NCAA Page 101 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
We Deserve A Team That Deserves Our Hate, So Let's Root For Harvard
Originally posted at Bloomberg View....
Is Being Cursed To A "First Four" NCAA Game Actually A Blessing?
The NCAA men's Division I basketball tournament starts tonight in Dayton with two games, as it has since 2011, with another two tomorrow night. The "First Four"—imagined as a parallel to the Final Four, even though the former features eight teams and the latter, uh, four—has traditionally been seen ...
The NCAA-Killing Lawsuit Might Finally Be Here
Sports labor attorney Jeffrey Kessler has filed suit against the NCAA and five power conferences, alleging that capping player compensation at the cost of a scholarship is an antitrust violation. Unlike previous suits, this one does not seek damages. It wants to tear down the NCAA. "We're looking to...
Creighton's Devin Brooks Gets The Assist Of The Year
Creighton crushed DePaul in its opening round game of the Big East tournament. Doug McDermott slapped 35 points on the board, but the highlight of the game was definitely this horrible-pass-turned-serendipitous-assist from Devin Brooks....
This Is How You Kill The NCAA
Originally posted at Bloomberg View....
The NCAA Debated Allowing Player Names In Video Games
It is no secret that the NCAA Football game series included actual players—jersey numbers, heights, weights, hometowns, etc.—an EA Sports producer admitted it under oath, and documents show the NCAA was well aware. So why not go whole hog, put their names on the backs of jerseys in the game, and cut...
How The Myth Of The NCAA "Student-Athlete" Was Born
Excerpted from Taylor Branch's The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA, published by Byliner and newly relevant today as Northwestern football players seeking to unionize argue before the National Labor Relations Board that they are employees of the school. Byliner has unlocked The...
"Pasta In Excess," And Other Self-Reported NCAA Violations At OU
The Oklahoman did some fun open-records spelunking and got ahold of some of the University of Oklahoma's self-reported NCAA rules violations. These are of the silly, picayune, "failure to hop on one foot 13 times while reciting the NCAA's mission statement in between texts to recruits" variety, incl...
Jayhawks' Frank Mason Earns The Easiest Ankle-Breaker
Sometimes, the lowlight is more impressive than the highlight. Frank Mason's crossover wasn't that abrupt, but West Virginia's Gary Browne still ended up on the floor. Never mind that Mason loses his handle a split-second before pulling off the move, because Brown still turns into a sack of potatoes...
The End Of Weber State-Sacramento State Was Just Absurd
College basketball already had a hell of a showing Saturday with top-ranked Arizona losing on a last-second shot and Duke forcing overtime against Syracuse with a buzzer-beater, but there was another crazy finish yesterday that didn't feature two perennial programs....
Auburn Considers Pretending It Won Another Four National Championships
Auburn has two national championships, in 1957 and 2010. But what if we're all wrong? What if Auburn actually has nine national championships in its storied history? All it takes to claim a title is to believe it....
The NCAA Should Pray That Players Are Able To Form A Union
Originally published in Bloomberg View....
Northwestern Football Players Are Trying To Unionize
In the opening shots of a major new assault on the NCAA's amateurism model, an "overwhelming majority" of Northwestern football players have filed to be recognized as members of a union. Their endgame, if successful, would be college football players officially being classified as employees....
The Forgotten Little Big Man Of College Basketball
The Wooden Award released its midseason top 25 on Wednesday. It's simply a promotional tool for the award, presumably listing the 25 best players in college basketball to this point in the season. Nothing is binding about it: Players excluded from the list are still eligible to win the honor....
How Many Ads Are In Your College Sports Broadcast?
In O'Bannon vs. NCAA, the defendants made a stunning claim. Collegiate athletes cannot be paid for appearing in televised games, the NCAA argued, because those games—like, say, the Vizio BCS National Championship—are First Amendment-protected news programs, and not commercial broadcasts....
No, Fans Won't Stop Watching If College Players Get Paid
Defending itself in the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, the NCAA has made some stunning claims. One, backed by an NCAA-commissioned poll, is that people so hate the idea of paying players that they will stop watching college sports if amateurism ends. In the filings, ex-CBS Sports President Neal Pilson estimat...
The Path To Remaining Unbeaten In The NCAA This Year
Like most basketball fans, I enjoy close games. A contest featuring teams separated by one or two possessions late makes for enthralling theater. At the end of a tight game, every good decision and crucial mistake is amplified. Even the crowd feels like it wields more influence with time winding dow...
Ohio State DE Was Suspended For Ecstasy
On New Year's Day it was announced that Ohio State's all-conference defensive end Noah Spence was suspended for three games, including the Orange Bowl. Now we know why. Spence's family says he tested positive for ecstasy, and had to argue his suspension down from a full season because the Big Ten co...
How Will Muschamp And Florida Sold Their Disastrous Season
I wasn't yet in Gainesville for the first press conference, held immediately after the season opener. Will Muschamp's Florida Gators had just demolished Toledo in a tune-up, an easy victory foreseen by just about everybody. The Gators had gone 11-1 the previous regular season, and only BCS politics ...
"Distractions" Are Bullshit
So Chris Kluwe blew up the Internet last week with this post, entitled "I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot," and the sports world instantly split into two factions: Those who cheered on Kluwe, and those who thought he was a disgruntled ex-punter looking for revenge and ...