Posts Tagged ‘College Sports’

This post is part of a continuing series — “The Cost of Sports” — examining the impact of current economic changes on the world of major sports.    To see the other posts in this series, click here.

As I discussed in Part 1 of this series on the cost of sports, at Tennessee, the price can be high when it comes to paying your way into Neyland Stadium — a truth of which Nashville’s Thomas Luck is all too aware.  I discussed the issue purely in terms of the experience at Tennessee mainly because it is what I am familiar with.  Tennessee was but a lens — the reality is largely the same at all schools with a major athletics presence.

The world of professional sports, however, makes the college ranks look like small potatoes in the way it is wed to the almighty dollar.  Given the current uncertain economic times, however, I question whether professional sports in particular can continue in the way it has for so long.

I suppose that sports fans should not be surprised at the notion that professional teams would necessarily focus on money, after all that is what professional athletics are all about: getting paid to play.  I suppose Rod Tidwell (from the movie “Jerry Maguire”) summed it up best with the oft quoted line “Show me the money!“  What I think is a bit surprising is how willingly and uncomplainingly professional sports fans have accepted the “money first” approach of all the teams in all the major leagues.  The increases in costs passed along to professional sports fans over the last generation is really quite staggering.

Video: Show me the Money!!

But don’t take my word for it…

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Continuing with more random off-season banter, today’s “message of love“** goes out to one of my absolute favorites on the web and the radio: Tony Basilio and “Beano Jeff” on the Edge.

Sports-talk shows are about as common as overly-opinionated and poorly written blogs like Gate 21 … okay, maybe not that common, but they’re common.

As a general rule, I tend to tire quickly of sports-talk personalities — especially those where the show ends up being more about the host than it is about sports (which is increasingly the case). It is for this reason that I have not been a regular sports-talk listener for the last decade; that is, until a friend turned me on to B&B at Midday.

If you are a fan of the Tennessee Volunteers and enjoy talking sports, then you should really give Basilio & Beano a listen. They just celebrated their second anniversary on the air with Knoxville’s WVLZ, and — in my humble opinion — they are the best sports-talk tandem anywhere. Period.

They’re on the the air everyday from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm on ESPN Radio – Knoxville: 1180 WVLZ. There’s no spin, just truthtellin’ and real analysis of anything having to do with Tennessee, the SEC, and the rest of the sports world. The biggest difference between B&B and all the rest is the fact that they unabashedly represent the views of the common fan, and don’t needlessly buy into the hype that so often spews from the mouths of many out there in the sports world. I like that “de-crap-ified” type of sports-talk. Tony Basilio and “Beano Jeff” are down to earth, never take themselves too seriously, and aren’t afraid “to call a duck a duck.”

“Hey, don’t you live like six hours from Knoxville? How are you listening to the show?“

Well, sports fans, you’re right — I live in the bowels of ACC country. In my neck of the woods I hear enough about the Tarheads and Dook to make me want to retch, however, through the miracle that is the internet, I can listen to Basilio & Beano everyday from my desk (when I should be doing something else … such as work) via their streaming audio broadcast on the web. Thus, as long as you have an internet connection, you can get your daily fix — even from hundreds of miles away … or more (not too long ago, a Tennessee fan living in Japan called in on the show). If you miss the show, they even have podcasts of the show available for download.

At any rate, give Tony and Beano a listen: always standing up for the common fan, always interesting, always honest…

– Go Figure …

** Disclosure: While Gate 21 and TonyBasilio.com both feature hyperlinks to one another, neither site, their parent companies, editors, nor webmasters receive any payment or other compensation of any type or kind in return for those links. Furthermore, neither Gate 21 nor Lawvol received any compensation for this review, which was not requested or solicited by B&B at Midday or WVLZ. This “Shout Out” represents the actual opinion of the author (for what that is worth) and was in no way influenced by any other person.

In other words: This isn’t an advertisement.

Well, this one matters…

Tonight the BasketVols take on the Florida Gators in Gainesville. I know that Head Coach Eddie Munster Billy Donovan will have the Gators fired-up in hopes of beating the Vols and hopefully earning Florida a berth in the NCAA Tournament. In years past, the Tennessee Volunteers would have expected to lose, fortunately, Tennessee has a different coach now, and no longer expects to lose to anyone.

A win versus the Gators brings the BasketVols one step closer to their first outright SEC Championship in 41 years, and one step closer to rolling into the post-season as a number 1 seed. I have a feeling that the BasketVols will be ready and will bring leave it all on the floor tonight.

The game tips off at 9:00 on Raycom Sports. For those outside the regional broadcast area, you can catch the Vol Network broadcast at UT Sports.com or on XM Channel 199.

Gee, Billy, I’d say you turned out better than the rest of the family…

– Go Figure …

Well, once again I have added to the conversation over at Rocky Top Talk. This time a little look into how Tennessee values Bruce Pearl, as compared to other coaches — including it’s own.

While not as acerbic as my usual posts, this one was tough — and (cringe) actually resembles a real report by a real journalist. I actually had to do some research and find sources and things. I hate it when I can’t just make baseless allegations grounded on nothing more than the empty space between my ears. What is the world coming to?

Anyway, if you feel like giving it a look, just click the following link: How Much is Winning Worth?.

At any rate, I should be back on Gate 21 full time sometime in the near future (not that anyone cares).

– Go Figure …

I recently read a little observational piece over at Get the Picture! about legendary Georgia Bulldogs radio broadcaster Larry Munson. This article mainly referred to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which mentioned that, due to health problems, Munson will not be attending the Atlanta Sports Awards Gala.

That brought back some memories …

Now — obviously — I am not really a Georgia fan, but I have a great deal of respect for Munson, not so much for his style or delivery, but because of what he represents. Munson, along with Mississippi State’s Jack Cristil, the Tarhead U’s Woody Durham, Duke’s Bob Harris, and Gene Deckerhoff of FSU represent the last of the great southern college radio announcers. I’m sure there may be a few more scattered across the country, but there can’t be too many more. They are, sadly, a group which is fading farther and farther into the past every year. I know that time presses on – that is hardly a revelation. The fact that millions of broadband denizens congregate in this place known as the blogsphere — a place which did not even exist a few short years ago — is testament to that. While I embrace the advance of technology and progress, along the way we do lose real tangible pieces of the past which are truly golden.

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Just wanted to remind everyone that the balloting for the 2007 College Football Blogging Awards is now open. You must be a blogger with a blog devoting a substantial amount of coverage to College Football to vote for all but the “People’s National Champion.” Balloting runs through the end of the week. The folks over at EDSBS concocted a handy-dandy voting thing-a-ma-jig which makes it easier to vote than falling asleep after drinking 9 bourbons before a game. The “voting booth” includes links to all of the nominees in each category, thus, you can give blogs a final look before you cast your vote. Just make sure you read the instructions when you vote.

The ballot for the “People’s National Champion” is on the sidebar over at EDSBS.

Not to engage in overt electioneering, but Gate 21 has been nominated for “Best New Blog” and “Best Looking Blog.” Being nominated was a real surprise (considering I didn’t even start until November 2007). I’d appreciate the vote of any and all out there entitled to vote. I do this because I enjoy it, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t like to win one of the awards. That’s all the campaigning I’m going to do.

 At any rate, head on over to Everyday Should be Saturday for instructions, and the chance to make your vote count.

– Go Figure …

Alright, I admit it, this rant has been building up for a while now … about 23 years.

The first time I saw Ted Valentine officiate a basketball game, I was a kid, and it was the Southern Conference Basketball Tournament which used to be played in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Up until that point in my life, I never really gave much thought to the referees and their role in a basketball game.

Ted Valentine made sure I never neglected to think of the officials ever again…

From the moment that game began, it became obvious that Valentine wanted everyone in the Asheville Civic Center to realize that he was there, and he was in charge. He wanted to make sure that no one forgot him. Even to this day, I can hardly remember the name of any of the players in the game, but I still remember Valentine.

Since that game, I’ve probably seen Valentine officiate close to 20 games in person, and who knows how many on television. How do I know that? In every game Ted Valentine calls, he goes to great lengths to make sure that no one in a game ever forgets him, whether they be players coaches or fans. When Ted Valentine is on the floor, he makes it clear that the players get to compete at his pleasure. His overly-aggressive and antagonistic on-court persona dominates. When Valentine is officiating, it is about him — God forbid the actual game get in the way of his opportunity to strut.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that officials do have a difficult job. They are charged with overseeing the collision of, often legendary, drive, strength, and egos — and that’s just the fans in the seats. I know they get a lot of lip, and very little credit — when they do their job right, no one realizes they were there. They are supposed to be cool, objective, and dispassionate. They have to deal with mad coaches, jacked-up players, and fanatical boosters. I know this because my father used to referee high school basketball, and a close family friend is a college official. Still, that is what they sign up for; it’s not like a person is required to serve as a basketball official.

Ted Valentine has never been accused of being cool, objective, or dispassionate. He has had run-ins with the coaches of almost every major school in the country. Don’t take my word for it, a quick Google of “Ted Valentine“ will yield a litany of rants and raves — some from respected journalists. Even I must admit, however, that Valentine is some kind of genius.

Valentine is the only person I’ve ever seen that, the worse he did his job, the more rapidly he moved up the ranks…

In my opinion, Valentine has no business officiating any basketball game. Of course no one cares what I think, and the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big XII, NCAA, and numerous other conferences continue to give Valentine choice assignments — including the NCAA Final Four.

So why am I writing all of this now? Valentine officiated the Tennessee vs. Florida game, and yet again he managed to make himself known. In this instance it was a technical foul called against J.P. Prince immediately after getting hammered to the floor by Florida’s Dan Werner.  As he slammed Prince to the ground, Werner was immediately called for an intentional foul by one of the other officials. Prince got up — admittedly — angry, yet no shoving occurred. Valentine, however, ran all the way across the floor and immediately called a technical against Prince.

Now, I wasn’t standing there. I cannot say that Prince didn’t earn the technical honestly (Yeah, I know that’s an odd way of putting it…). In fact, I can guarantee you that — most likely — Prince did earn the foul — I’d have been pissed too if I had just taken an elbow drop the way he did. I have to give all of that to Valentine.

Still, sometimes, as an official you have to exercise a little discretion. Sometimes, you have to balance a “technical” violation of the rules against the intent and purpose of the rules. As every official I’ve ever spoken with has told me, you could call a foul on every single play, but that’s not what the referee is there for. You have to let the players play the game.

That is, unless you are Ted Valentine…

– Go Figure …