Saving College Football From Itself

Posted on April 29, 2014 by bvanrysdam

There has been a lot of discussion lately about college athletics, specifically college football. It is obvious that there is a major disparity between the haves and the have not’s. Realistically, 90 percent of schools have no shot at winning a national championship, or even being invited to a major bowl game.

There has also been greater focus put on whether or not football athletes are being used unfairly to generate money for their respective universities. One school, Northwestern, has voted to unionize while athlete directors seem to talk more these days about expanding the brand and generating revenue than helping student athletes succeed.

So where do we go from here? Perhaps the solution can be found across the pond by taking a page from the Barclay’s Premiere League. The league, for those uninformed sports fans, features England’s best soccer clubs. The clubs play matches outside the league, but winning the Barclay’s is equivalent to winning a Super Bowl or being named National Champions.

Now before you say “I hate soccer, it’s boring”; what makes the Barclay’s Premiere Leagues so unique is that they “relegate” teams every year. That means the bottom three clubs are kicked out and new ones added. (I’m sure the Texans and the Astros are glad the NFL and MLB don’t follow this policy).

The beauty of this set-up is that it creates drama at the top and bottom of the standings. First you would need to set up a “Super Football Conference”. I know there will be lots of disagreement about the criteria, but for the sake of argument, let’s pick last year’s BCS Top 25 schools. Those not making the cut would remain in their respective conferences.

The top four teams in the BCS standings at the end of the year were Florida, Auburn, Florida State and Michigan State. These schools could have competed in a play-off system to determine the national championship. USC, Duke and Northern Illinois finished at the bottom of the list and would be relegated out of this super conference and returned to their respective conferences.

The incentive is that opens the door to three other schools to join this super conference. Again, the exact criteria would need to be worked out as to how to select those schools. It could be best record, followed by most points scored in a season, but you get the idea and it would give a lot of schools the opportunity to play with the big boys that they might not have gotten in the past.

Perhaps a super conference could also address some of the disparity in college football by allowing them to have different rules including paying athletes and other issues facing big time college football. Yes, this means schools could lose some of their traditional rivalries, but in a world where Texas no longer plays Texas A&M and bowl games seem to extend into February, it might just take a radical move to save college football from itself.

Let the debate begin.

5 Reasons why Barclay’s Premier Soccer is worth watching

Posted on April 28, 2014 by bvanrysdam

#5: Introduction of the teams.

There’s no pyrotechnics or loud obnoxious music to get fans pumped up. Both teams enter the pitch side by side at the same time, often holding the hands of young soccer fan. The home team then walks calmly down the line and shakes the visiting team’s hands and officials.

#4: The fans

Soccer fans are notorious for being fanatical about their teams and with good reason; some of these teams have been playing over 150 years. It’s not unusual to see fans singing the team fight song throughout the entire game while cheering, moaning and flashing their team’s colors.

#3: There are no TV timeouts.

While there are plenty of times play is halted, you won’t be inundated with commercial after commercial. You will see little pop-up ads while play is taking place, but it never interferes with the pace or flow the match. Just make sure you visit the Loo prior to the opening whistle.

#2: Close enough is fine

It is interesting how, in the world of the NFL where every inch of yardage is scrutinized and debated, soccer players simply pick up a ball that went out of bounds and then take a few steps either way to throw the ball back in. The same thing occurs when a ref calls a foul. The ball is simply placed in the “area” where the foul occurred and play is continued. There is no replay to determine the exact spot of where the ball should be placed which adds to more delays and hence more advertisements to sit through.

#1: Relegation

As the season draws towards the end, all eyes are on the top and bottom of the standings. Not because the bottom three teams will be in a position to draft a good player, but because they will be kicked out of the league. Seeing as how the Houston Texans and Astros finished dead last last year, you have to believe they’re glad they don’t play in the Barclay’s Premier League.

FCC Changes Its Mind

Posted on April 24, 2014 by bvanrysdam

It appears the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has done an about face with its policy towards net neutrality according to reports in the Wall Street Journal.

The new plan would grant Internet service providers the ability to give websites favored treatment meaning they would have priority over other sites and deliver faster service.

The catch is the ISP’s would charge such sites fees for better access. Companies like Netflix could have to pay extra fees which would give their service greater bandwidth and thus a better user experience, but I’m sure you can guess who will pick up those extra costs.

Now the new proposal under consideration would ban the outright blockage of sites that are not willing, or able to pay for the faster access, but to many internet activists, that’s not good enough. There is a fear that ending net neutrality could stifle innovation and Internet startups from competing for page views and revenue.

If a gaming company could not afford to pay for the high speed access, interest may vanish among the gamers and the company might not be able to survive. And there are also concerns that companies like Comcast, the nation’s largest provider of high-speed internet service who also owns NBC-Universal and is trying to purchase Time Warner Cable, would really limit the number of options available to consumers.

None of this has been approved and it is expected that the FCC will vote on the new rules near the end of this year, but after the January ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, you can be sure your surfing experience will have a new feel.

Ain’t That A Kick In The Head?

Posted on April 23, 2014 by bvanrysdam

By now I’m sure you have seen the “selfie” video of Jared Frank, the 22 year old Canadian who was kicked in the head by a worker on passing train while traveling in Peru. Like most of you, I thought what an idiot until I learned that he could earn some big bucks for his viral video.

He has reportedly made a deal with a licensing company (Jukin Media) that could net the young man $30,000 to $250,000 in revenue. His original train kick video had accrued more than 23 million views and growing daily.

There was some debate if the video was real or staged, but like most things on the internet, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Flying the Unfriendly Skies

Posted on April 22, 2014 by bvanrysdam

In a report that should surprise no one, customer satisfaction with airlines remains low. That’s according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), who surveys roughly 70,000 customers about the various products and services they use.

What is interesting to note is that most passengers are generally pleased with the check-in process and booking, but rate in-flight service and lack of seat comfort as major factors to the dismal rating. Over-all, the airline industry scores 69 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale and remain among the lowest-scoring categories in the Index, beating only subscription TV service, social media and internet service providers.

JetBlue remains the highest-scoring airline with an ACSI rating of 79 barely edging out Southwest which came in at 78. Delta jumped up 4% from last year to increase to 71. US Airways and American Airlines also saw small gains and ended up tied at 66.

United has the dubious distinction of posting the lowest score among the major carriers , dropping 3% from last year to post a 60 with 30% of their passengers giving an ACSI score below 50. The report concluded that “the acquisition of Continental appears to play a role here—frequent and continual problems with reservations and refunds three years after the merger are problematic.”

“We’ve seen time and time again the negative impact mergers have on customer satisfaction. American Airlines may also see a slump in satisfaction as it combines operations with US Airways,” said Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder through the ACSI website. “Southwest led the industry for 17 years until it merged with AirTran in 2011 and Delta is just now recovering from its 2008 merger with Northwest.”