On Tuesday, I had the pleasure to attend a meeting held by Penn State Sports Business club, which featured Sandy Barbour Athletic director of Penn State. As a guest speaker she talked a lot about her path to becoming athletic director first at Cal now Penn State. But the most interesting that she shared was at inside look of how here and other programs mange the revenues of the athletic departments. For instance, she mentioned that there are 8 schools that do not require state or federal assistance to fund their sports programs. When she said that most go the room was in shock because of the enormous amount of money made in sports like basketball and football. However what the fans do not know is that revenue made from sports like these pay off the cost of other teams. Which leads teams and conferences to make decisions on things like how many games are played into a season strictly determined by the amount of revenue they need to support their programs.
Archives for February 2015
“The Tournament” Can Kentucky Take It All?
With march in approaching and most of the bracket teams pretty much solidified with there is only one last Big question about the NCAA Tournament. Who will win it all? The clear cut favorite to take home the title is Undefeated Kentucky who has not only won every game but beat top 25 teams in the country by a average win margin of 15.Even with the use of a platoon system that showed that the team was so great from top to bottom that they would start games with one set of 5 and end with another.There is no team in country with potential to do that.
They win games with there ability to reak havoc on defense with the mindset to onto only to keep teams from using their #1 producer of scoring but to shutout every option. There perimeter players contest every jumper because their great bigs in Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns are prepared to block the shot of any driver that approaches the paint. Then when you look at this team from a offensive standpoint you begin to fanboy because you realize that any of the 5 members of platoon two could be a 1st-3rd scoring option on most Top teams in the nation. For example, Devin Booker has not been able to crack the starting line up despite being the leading scorer for the #1 team in the nation.
As, you see I’m clearly taking Kentucky to win the entire tournament and possibility do it with with a 40-0 record. However if they do lose a game in the regular season or SEC tournament it will be interesting to see if how they rebound. Do they breakdown at the idea of glory of a perfect sea on being over or do they use it anger and motivation to never feel the pain of losing again.
All Star Weekend Predictions
With the all-star break approaching here is my preview for every event of the weekend excluding the classic celebrity game.
The Middle Ground
I will be the first to tell you that the NCAA sucks because its total exploitation of young adults especially in the power two sports Basketball and Football. The NCAA makes millions each year in off of the likeness and performance of athletes in exchange for a athletic scholarship. However I most stop my self for wishing for the total demonize (much like many sports analyst have) for this corporation because their actions in a few sports.
This is because for many the NCAA provides scholarships to players in which the revenue they make is almost equal to the cost of funding their academics. For example in non-spectator sports such as tennis, volleyball, soccer and etc you can make the argument the NCAA is giving the best opportunity to turn their athletic ability it something much more because for many of these sports players are deeded into pro and olympic competition programs at very young age. So they get not only a free education but one last shot to showcase talent to some type of professional league. Unlike NBA and NFL who have eyes into the High School game and for the most part know who will be the big signings in every draft class but require 1-3 years after high school before you can declare.
So where does this leave us in the grand scheme of college sports? Should programs disband from the NCAA for certain sports so they are to better able to supply a revenue share to players or do we keep with the status quote. These are very tough questions that the league is faced with and ones we all most look at before jumping to death penalty of the NCAA the next time players have money issues.
Who Really Takes The Blame?
It seems like year after year we hear about some type of scandal with a Elite powerhouse basketball or football NCAA program. They all are usually more similar then not including things like breaking reciting rules, paying players, or coaching conduct and academic misconduct. But do to the slow nature of NCAA leaves for a system that unfairly punishes players that had nothing to do with the sanctions that will be thrown against them.
Recently it has come out that the Syracuse Mens basketball team will be self imposing a year post season ban against there program. This means no NCAA, ACC, or NIT tournament. This comes as the result of the NCAA starting a investigation on the athletic department because their alleged connections to former YMCA Jeffrey Cornish and him using money he stole from the YMCA and giving it to student-athletes. Some notables on the list of players had had contacts are current NBA player Carmelo Anthony and Fab Melo. The players were placed into a internship at a local YMCA and were alleged being paid for hours they have not worked.
While these sanctions are were serious and the NCAA needs to fix some of the structural errors that allow people like Jeffery Cornish to leach on to young athletes. But, the over aching problem that has come to light with this sanction is that the team has come clean on the fact that they did not commit a single violation after the 2012 season. In fact they suspended Fab Melo from playing in the NCAA tournament in 2012 because of his academic misconduct violation to show they were moving on the path to a clean program. So if this is true we have 2 years of a clean program and no one has played for the basketball team in 2012 is on there roster. This means the school and the NCAA will be punishing players that have absolutely nothing to do with these violations. They lose the opportunities to get scholarships and play for titles while the people who lived off Cornish $300,000 dollars allegedly stolen are sitting clear and free.Even the coaches and athletic directors feel no true pain when these sanctions come down. At the end of the day players suffer while the people who create the situations and environment for these type of things to take place see almost nothing happen. If they are fired they are rehired by a new team almost immediately and if they stay they continue to make large salaries. For example Jim Bohiem Syracuse’s basketball coach is under water with this investigation however Syracuse is looking to potential give him a long term extension so that can say to recruits with confidence nothing is going to happen to him as a result of this.
That statement shows that this is simply not a big deal to the these teams because they will continue to shovel teams in into their program and make huge revenues. The kids that they bring in a lot the time come from places in which they need a exit from their current situation, so leaving the ghettos of Oakland, California may be worth knowingly going into a program that is gong through some intangible problems and you get play under a coach that has sent many to NBA. So they continue to sell the dream to these players so they can continue to sell TV Deals and season tickets.
The NCAA take it upon itself to better police the issues with in its league so that years later they aren’t punishing the wrong athletes and create bylaws to throw out people within athletic departments that are deemed unable to control a program.
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