Tuesday: Some NCAA numbers to consider
We begin today with Mr. Ed hitting an inside-the-park home run off Sandy Koufax:
If the skimpy spread is any indication, Bob McKillop’s 14th-seeded Davidson team has more than a prayer against Marquette.
Now, back to the brackets. Here are a few stats Nappy passed along to me yesterday afternoon (original source is Mark Lawrence in Las Vegas): North Carolina is 10-0 in its past 10 first round games. Other first round studs: Kansas (6-0), Pittsburgh (6-0), Wisconsin (6-0), UCLA (5-0), Gonzaga (5-0), Kansas State (5-0), NC State (5-0), Syracuse (4-0), Duke (14-1) and Cincinnati (10-1).
Worst first round performers: New Mexico State (0-5), Minnesota (0-4), UNLV (0-3), San Diego State (1-4) and Temple (1-4).
So I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have picked Minnesota over UCLA and Montana over Syracuse in the paper yesterday. Still time to mull that over.
Other notes I found interesting while perusing the lines:
-Colorado State is the only No. 8 seed not favored over its No. 9 foe. Missouri is a 3-point favorite in that matchup. UNC is a 4-point choice over Villanova.
-The biggest line on the board is Gonzaga by 21.5 over Southern. That could be eclipsed once the play-in games are contested. Speaking of which, two will be contested tonight: Liberty-North Carolina A&T (6:40 p.m., truTV) and Middle Tennesse-Saint Mary’s (9:10 p.m., truTV)
-No. 3 seed Marquette is only a 3.5-point favorite over No. 14 seed Davidson. Good upset possibility if you’re looking for one.
-As mentioned in the comments section yesterday, No. 11 seed Minnesota is a 3-point favorite over No. 6 UCLA.
-If you guys find sites that you think are particularly useful for bracket handicapping, by all means, post ‘em. Unless you want to keep all the good stuff to yourself to win the pool.
The Cavs open practice in their new indoor facility.
SPRING IN THE AIR: UVa has opened spring football practice in its new indoor facility. Doug has more on that here.
NIT BEGINS: UVa faces Norfolk State at 9 p.m. today (ESPNU) in the first round of the NIT.
STILL ROLLING: The Heat beats the Celtics to extend its winning streak to 23 games. Miami is still 10 shy of the record set by the Lakers in 1971-72.
NOT YET, ANYWAY: Roger Goodell says there won’t be any playoff expansion next year.
CARIBBEAN FLAVOR: The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico square off in the World Baseball Classic final at 8 tonight on MLB Network.
ADJUST YOUR FANTASY DRAFT ACCORDINGLY: Chase Headley, coming off a career year with the Padres, will be out about a month with a fractured thumb.
NAME THAT TUNE
Let’s ride the wind
Down this old road tonight
Let’s pack our dreams
And leave the rest behind
They say love this hot
Can be a dangerous thing
Come on daaaaaarlin’…
March 19, 2013 - 8:59 AM
Great video to start with. I watched a Dodger replay on MLB, spring training game – only reason I did was I was flipping thru the channels and heard Vin Scully doing the game. Not much other reason to watch a spring training game.
I’d love to hear him call that Mr. Ed play!
Yesterday, there were some comments about DW and Dickie V, kind of being over the top (well, Dickie V is way over it), but Scully is the absolute best person to listen do a game. He isn’t over the top, does it by himself, so there is no interrupting between two people, and he is so prepared. I know he’s got tons of info in front of him, but he just seems to know when to tell you that a guy grew up in Erie, PA and what he did as a high school player.
He won’t be around forever, watch games he does when you can, or get the Dodger radio network on the internet and sub it in for the TV guys. Best announcer ever, if you ask me.
The Heat Streak (can I get that trademarked?) is pretty impressive, but I still fell asleep watching the game last night. The NBA just doesn’t do much for me.
The NFL needs to contract its playoffs, and regular season, not expand it. Let’s just play kindergarten soccer and call everybody a winner (and load up in minivans for pizza after each game) and put them all in the playoffs, if they are going to expand it.
AMac I think that would be “Down In Flames” by Blackhawk
Sorry, but the Miami Heat’s streak is being doctored by the NBA and it’s goon of referees who enable King James to flop at will and earn every favorable whistles. Don’t believe me? Go back and watch the whole game. The NBA’s laughable referees must have been trained by the finest conference in the country, the ACC, and that’s the only explaination I have for how crappy (I wanted to use the S word, but the Roanoke Times’ censorship board would frown on that) the game was being officated.
Oh, King James also spent time learning from the master of working the referees, Coach K!
That end my conspiracy rant.
Jaybob scores. Nicely done.
Minnesota has some good athletes, a seasoned Coach in Tubby Smith and they played in perhaps the toughest conference, but I think the primary reason they are favored over UCLA is due to the fact the Bruins are without their best guard.
What is truly missing from the NBA is the old days where there would be a guy or two who were known to be the Enforcer. Those guys had one purpose and that was to sniff out the drama queer who flops at the slightest contact and made sure the next time they flopped, they had a good reason to flop.
The NBA have gone soft, pasty soft. it’s no wonder the USA basketball team whine every single time Euro basketball players play aggressive.
Hey, Lebron, there’s a perfect sport for floppers like you, soccer! You would fit right in!
I would love for Lebron to go against Dennis Rodman when he was in his prime. Rodman would make Lebron eat the floor if Lebron flopped.
The NCAA tournament have gotten too big. They need to trim the field down to only accepting conference champions and absolutely NO AT-LARGE bids or automatic bids.
That means schools like Puke and UNC would not be in, nor would the Big Least, with sympathetic selection committee, be sending in a ridiculous 8 teams to the dance.
Of course, the NCAA, its army of media lapdogs and lemmings would shriek about how it could cost them million of dollars in viewership. To that I say, well, then for the love of money is what have dulled the NCAA brand. The NCAA, its army of media lapdogs and lemmings love the fact that the tournament makes a stinking of non-taxable million of dollars which could go to improving our economy, and pretend that they are non-profit organization while making million of dollars in free labor (the players).
What a wonderful, industrious country we live in!
Trevor, I agree with you on the automatic bids only. Theoretically, well, not even that, but in reality, EVERY team in the country is in the tournament, it is just that some of them have tougher ‘middle round’ games than others.
One idea (mine) is to eliminate the conference tournaments, and just seed all 300-however many teams, put some of the games in MSG, Greensboro, and all of the other conference tournament venues, and go from there.
But you are also right on the money – it is all about the TV $$$. The tournament will get to 128 teams, eventually, to add a full new round. I’d be willing to bet money I don’t have on it.
Where I disagree is the point about free labor. These guys/gals ARE getting paid. They are getting a free education – and the very large majority of them could not get into the schools they are playing for on their own academic record. The “basketball/football/whatever sport” record is what gets them in the door for them to take advantage of the chance of a lifetime. If they take advantage of it, the pay comes later, in terms of a higher salary than they’d have earned otherwise . . . . for a lifetime.
On the tournament teams, this is just a personal complaint, because it nauseated me to hear Joe Lunardi getting props on ESPN for getting ALL 68 teams right.
Uh, I doubt Joe picked Liberty to be in it.
A real man makes his picks on Feb 1 and leaves them alone – even picking auto bids from the third world conferences.
Just about any moron can get all of the picks right if they can change their mind after EVERY game that is played.
This would end my ‘I can’t stand Joe Lunardi’ rant.
Ah, ah, ah, that is not necessarily true.
How many scholarship athletes actually gets to go pro out of hundreds of scholarship athletes that are typically fielded? And becomes stinking millionaries? I’ll wager not that many.
Let’s also factor in life-altering injuries that takes toll on the physical, mental, and emotional well beings. Taking care of those side-effect takes more than a gallon of money, and eventually, the well will dry up.
What then, I ask you? The hard-working tax paying citizens foot the bill?
#9 Rick H, where have you been? Lunardi has been doing it this way for the better part of a decade (that I remember, maybe more) now. He’s always sucke… uhh… STUNK at making picks, but he changes his picks continually until the Sunday of Selections, and ESPN rides him as though he knows what he’s talking about, instead of only having a Rolodex (can you tell I’m old?) of pertinent phone numbers.
The problem is in believing even a fraction of the pablum that ESPN spoon feeds the gullible. let the young bucks glisten over it, so they can play their fantasy games. It’s all irrelevant, anyway.
Trevor, no, I’m not talking about potential professional athletes. They are going to get out, and like many professional athletes, blow contract salaries that you and I could, and would, live on for a lifetime.
What I’m talking about is the kid that has a 2.5 GPA and a 900 SAT, than can get into Virginia Tech, or UVA, or UNC because of their athletic ability, schools like that, and couldn’t otherwise.
They get tutoring (in the case of UNC, they get a little more than that!), special advising – they simply get things other students do not get.
If he/she does what they should do, and graduates, with a degree, they get a better job/career than what they’d have gotten otherwise, by going not going to college, or to the school they got into.
If a kid gets injured in college and can’t play any longer, most find a way to keep their scholarship dollars flowing (see Micheal Cole at VT)
Consider Virginia Tech’s Cost of Attendance. If there’s a scholarship athlete who doesn’t have quite the skills or talent to go pro, they still can capitalize on 4-5 years of an education, covered by the univsersity.
If they are a Virginia resident, their 4-year benefit total exceeds $70,000. If they are not a Virginia resident, their 4-year benefit total exceeds $130,000. Not only that, but like Rick mentioned, they get a degree and an education out of it, and graduate with no overbearing student loan debt that takes 15+ years to pay back.
Plus, they also get a lot of additional benefits that normal students don;t have access to…like training facilities, personal tutors, personal physicians and trainers, better meals (NC State had an athletes-only dining facility), etc.
I can agree with a minimal stipend, though, at the same time most college CoA’s include a stipend amount in their projected annual costs to attend the school as it is, so they technically get that lumped in anyway. I got mine back as a cash refund of financial aid and loan payments, after my tuition, room, board, and fees were paid…which I then used to cover books, supplies, software purchases, and a couple other miscellaneous expenses.
If plans come around to pay collegiate athletes above and beyond the already quite generous compensation they are recieving, I will quite following collegiate sports for good, because the concept of a student-athlete will be bastardized the rest of the way. As it is, we’re already pushing the envelope of the “student” portion of that equation for the major revenue sports anyway, and it’s dimionishing my enjoyment of those sports significantly.
Trev, just to expand on it, this “exploitation” argument really runs all over me. In truth, these student athletes, if they truly do the student part, they are exploiting the system, and good for them for doing it.
Very few make it at, or to, the next level, but there are a ton of student athletes that get a chance they’d never have gotten had they not had the athletic ability, because the student ability wouldn’t have gotten them in to the school they are attending.
They entertain us, and those that contribute to whatever school’s athletic fund pay for it.
This is an argument that no one can win with me. We can talk about the waste of money for overpaying coaches (which is WAY true), and the unnecssary facilities ‘arms race,’ (which I also think is stupid), but I have to pay a college tuition bill for a kid that is far more academically superior to the guys playing on TV. There are a millions of parents out there doing that.
So, how are coaches able to be paid ridiiculous amount of salaries? Because of their ability to recruit the best and coach up athletes. Why the sudden surge in facilities “arms race?” Because fans demand that coaches get the best athletes to compete for national championship. Nick Saban makes, what, $5 million a years jus to recruit and coach the best athletes from around the country. Saban would not have been able to be successful without the athletes.
College sports cannot be successful without having successful coaches because of successful athletes.
However, Rick, I do agree with you that parents who have to pay tutition bills for kids who have far more intelligence than the average football players. I do agree that coaches are overpaid and the facility expansions are ridiculous. In fact, when I heard that Tech wanted to build the indoor football practice facility, I was against it. I did not see the benefit of having an indoor practice facility, and just because UVa, Clemson, or Alabama have one doesn’t mean Tech needs to have one.
Playing “keep up with the Jonses” comes with a hefty price tag and until somebody gets a grip, this will continue and eventually goes out of control.
I am a little disappointed in the blog coverage today. I mean we have a story about a horse but nothing about a Tiger. That`s right, Tiger Woods and Lindsay Vonn officially announced that they were dating yesterday and nary a mention of it here. Poor Lindsay, she just thinks she has been down a slippery slope before. Anyway, this story could have easily been part of today`s blog. First round studs. Woods ( 12-0). Pictures of the happy couple were also available and one would have fit in nicely in place of the UVA practice site. Tune of the Day? The George Jones classic “We lived in a two story house. She had her story, I had mine ” Probably just as well the blog ignored them because they did ask for privacy, Why then did they pit out all the news releases yesterday? Maybe Tiger just wants us to know he`s back on course.
Something tells me Tiger’s not over Elin…Lindsey looks awful similar in a lot of regards. I guess as long as he keeps his love of pancake houses in check, it might work out though.
Trevor – can’t disagree with you more on the automatic bids, in the current NCAA model. They did that back in the 60′s & 70′s and it basically resulted in UCLA winning the title every year. Boring. And that was before the days of the ‘superconference’. It was one thing to allow only the ACC champ into the Dance when the ACC had 8 teams; but it’s not the same when they have 14 teams.
In my opinion, the NCAA tournament as it exists today (or, even better, 4 years ago when it was 65 teams) is the nation’s perfect sporting event. There are always 1 or 2 teams left out, but those teams never have a realistic chance to win the thing anyhow. The current system allows for a handful of Cinderella teams & allows any D-1 school to dream of having its 2 hours on national TV. But it also allows the cream to rise to the top over the course of 6 games.
As any Nascar fan will tell you, it IS possible to ruin the product when constantly tweaking something as ‘perfect’ as the NCAA tournament. Here’s hoping they’ll just leave it alone.
Also, Trevor, if only the champions got into the NCAA tournament, VT might as well shut down their basketball program. They would never, ever make it given the competition in the league.
Well, I’ll say it, because no one else dares. Tiger’s ‘Vonn announcement’ was more rehearsed and contrived than anything since the Nike McIlroy version of ‘LeBron shafts his hometown, 2013′.
I still don’t understand how this was any more salacious than the announcement of a new model of shoe. Oops, I forgot. It’s about Tiger, thus it crosses all boundaries of boredom.
Evidently I’m required by some Congressional statute to ask, breathlessly – ‘DOES THIS MEAN TIGER’S BACK?!?!?!…OHH, THE MASTERS WILL FINALLY BE WATCHABLE…’
Trevor, here is what I’d do on the spiraling coaches salaries. I’d do just like professional sports – a salary cap, as is done for the roster. It serves to even the playing field.
There is a cap on roster size and number of scholarships – why not on coaching salaries? Let it slide by the number of sports you have, but put a cap on the total dollars you can expend among all coaches.
On facilities, you can’t do much about that, because you will always have a Jones to keep up with (as in Jerry), that builds bigger and better. That will be the recruiting tool, I suppose.
It is pretty unfair that some states will pay for facilities for athletics (Connecticut, for example), and some will not (Virginia, among others), but I don’t see how you can deny somebody like T. Boon Pickens (at OK State), or Phil Knight (at Oregon) for wanting to support their university with their benevolence.
I’m full of ideas, if anybody would listen! I could save the US Postal Service if somebody would just make me the Postmaster General for 15 minutes.
Sorry, but I’m always against market controls, even if it comes to coaching salaries.
I’m already sick of “TiVo” (Tiger/Vonn).
On a different note, I just saw that JMU suspended its star player (who got arrested this weekend) for the FIRST HALF of tonight’s play-in game. I can’t decide if this is (a) so weak it’s a joke, (b) just right, or (c) more than many teams would have done in the same circumstances.
With the NCAA tournament, I would much rather see the play-in games to be exclusively for the bubble teams…and not the lowly 15/16 seeds. Let those teams who won their leagues AQ bid have their moment in the sun…they earned the bid to be in the full-fledged tournament…not the Dayton round.
Take the last four in, and the first four out, and make them play in Dayton for the honor of making the field of 64. I would have enjoyed seeing UVA and Maryland go against a Boise State or Lasalle or Middle Tennessee.
I like the 4 play-in games in concept, but not in execution. And I vehemently oppose expanding the tournament any further. The first weekend is one of the single most exciting four days in sports. Watching upsets, cinderella teams try to advance, and see who gets to punch their way to the Sweet Sixteen is about as good as it gets. Then, the quality of basketball usually gets a lot better as the top teams filter out to the Elite 8 and Final 4.
As it is, the regular season of college basketball is largely irrelevant. If you can get hot in your conference tournament, you can make the dance…like Liberty did. Expanding it by another 60 teams only means that even more meaningless and middling programs get in, who have no realistic chance to win. And it would water down the opening weekend to the point that the magic and madness of March would be lost.
Like RP mentioned, constant tinkering to a sport can be deadly. Nascar, I honestly believe, is verging on needing life support. It’s been limping along for years and all the constant tweaking has not brought fans back. The fact that a track like Bristol has so many empty seats is startling, because it used to be the most exiciting track and races of the entire circuit.
She’s opening her front side a little early. Can’t argue with the jersey choice, though.
I like O.J.’s “all bubble teams for play-in games” idea.
Tiger Woods is dating a skier? Yikes! Talk about being on a slippery slope!
#24 AMc, I don’t know if it’s the jersey or the jeans, but for the first time in my life, I envy Tiger.
#17 OJ, I tried to allude to it earlier, but was distracted – Tiger has a certain ‘type’ of female, like most guys. It’s pretty easy to determine his. To be clear, a guy’s ‘type’ of female can vary based on the situation. We have our ‘types’ to spend time with & to visit our families with, then we can sometimes also have our (different) ‘types’ of females for other things. Tiger’s ‘family time type’ is pretty evident (as were his ‘other time’ types).
OJ, NASCAR is in fine shape. All you have to do is watch a race on TV. It is a rolling commercial, or would that be commercials.
I watched the Bristol replay last night on the DVR, even though I had been to it, and I got a blister on my finger from having to hit the fast forward button so much.
I went on a household rant during the Daytona 500 (only my wife got to hear it) during that race, but hadn’t watched the other two all that much to notice it, but as long as Sprint, AT&T (those little kid commercials are REALLY starting to get on my nerves), and all the other corporate entities out there that want our money are writing checks, it will be just fine.
The blog has rebounded; and, that`s a far better picture then the ones with Tiger in it.
Back to the tournament, sorry, RP, but your mention of UCLA doesn’t fly with me. Here’s why: parity rules in college basketball these days. UCLA was/is like Alabama right now, they can lose, reload, and make another run. That’s why the term ‘dynasty’ is shun today because it is now seen as cancerous.
The problem is with how massive the field is, it can create basketball fatigue pretty much like the BCS did with the bowl games. That’s why I only saw a total of maybe 3 bowl games, and that was it.
Another thing: take a look at the number of bids that were given to the Big East or should I say fractured Big East? To me, that reeks of a very overboard sympatheic selection committee, and also choosing the seedings are very subjective.
These days, the name of the game is to game the selection committee into picking your team based on glowing resume, something SG tried and failed.
Again, all very subjective.
That’s why I like the use of computer modeling because it eliminates the human emotional attachments and bias, although the argument can be rendered moot if they use 10,000 computers like the BCS does and the source code are closely guarded secrets.
P.S. Note Lindsay`s belt buckle.
On a totally different note, I have generally not counted myself among the fans of LeBron James over the course of his career, particularly since “The Decision” (even though I saw him play in-person back in high school). But I think last night’s 4th quarter performance may have finally switched me into his corner. It was Jordanesque. I think my interest as a fan may be greater in the upcoming playoffs than anytime in the past decade, purely to see if anyone out there can knock off the Heat. Should be fun.
Rick H, I’ve said this on here multiple times, but I stick to my assertion re: NASCAR. There are SOME changes that MUST be made.
1. No Sprint Cup race should be labeled more than 400, except the Daytona 500 & the Charlotte 500 (down from 600, which is a STUPID distance). Talledega, Bristol, wherever, no longer than 400 laps or miles, whichever is the least distance. Drop it to 300 (like Pocono) if you desire, just don’t go above 400.
2. All road courses should be 300 laps or miles, whichever is shorter.
3. All races should begin at 1:00 Eastern time/DST. It doesn’t matter where the race is located, the same time for every race. TV would actually thank NASCAR for that. Of course, Saturday night races would be the exception, but they should begin at 7:00 p.m.
4. There should be far more Saturday night races. NASCAR is still operating under the ‘old school’ mentality that people want to – every week – drive in on Thursday for a Saturday Nationwide race & a Sunday Sprint race. Attendance proves that old business model antiquated. There should be a minimum of a DOZEN Sprint Cup races run on Saturday nights.
5. Oh the horrors! Cut back on the number of ‘official standings’ races to 30. Yes, I said it – 30. That would mean 32 races, total, and the drivers could actually breath between seasons. France famly & Bruton, you’ve each got billions, don’t ‘fritter’ them away in the attempt for more billions. At this point, 8% growth is enough, you don’t ‘NEED’ 15% growth annually.
The France family blathers about ‘getting back to the roots’, but they don’t want to sacrifice the billions they’ve made while running away from the ‘roots of the sport’. If they’d scale back and practice Keynesian econ, then they might find the interest being regenerated more sustainably.
I’d actually like to see some Monday night Nascar races during the summer time. Last year’s Monday night Daytona 500 would’ve been awesome if Montoya had not hit the jet dryer.
NCAA did a terrible job with the ncaa mens bb tournment field…to many big teams that could beat any and all of the mid major and lesser teams that made the field….did not get in ….i.e. Tennessee, Kentucky…etc….its time to revamp the mens BB tournament and let the mid majors and lesser teams have their own separate tournment…….
Rick, you have a good point about the sponsorship dollars…as long as they are rolling in and the companies bestowing the money for ads and whatnot on the sport are happy, it won’t die. But, considering how pricey team sponsorships are, plus ads, being the title sponsor for a race or a track, etc…one has to wonder, what’s the long-term sustainability for it all?
It’s not like Coke, Pepsi, Sprint, Lowe’s, etc need Nascar to get customers to patronize the brands…so if the economy continues to lag, what’s to say the CFO’s of those companies might not re-evaluate the C/B ratios of their sponsorship and advertising deals to make them more economical for the company? We’ve already seen a few cut back on stadium naming rights and other ventures in recent years, after all.
If that largely free flow of corporate money slows, then the sport will be in real trouble, given flagging attendance at the events and sluggish TV ratings. It may never fully die, but it’s a far cry from the “fastest growing spectator sport” status it once claimed.
crooked, I’m with you on #1. Most need to be shortened, especially the 600. Back in the fuel crisis days of the ’70′s, a lot were shortened. The races at Bristol were actually 400 laps. But, if you shorten it, you lose commercials!
#2 – that is open to debate, it depends on the track. They need to be geared for a 3 hour event, no more, in my opinion. That might leave some where they are, and might shorten some, but I don’t think you can put a hard number on any of them.
#3 – that just won’t work, because starting at 10 AM in California is just not a good idea. NASCAR did adjust times, last year, to a more standard start local time, which is about 1:15. They may still tweak the left coast starts for TV, but for the most part, and it was based on fan input, they did some mighty adjustments.
#4 – you’re dead eye on. There should be way more races on Saturday nights. In my NASCAR world, every race would be on Saturday night. They are simply easier to attend, aside from being more exciting. You can drive from 8 hours away, go to the race, one hotel night, and drive home Sunday. Geez, you could even sleep in your car.
#5 – you’ve hit the bull’s eye again, not just NASCAR, but EVERY sport needs to shorten its season.
I’d also spread the races around. Give Nashville one, bring Rockingham back, and North Wilkesboro. There are a lot of tracks that don’t deserve two, very few, actually.
OJ, you make a very salient point about the advertising/sponsorship.
If you need some lumber, you either go to Lowe’s, or Home Depot (which has stopped feeding NASCAR), or the local store that certainly doesn’t advertise on TV or on a race car.
Who in the world doesn’t know what Budweiser is? If you like it, you don’t need to be reminded about it by Kevin Harvick driving around an oval, or the countless commercials on TV.
I don’t get it either.
I’d be more inclined to buy something from a company that will sponsor an entire sporting event, particularly on TV, and NOT do commercials. “This event is brought to you by Budweiser, we hope you enjoy it,” and show that every once in a while. I’d got out and buy a case of beer (well . . . that might happen anyway!).
I’ll admit, I’m not the marketing type. To me it is like the government, mostly a waste of money.
I have to admit one appeal about watching soccer is how virtually commerical free it is. During the match, they would interrupt their commentating by announcing, “This portion of the match is brought to you by Snickers,” and they go right back to commenting about the game.
Now, if ESPN and it’s lemmings would quit shoving commericals down our throats every single time the ball is booted, and follow the soccer model, I would enjoy football and basketball even more. What gets me winded up is the camera pans around the crowd, and they again reminds us of what the commericals were, “Dodge…Tide…Serria Mist…” and block out the majority of the viewer until the action on the field resume. How many times do they pan on the cheerleaders and the wise guy in the radio booth slap the boxes containing commericals that we have already just seen!? Do they really think we are that dumb?
#35 Rick H, the reason I want concrete limits on the distance of races is due to the possible variance of the cautions, etc. A 3 hour time limit is good, but knowing how ‘they’ always cheat on the times, I’d prefer a limit that held some races to 2.5 hours, since it works for basketball, etc. and USED to work for baseball. Limit the race, and use the extra time to fluff the pre/post-race chatter. I really think there should be MORE time devoted to post-race talk with the drivers than the pre-race junk.
Just think if we’d had a fifteen time segment after the Bristol race, where we could have had some Hamlin/Logano discussion. That would be SO much better than hearing DW blather about JuneBug or Five Time, etc.
That’s why i think setting the limit ‘too low’ is better than setting it within a hair’s width of being right, because we all know it will be inflated with little discussion.
As for the starting time, you’re correct, it probably should be geared more towards a 2 or 3 pm start EST/DST. 11 am on the west coast is not actually too early, based on what they’re used to, so the 2 pm would be okay.
Knowing that the NASCAR fan base travels as far as 300 miles for these races, you don’t want to start too late. Regardless of the west coast (minimal) base, the focus remains more towards the east coast.
You make an EXCELLENT point in the track selection. It’s one I quit fighting, but one I shouldn’t have quit fighting. Pull away some of the races from the cookie cutter 1.5 mile tracks and put them (back) into smaller distance tracks. tracks like Kentucky & Iowa, for example? NASCAR doesn’t REALLY want to spread the interest around, they just wanted to expand their profitability. That’s the entire reasoning behind the 1.5 mile cookie cutters. ‘Oh, we’ll be able to put 150K seats around them!’
The stupidity of the France family and NASCAR sycophants is evident when they ignore the 160K seats piled up around Bristol, a half mile track. Bruton & the France family STILL don’t understand the fans prefer the scrapple of Bristol & Martinsville, etc. to the YAWN of Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Texas, Las Vegas, Kansas City, ad nauseum.
Spread the races around. Shorten the races. Lower the ticket prices. Follow the concept molded by Bristol for a couple of decades now – do family events all week for the race. Most of them no cost or low cost. The profits will come. They do NOT have to come in a tsunami, a mere flood will suffice. yet the France family & Bruton Smith do not understand that, due to their greed.
Surprised of golf talk today, not surprised TW is he topic. Rather unsurprising is the fact that the talk does not include the LPGA. Dullsville I know, but I enjoy following it and even watching it when it’s on, usually at night after all the PGA tournaments have gone to bed. But this past weekend, Stacy Lewis, an American, became the #1 female golfer in the world. She is the first American to hold that title since Cristie Kerr did it for 1 week in 2010. Lewis has now won 6 tournaments in ’12 and ’13, 2 of 4 this year including the last 2. Needless to say she’ll never get that much notoriety by the media or golf fans as she’s just kind of average looking, not outspoken and has no aspirations (that I know of) to play on the PGA. She is fun to watch though as she hits it a long way for her size and seems to have few weaknesses.
I remember the year she and Michelle Wie played in the LPGA qualifying tournament. Lewis won and Wie was #2 by 6 or 7 strokes yet Wie continued to get all the press. Lewis is #1, Wie missed the cut in the tourney Lewis won and is now ranked #82.
So what’s the cutoff for making the NFL playoffs if they expand? Is it going to be like the VHSL Playoffs where 1 – 15 teams are elligible if they are in the right division? Craziness. When fewer teams make the playoffs it makes the regular season much more meaningful.
I’m glad I played golf today, going over this is giving me a headache.
@40. I don`t know much about the game of the ladies of the LPGA but I do think that Lindsay will start swinging a mean 5 iron before long.
#40 scott, now you have a good analogy for the sycophantic coverage of Tiger in men’s golf. Regardless of his success, or the denial thereof, he is always ‘BACK! AND THIS TIME WE MEAN IT!!! FOR REAL!! NO, SERIOUSLY, WE WERE WRONG BEFORE, BUT THIS TIME WE’RE RIGHT!!! HE’S BACK, SO THAT’S THE ONLY REASON TO WATCH GOLF!!!…’
Despite being an amateur hacker, and former HS golf team member, the minutes of televised golf I watch per year combine to be lower than the number of minutes I spend watching Sham-Wow! infomercials. I just rightly don’t care to watch it on TV.
OJ, I much prefer watching golf to watching baseball now. There’s much more action in golf. Yes, I’m being serious. A day at the ballpark is glorious, but not because I’m watching baseball. It’s because the baseball is not distracting me from a free flowing conversation or people watching or any number of various activities to pass the time on a lovely summer afternoon or evening.
Watching golf provides more drama. It wasn’t always this way, but baseball has NASCARized itself into boredom.
CR, that’s pretty interesting. I guess it’s because I just really love baseball that I enjoy watching the game, but I do agree…it can be dreadfully slow at times, especially because of televising the games. The first experience I had with how much the TV broadcasts slow an event down to painfully slow speeds, with large gaps of no action was attending a WCW event in Chapel Hill when I was a freshman at NC State (yes, we ventured into ‘enemy’ territory for that). The action came in fits and starts of 5-10 minutes, followed by a solid 5 minutes of nothing. On TV, it’s like near-continuous action…but live, it was not so much fun. Then I experienced numerous college hoops games and football games that were the same way. Televised games easily seem to tack on 25-35% to the length of the event, or more…and perhaps that’s also a contributing factor to the decline in attendance.
crooked, I’m with you on some of what you said.
I tend to be a conspiracy theorist on the NASCAR caution flags. There always tend to be some sort of “debris” caution near the end of a race, if there wasn’t a wreck or blown engine, to tighten things up a good bit, and make for an exciting finish.
What got me at Bristol was there being no yellow when Denny started driving like a little old lady the last 3 or 4 laps. Mid-race, that’s a yellow, but it seems nobody wanted to throw it with Kasey Kahne out front, and Rowdy Busch (not that I like Rowdy) behind him.
I do agree with you on the time starts, 10 AM on the left coast doesn’t work, but things out there CAN be done earlier, basically noon, to accomodate TV and the right coast. I used to work with somebody that was in California, and dealt with us easterners, and she worked our time, basically to avoid traffic – and apparently a lot of people do.
That 3 hour time difference is a pain. If you work with people on the other side of the country, which I have, we (us on the good side) don’t want to get a call at dinner, around 7:30, for some crisis to deal with at the end of their day, and they certainly don’t pick up the phone at 5:30 (8:30 our time) if we need something.
The time difference is a tough issue to deal with.
Trevor- VA Tech has had an indoor football practice facility since the 1970′s-Rector Fieldhouse. The current plans are to build a new indoor football facility and Rector will be used for other sports, especially Track & Field teams.
ha, hoos’ faithful were calling Harris “Joey Hoops” few wks ago. He’s not Johnny ‘Football’! Harris, allegedly tired, didn’t even bother to show against an Iowa crowd that got whacked by 16 in blacksburg 3 mos ago. you got time to rest, boy! cavs stunk it up against an Iowa crowd that finished as ATS monster at 23-9 for season.