sport and eliminating embellishment will help to keep it that way.

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World Series TV Ratings Boom in Game 7

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By Nick Muhl

On October 29th, the San Francisco Giants took home their third World Series title in five years. The Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals 3-2, in a back and forth Game 7, behind their ace Madison Bumgarner. The pitcher threw a scoreless five-inning save on only two days rest.

Game 7 of the World Series drew huge ratings on Fox, averaging 23.5 million viewers and a 13.7 TV rating for the entire series. The viewership was over five million more than last years World Series final game between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

The ratings for the final game came as a relief for Fox, Game 1 of this years World Series drew a 7.1 TV rating, the lowest ever for a Game 1 of the World Series. The rating came as a shock considering the highly covered run to the world series by the Kansas City Royals.

Despite Kansas City not being a major market team, many members of the media and fans believed the great story behind the team, including this being the first time since 1985 that the Royals have reached the World Series, would help to boost the TV ratings. Jacob Shafer, a writer for the Bleacher Report, tagged the Royals with the “Cinderella” term attributing the name to their small market-status and playoff drought.

After Game 1 of the series, it was looking grim despite the optimism by the media and Fox. However, both teams would prove to downplay the Game 1 series ratings as each game gained more viewers. The largest factor in swinging the tide in Fox’s favor? This year’s world series came down to a deciding Game 7, and nothing screams drama more than a Game 7 pitching duel between Bumgarner and the Royals.

The game 7 provided Kansas City with a 58.3 TV rating, the highest rating for any one city for one MLB game. The Giants hometown, San Francisco logged a rating of 38.8. Despite the beginning of the NHL and NBA seasons and mid-season of the NFL and college football, the MLB remains as one of the “Big 3” alongside the NFL and NBA.

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