What Do CBS and ESPN Have in Common?

Did you happen to see 60 Minutes worshipful donation at the altar of Tiger Woods last Sunday? If you did, then you know that CBS has long since lost its reputation for tough, hard=hitting, take no prisoners journalism that made 60 Minutes famous. In a ironic twist of no small coincidence, one of the men responsible for earning that reputation, Mike Wallace, was paid by ESPN to give a speech last week to frontline producers, reporters, anchors and analysts on his interviewing techniques.

That speech was part of a two day seminar that rapidly devolved into what the New York Post called the "closest thing to a palace revolt ever conducted against ESPN." The reason, Bud Selig's number one problem child - Barry Bonds. If you haven't heard, ESPN is paying $4.5 million to a documentary film company to produce a week by week account of Bonds' chase for the hallowed home run record. The fact that Bonds has juiced his way to the record and probably no real fan wants to see him break it, much less watch him on a week by week basis, means nothing. It's bad enough that ESPN is paying for access, but to compound the error, Bonds and his people have editorial control. Imagine, the network has ceded editorial control to the sports figure it is supposed to be covering. Exactly what is wrong with this picture.

The journalistic integrity of getting into bed with a prime news target are being ignored by the ESPN brass since this is a project of ESPN Original Entertainment, as if simply moving it to the entertainment side of the building would erase all the legitimate questions raised by this amazingly stupid project. That hardly removes the conflicts. So, Bonds has editorial control and could use the series to attack the ESPN reporters who cover him on a daily basis; what does the network do then.

Once again, ESPN has shown how far removed from its roots as a true sports journalism showcase it has become and how little it cares. It used to be all about showing the games and practicing sports journalism of the highest order. Now, it's about trash like the Bonds project, ESPN Hollywood and Steven A Smith.

Disney Chair to Head Bond Investigation

So, it's come to this, Bud "do nothing, see nothing, hear nothing" Selig has turned to everybody's Mr. Fix-It to try and solve his Bonds dilemma. This afternoon, he appointed Senator George Mitchell, Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Co., to head the investigation we all knew was coming into steroid abuse and the use of other performance enhancing substances by players. In the press conference announcing the appointment, which can be viewed here, neither Bonds nor any other player's name was mentioned. Notably, however, Selig and Mitchell focused their attention on players and conveniently forgot to mention the coaches, managers and team executives who have turned a blind eye to the all that has gone on since this whole sordid mess started some 15 years ago.

Mitchell will head the investigation but will not be the lead investigator, which gives it some chance for success. Present with him at the press conference were a former US Attorney and a former Assistant US Attorney who I presume will be running the actual investigation. The problem will of course be that they can expect absolutely no cooperation from Bonds or most other players. After all, what incentives do they have to come clean? Absent any desire to achieve some measure of revenge against a former teammate for whom they might still carry a grudge, I can see no reason that any player will cooperate and no way that MLB can compel that cooperation unless there is some provision in the collective bargaining agreement which mandates it. Since I have not seen anyone express that as of yet, I have to believe it doesn't exist.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for the Mitchell report. It will no doubt tell us that there was a great deal of abuse back in the day. It may even tell us it continues but MLB is doing everything it can to end it, which of course is ridiculous. Baseball had done nothing to stop steroid abuse in the past and little to stop it now. This whole shameful episode is the fault of the baseball executives and owners who stood idly by and watched as the players ingested substances that allowed the game to reach the place it is in today.

Abramoff Effect May Hurt Nats Ticket Sales

There was an interesting article in today's Washington Post reflecting on the fall-out of the Jack Abramoff scandal on the ticket sales of the Washington Nationals and the other Washington area professional teams. As Congress considers new lobbying reform rules, lobbying firms are reluctant to commit for season tickets and luxury boxes to Nationals' games as they are not sure they will be able to use the tickets to entertain Capitol Hill staffers as they did last year and have in the past with the Capitals and Wizards. While it's hard to quantify at this stage, the drop-off is likely to be significant and it could affect the sales price of the Nationals as the sale of the team has yet to be finalized by Major League Baseball. Only in the nation's capital would a scandal involving lobbying, Native-Americans, tribal casinos and Republican Senators have dramatic reprecussions for a baseball team. I guess that's another reason why W. is throwing out the first pitch in Cincinnati and not DC.

The Sports World's Rich Get Richer with Thanks to the Swoosh

Forbes is out with its annual list of the world's highest paid athletes. At the top, as usual, is Tiger Woods with earnings of $87 million, most of which came from endorsements. Following close behind again is veteran Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher with earnings of $60 million in the first year in the last seven in which he did not win the driving championship.

Nike's endorsement dominance and contribution to the economic well-being of these athletes can be amply demonstrated by a review of this list. 12 of the 25 athletes on the list wear the swoosh and this is no coincidence. Nike not only capitalizes on athletes' performance and charisma to sell product, but, in pouring millions into worldwide marketing campaigns built around personalities, develops the athletes themselves into brands. Think Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. That brand development carries over into the athlete's ability to attract lucrative endorsement deals from other products that are complementary to or don't conflict with Nike, something which the folks in Beaverton strongly encourage as it builds up their own brand equity. It even extends into retirement, as you will notice that Michael Jordan, due in large measure to his Nike deal, remains in the top 25 many years into his retirement from basketball. Mia Hamm is still featured on a new Nike commercial although she retired from the US women's soccer team last year.

It will be interesting to see this list next year and see if the Winter Olympics just concluded has any appreciable effect on it. Since the Games produced no real breakout star, I would be very surprised if it does. The biggest US stars were the snowboarders and, while their endorsements should increase, I don't think the dollar value will be high enough to land them on the list. Maybe it will be enough to land Shaun White a date with Shasha Cohen.

Nike Tries to Take on My Space

Nike is not satisfied with dominating the world of sneakers and sportswear. It wants to extend its market domination to the world of the internet and social networking. In an interesting new entry in Web 2.0, Nike has joined forces with Google to bring us Joga, a social networking site devoted entirely to soccer. Nike is taking its battle with Adidas/Reebok to the web as it envisions Joga as a way to reach into the grassroots soccer fans, who have long indentified Adidas with soccer. Joga will be soon running in 140 countries and 14 languages, as Nike works hard to close the soccer gap. The target demographic is easy to figure - soccer mad fans in their late-teens to early thirties who are the core demographics of all social networking sites and the the target consumers for Nike marketing efforts worldwide. The site will be content rich, featuring Nike endorsers worldwide. It is currently by invitation only although the home page has a form at the bottom to be filled in and Nike will send you an invitation. Thus, it joins a trend towards "private label" social networking sites.

If Joga is successful, I'm sure we will soon see similar sites from Nike and Google devoted to other sports. Basketball, long Nike's biggest strength and worldwide the second biggest sport fitting the social networking demographic, will almost assuredly be next.

Joga is an interesting corporate experiment in social networking. Can a social networking site work with such a transparently commercial purpose? I think only in sports or music, would it be possible to make such a site work. Sports and music fans are inured to commercialization to a far greater extent than perhaps any other segment of society because they are constantly bombarded by it and see it as the price of enjoying the games or music they choose to watch or listen. It will be an interesting experiment to follow and one that I think should be watched closely by many companies to see what may work in a Web 2.0 environment.

Blues Finally Sold

The St. Louis Blues have scheduled a news conference for this afternoon to announce the sale of the team and its home, the Savvis Center, to a group headed by Dave Checketts, the owner of Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer and the former president of the New York Knicks. Chceketts must be approved by the NHL owners but has put up a $10 million non-refundable deposit, a fairly good sign that he and the Lauries, the current owners, have done their homework about his chances for approval.

This is the second time around for Checketts and the Lauries as on September 29, he entered a 30 day exclusive negotiating period that terminated without a deal. After that deal fell apart, the Lauries tried to sell the club and the arena another group without success. In the meantime, the club was hemmorhaging money and they began selliing off higher priced players. Attendance plummeted and the Blues went from the sixth highest attendance in the league to near the bottom. Of course, being near theh bottom of the standings didn't help either. So, one day after being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the Blues get new life with new ownership. It couldn't happen to a better franchise.

March Madness News to Use

You know the Valley and the Colonial have made the Selection Committee look good already and we're all waiting in vain for Billy Packer's apology, but this is not another rant about that. No, this is about useful information; news you can use. During the first weekend of the tournament, favorites covered only 22 times. Now, that information, combined with the fact that only two schools favored by 12 or more, UCLA and Memphis, in the first round, covered is the type of information you can plan on using this weekend. Good luck.

The Battle for Control of European Football is On

A group of the 18 largest and richest soccer clubs in Europe known as the G14 have laid down the gauntlet to UEFA, soccer's governing body in Europe in a continuing battle for control over the increasingly lucrative sport. In a story published on Saturday, the Guardian revealed the G14's internal policy document, G14 Vision Europe, which outlined the group's move from a lobbying group to one which should openly contest UEFA and FIFA on issues that concerned it. Towards that end, G14 has entered litigation against UEFA on the side of Belgian club Charleroi in a case involving compensation for injury to a player while on duty for the national team. That case was headed to trial in Belgium today.

Perhaps even more significantly, G14 is preparing to do battle over the future of the Champions League, UEFA's and, arguably the world's, premier club competition. The G14 group is not happy with the current set up of the competition and would like to see more games and increased competition at all games. The group denies it is seeking guaranteed entry to the Champions League but I wouldn't put that past them. More important to the clubs, however, is the question of control, not just of the schedule but of the euros.

It is this question that should most concern the fans. The clubs contend that they are the heart and soul of world soccer and it is the club to which the players and the fans owe primary allegiance. While to some extent that may be true for players, as it is the club that pays the majority of the players' salaries, it is not true of the fans. The television ratings of the European Cup and World Cup prove time and time again that fans tune in for national games that may not tune in any other time. The most recent European Cup is perhaps the best example as it had the largest television ratings of any sports event in European history and was held the same year as the Olympics and the Champions League.

Fans and players alike should fear domination of the game by a select few wealthy clubs as the experience in most European countries has shown. As money is concentrated in the hands of the select teams in the "premier" league, the teams in the lower division no longer have the financial resources to compete and lose fans in a continuing downward spiral, as their diminishing financial resources leave them unable to compete for players further alienating their fans. Competition is at the heart of sport and diminishing that competition by concentrating it in the hands of a few is neither good sports nor good business.

Paulie Tags Decides to Hang it Up

The NFL announced today that Commissioner Paul Tagliabue would retire in July after 16 years as Commissioner. Tags has nothing left to accomplish after settling the collective bargaining agreement with the players and perhaps more importantly the revenue sharing formula among the owners. In the past 12 months, the league has signed record new television deals totaling around $22.5 billion over the multi-year lives of the various packages, not including the advertising revenue from the Thursday-Saturday package to be shown on the league's own NFL Network.

The speculation about Tags successor has already begun with several names from within football being thrown about. The most interesting name not currently involved in the league is Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, who is a well-known football fan and has said she would be interested in becoming commissioner some day. The job pays considerably more than the Secretary is currently making - Tagliabue made over $9.5 million in salary and benefits last year.

Carnival of the Capitalists

This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is now up at Casey Software. Get over there and take a look.

How are Your Brackets Billy?

Now that the first round of the NCAA tournament is in the books, how does your bracket look? Several of mine are in the trash already, although I do have one that looks competitive. Fortunately, I paid absolutely no attention to the talking heads on either CBS or ESPN in filling them out.

As I'm sure you know by now, CBS announcer and all-around obnoxious jerk Billy Packer used the Selection Sunday show to publicly attack Craig Littlepage, the University of Virginia athletic director and chairman of the selection committee for selecting three at-large teams from the Missouri Valley Conference and one at-large team from the Colonial Athletic Association. He was joined in the attack on the committee by his broadcast partner Jim Nantz.

Packer, who has consistently demonstrated over the years that he has never let his ignorance get in the way of his opinions, was far from subtle in his attacks. About the selection of teams from the MVC and the CAA: "I'm really not an expert on the Missouri Valley, but. .. it doesn't make any sense to me," he said. "You put Florida State and Maryland into their league, I'd like to know where they'd end up (in the MVC standings)."

With that in mind, let's check what happened in the opening round. The Valley went 2-2 and the Colonial went 1-1. That is certainly not league marks to be ashamed of and, for the most part, the equal of that put up by most high major leagues that Billy loves so much. So Billy if it's not too much to ask, please, please please, before you speak, stop to think about what you're going to say. Better yet, don't say anything if you haven't actually don't a little research about it and for once in your life don't talk about teams you havent' actually seen play. I know it's a lot to ask of you since it calls for a complete change in the way you operate, but it's the only way any of us could ever trust what you say. Wouldn't you like for what you have to say to mean something to your audience or are you satisfied to be a caricature of a real announcer or color commentator.

March Madness: Are You Ready to Watch

If you are one of the unfortunate many who are forced to work today and tomorrow and don't have the ability to spend hours in front of the television seeing your bracket get blown apart, CBS has come to your rescue. In what may turn out to be a watershed moment in sports history, CBS is video streaming the first three rounds of the tournament, all the way up to the Elite Eight, live on the internet at no charge. It will be available through the CBS site or the NCAA site. It will be advertiser supported and comes complete with a "boss" button, which, when pushed, turns the screen into a spreadsheet.

Last year, CBS streamed the tournament through CSTV, which it now owns, and charged $19.95. About 20,000 people signed up for the feed and it was far from the financial success that CBS had hoped. With the online advertising market hot, CBS believes that March Madness On Demand will be a big success. It will carry advertising that is different than shown on the televised broadcast and has signed up a few sponsors who are not also television sponsor. Advance signups are at in excess of 200,000.

CBS officials do not believe that there is any danger of cannibalizing their audience. The streaming feed is aimed at hardcore fans and will not include the game being broadcast locally. The presence of the feed may cause to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement company, to revise its current estimate of nearly $4 billion in productivity lost as workers use their computers to monitor their teams' fates during the tournament.

UPDATE: CBS says that during the first day of the tournament about 1.2 million games were streamed through the March Madness On Demand service. CBS expects today's traffic to be even higher as word of mouth spreads.

Does Iowa State Really Need a Scheduler?

Seems someone in the Iowa State basketball office has a problem with making out basketball schedules. For the full story, you simply must go read Gregg Doyel's story at CBS Sportsline and the follow-up which has been posted here. HT to yoco.

Graduation Rates Show Stark Racial Divide

We discussed the generally poor academic performance of the NCAA tournaments teams earlier this week, but did not at that time delve further into the numbers. Upon closer examination, an interesting and not altogether surprising pattern emerges. For the most part, the gap between the graduation rates of white and black student athletes continues to be large.

The graduation gap between white and black athletes in the NCAA tournament is 33%. Of the 65 teams participating in this year's Big Dance, 66% or 38 of the men's teams graduated 70% or more of their white basketball players, while only 33%, or 21, graduated 70% or more of their black basketball players. Two schools, Nevada (making a brief visit) and Northern Iowa, did not graduate a single black basketball player. One school, Utah State, did not have any black basketball players, if you can believe that. The study followed the class entering school in the 1998-99 school year for a period of six years after they began school.

While it's true that schools are graduating black basketball players at a higher rate than that of black male students as a whole, that is to be expected with the additional academic assistance at such athletes' disposal. These graduation rates remain abysmal by any standard and are a national disgrace. While this country essentially puts business on hold for the afternoon hours during each Thursday and Friday of March Madness and CBS doles out billions to the NCAA, colleges around the country are abdicating their responsibility to educate the very students that are being used to promote the institutions to the world. I'm not in favor of paying student athletes but I do want to see schools do a better job of ensuring that their athletes get the education that they need. A very miniscule percentage of them will ever play professionally and the rest will have to earn a living in some other manner. For that, they will need an education and it's the school's moral obligation to ensure that its athletes get one.

Fantasyland

I've been reading a new book, titled Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe by Sam Walker, a sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal. It describes his iattempt to win Tout Wars, the Rotisserie Baseball League reserved for those who make their living giving others tips on how to win at fantasy baseball. The only problem was that Walker had never played fantasy baseball.

I'm about a third of the way through the book and it's a very enjoyable read, especially for someone like me who doesn't play fantasy sports. Part of the attraction may be the enjoyment of seeing the desperate measures he will take and the cash Walker will spend to get an edge in a game in which the only prize is glory. I'll post more on the book as I read more, but, so far, I recommend it.

Nats Get to Keep their Name

According to a report on the website of Washington DC radio station WTOP, the trademark dispute between Major League Baseball and Bygone Sports LLC has been settled. As a result the Washington Nationals get to keep their name and logo and MLB retains merchandising rights to them. Presumably the settlement involved the payment of considerable sums of money to Bygone Sports. Now, all the Nats need is an owner and a few new players and that might be a team worth following.

A Bracket of a Different Sort

As march Madness begins to sweep the country and bracket are being copied across the land in preparation for the largest amount of illegal betting since the Super Bowl, some folks would like to remind you that the games are being played by students. Yes, the players are enrolled in institutions of higher education and are supposed to be attending class and studying when not perfecting the art of the zone trap. To that end, over at Inside Higher Ed, they developed a bracket of the teams in this year's tournament based on their six year graduation rate. Their Final Four does not exactly correspond to what is likely to play out on the court.

In addition to that exercise in academic reality, the Democratic think tank, Center for American Progress, headed by former Bill Clinton aide John Podesta, has begun a campaign called Graduation Madness aimed at enlisting Nike, Reebok and Adidas into the battle for academic standards. They want to the three shoe companies to provide financial incentives to their schools for academic achievements and to not endorse schools that fail to meet academic standards. The bracket on the Graduation Madness site notes that 30 of the 65 schools in the tournament fail to meet the 925 minimum cut line APR standard set by the NCAA as an academic minimum.

While I applaud both efforts at drawing attention to academic issues, I am less hopeful that there will be lasting benefits. Every year at this time, we see the same thing occurring and the fact that it happens every year is proof that it has minimal effect. Hopefully, the effort by Think Progress may have some effect because it targets one of the schools' most significant sources of income. However, I can't say that I'm optimistic.

Innovative Funding for College Athletics

The college athletics arms race has shown no sign of abating in recent years. In fact, the contrary is true despite the almost monthly bemoaning by Myles Brand of the NCAA and the annual crying of the Knight Commission. The simple fact remains that college athletics at the Division I-A level is big business and needs more and more money to compete. It is the job of athletic directors to find that money and the creative ones are finding new ways tap alumni and friends of the university all the time.

In a very interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal special March Madness section, which unfortunately is only available online to subscribers, the Journal described how a select few universities had established venture capital investment programs to benefit their athletic programs. Now, many, if not most, colleges and universities with sizable endowments invest a portion of that endowment in alternative investment vehicle that often include venture capital funds. What makes these particular funds unique is that they are set up solely to benefit the athletic department of the particular university and are designed in a manner in which the donor group of investors receive tax benefits.

Four universities were highlighted in the sidebar to the article which focused on a program being established at Duke. The program at Duke was too new to determine its success, but the donors had essentially guaranteed Duke against loss, which would cast some doubt in my mind as to the deductibility of their gift. Anyway, the three schools featured in the sidebar in addition to Duke were UCLA, Northwestern and Stanford.

UCLA began its program in 2000 with $400,00 and still has $400,000 in it with none having gone to the athletic program as of yet. It is too early to judge it.

Northwestern began its program in 1996 with $500,000 and it now has $2.5 million. It has paid out many benefits to the department in including new weight room for the football team and new turf fields for the women's national champion lacrosse team and field hockey team.

Stanford began its program in 1982 with $100,000 and it now has $85 million. It has paid out considerable benefits including funding for men's volleyball and women's synchronized swimming. It just made an allocation of $30 million to the renovation of Stanford Stadium. It is a significant reason why Stanford is the annual winner of the Directors' Cup, representing achievement in all sports contested by Division I-A school.

One interesting point is that all four of these schools have, in addition to a collection of deep-pocketed alumni, top-ranked business schools. I don't think it's a coincidence. I also don't think for a minute that it's just a coincidence that this type of athletic funding was first proposed and saw its greatest expression at Stanford in the heart of Silicon Valley, where venture capital is so ingrained into the day to day culture. There may well have been some of Stanford's Google shares in that pot. It will be interesting to see how many other schools jump on this bandwagon.

Red Bull New York

Red Bull Has made it official, completing the purchase of the MetroStars that I posted about earlier this week. However, there were a couple surprises included in the sale that bode well for both the franchise and MLS. In addition to buying the team, Red Bull purchase a 50% interest in the stadium being constructed in Harrison, New Jersey as well as the naming rights. It will be known as Red Bull Arena. The good news there is that the stadium will definitely be built and the construction timetable will be accelerated as this nails down the final piece of financing.

The other piece of news is the purchase by Red Bull of an interest in Soccer United Marketing, the marketing arm of MLS, which holds, among other things, the English language television rights to the World Cup in the United States. The addition of an experienced and financially strong marketing organization like Red Bull to SUM and MLS can do nothing but strengthen the ability of the league to compete in the marketplace. Red Bull has a worldwide presence and sees MLS as the ideal vehicle to promote itself throughout America. That is a strong statement to take to future team owners and broadcast partners. It is a very strong statement to take to markteting parters. To have a marketing company place a $50 million investment in you at this stage of your growth says a great deal about your future, and what it says is positive. It is up to MLS to translate that message to the media and the fans.

Suspend Barry the Juicer?

OK, so by now, everyone knows about the Sports Illustrated excerpt from a book about Barry Bonds documenting his alleged abuse of steroids and human growth hormones, so I don't intend to spend any time discussing that here. In fact, I hadn't really intended to write about it at all because of the endless stream of digital data spewed from computers across the country about Bonds and his steroids abuse and I thought what am I going to add? Then, I saw this article, which was the first time that I have seen anyone raise the prospect that Bud "Ostrich" Selig might actually take meaningful action, that I decided I could write something after all.

At first glance, it seemed obvious to me that Bonds should be bounced from baseball if even the slimmest evidence of what is alleged in the book could be found. However, the more I thought about it the more the complexity of the decision that Selig faces reveals itself. Suspending Barry for the season, or even two and trying to thereby force him to retire might seem like an easy way out, but how do you handle the next revelation that appears about the next slugger? Let's face it, we all know that the steroid scandal of the 90s affected maybe half the majors, maybe more. Do you suspend an entire generation?

How do you stop with Barry Bonds? What do you do to the record book, not just with his records but with Palmeiro, McGwire, Sosa and all the others who are suspected and whose names will start to leak out over the next several years. What do you do with the players who become named for amphetamine abuse, the next scourge to go public? See, it's not quite as easy as it seems. How do you start clean when you can't even test for every substance yet since HGH is so far undetectable? At the very least, you have to develop a game plan to restore the public's trust in the game going forward, because it sure is shot right now.

Foremost on Selig's agenda should be to get a buy-in from Don Fehr, the head of the Players Association to both his proposed punishment for Bonds and, more importantly, a plan to move forward. That plan should start with immediate testing of every player for every substance that can be tested and if there are some, like HGH that can't yet be tested for, then all players blood samples should be collected and retained until the test can be performed. Bonds should be suspended, permanently, and Selig should be prepared to do the same to anyone else caught using performance enhancing drugs or HGH. Three strikes is two strikes too many. There is no reason for warning or mickey mouse short suspension. We all know it's dangerous, life-threatening and illegal; it's time baseball starting acting like it knows it too.

U.S. Open to Use Instant Replay

We might not see this again

Starting later this year, the pro tennis tours will adopt electronic instant replay, which has been approved for use by the ATP, the WTA and the USTA starting March 22. The US Open is the first Grand Slam event to approve the electronic system, which will give the players challenges similar to the system in place in the NFL. The most significant difference is that the challenge to an umpire rulings will then go to an electronic line call, rather than a human review. It's an overdue step for tennis and tennis officials should be commended for finally taking it. There is simply too much at stake for tennis not to take advantage of the technology that is available and will remove a point of dispute from the game. It may have been too long in coming but at least it's finally here.

NFL Has a Labor Deal!!

The NFL owners have approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the players association to take effect following the end of the next season. As a result, the salary cap will be expanded this year to approximately $104 million and a cap will remain in place for at least the next six seasons. The owners approved the plan on a 30-2 vote, with only Cinncinati and Buffalo voting against it. Congratulations go to Paulie Tags for getting a deal done.

Suspicious Scores in College Hoops

An interesting post by my friend,The Sports Economist on his very good blog, points to a very good and troubling article in today's New York Times about an academic study on point shaving in college basketball. We have seen point shaving scandals over the decades from the 1940s and 1950s teams at CCNY and NYU and Kentucky to Arizona State and Boston College of more recent vintage. What is different about this story is that it doesn't focus on any particular team, but rather is an academic approach to the problem of widespread point shaving.

Justin Wolfers is an economist at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylania and has published research concluding that in games in which there is a heavy favorite (one in which a team is favored by 12 points or more)there is a greater than even statistical likelihood that the favorite may engage in point shaving. So, why is point-shaving more likely in college games than anywhere else? For one, the players have greater ability to affect the outcome of a game. Second, and more particularly related to college, the players generally need money. They receive scholarships which cover tuition, housing and certain meals but don't cover all of their living expenses. They also see the enormous sums being generated for the schools and would often like to see themselves cut in for a slice. Especially, when to do so would not cost their team a win.

Predictably, the NCAA believes that there is not a big problem. In response to the New York Times reporter, the NCAA referred the reporter to a 2003 poll of NCAA athletes, in which 33% of men's basketball players said they had gambled on sports, professional or collegiate. In that poll, 1.5% said they knew of a teammate who had taken money to play badly. To me, that sounds like a major problem.

So, what is the answer to this problem. Well, one place to start is with the amount of aid that an athlete can receive. If the entire cost of living expenses could be awarded, as has been proposed and is the subject of a current antitrust suit against the NCAA, a player's temptation will lessen. It's important that basketball players in particular have an opportunity to live as student athletes without having to worry about trying to find enough money for food or clothes. Education speeches and video are important and useful but unless the NCAA steps up and helps out with real monetary reform, the temptation for easy fixes will always be there.

Thanks ESPN

as you now I have been bashing ESPN on a regular for some time now, so it's a bit out of character for me to come now to offer the WWLIS some praise, but praise them I must. For you see, they have done college basketball fans the world over a great service. It seems that CBS approached Bristol with a request that ESPN allow Dick Vitale to pollute the NCAA broadcasts with his infantile brand of incessant blabber. To my everlasting gratitude, ESPN has saved March Madness from diarrhea mouth. Now, if ESPN would only go and hire Billy Packer and remove him from the tournament broadcasts, March would be complete.

MetroStars May Have New Energy

The New Look for the MetroStars?

New Jersey soccer fans, are you ready for a team dressed like an energy drink? Reports are that Red Bull, the Austrian manufacturer of the energy drink of the same name has reached an agreement to purchase the New York/New Jersey MetroStars for $30 million. The purchase price could reach $50 million if Red Bull could complete a naming rights deal for the MetroStar's new stadium to be built in Harrison, New Jersey. The stadium itself will not be included in the deal and will continue to be owned by AEG. This will be the largest amount ever paid for a team in MLS.

The MetroStars rather lackluster history is likely to disappear under its new owner. Red Bull will probably change the name and colors and turn the team into a large and moving billboard for the owner's energy drink. If the owner injects sufficient money into the team, along with energetic and intelligent management, then maybe all will be forgiven. Franz Beckenbauer, a former New York Cosmo and heard of the World Cup Organizing Committee, as well as President of Bayern Munich, was reportedly involved in the purchase and is rumored to be taking an equity stake in the Metros. That would be a welcome development for the Metros and for MLS.

Is it fair to Metros fans to see their team disappear under the Red Bull umbrella? Perhaps not, especially since AEG had finally seemingly secured the stadium which was seen as key to the financial viability of the franchise. After all, the Metros fans had come out and supported the team in decent numbers throughout its history of ineptitude on the field. A better solution would have been to sell Red Bull a second team in the market to play at the Harrison stadium upon its opening but that is at least two and maybe three years away. AEG may not be prepared to carry the team that long. In addition, the state is fighting with Anschutz on other matters unrelated to soccer and may be pulling a delaying tactic on the stadium as a means of fighting back. So, fans loyalties will be sacrificed for the financial good of the game and the fans will come back. After all, the team will be still be the same team, just with a different name and uniform.

NFL Talks Back on

According to the Washington Post the labor talks between the NFL owners and players have resumed in New York amid "cautious optimism" that an agreement will be reached. Of course, should that agreement affect revenue sharing, there is no guarantee that it won't be blocked by a group of owners. If revenue sharing is increased, the high revenue owners might band together to block it and if revenue sharing is left as is, the low revenue owners may block the deal. This is the tangled web that Commissioner Tagliabue must negotiate once he has completed a deal with the players, assuming he can even get one done.

NFL Talks Continue

The talks between the NFL owners and players continued yesterday and last night on a new collective bargaining agreement but no deal has been reached. Talks will continue today as the first cracks in the player's united front began to appear. According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, there is a need to address, in some fashion, the ability of high revenue owners to manipulate the salary cap in ways that low revenue owners cannot.

The owners have postponed the internal discussion of revenue sharing for a later time, if the players and the owners can develop a plan that ameliorates the low revenue market owners' concern over cap manipulation, it will go a long way towards resolving almost everyone's issues. Mortensen crystallizes the issue in a concept he dubs "cash over cap", which is essentially the difference between a team's actual cash payroll and the team's reported cap payroll.

Since the owners have taken their own internal revenue sharing discussions off the table until after a new deal with players is finalized, cash over cap is the mechanism through which NFLPA head Gene Upshaw can address the players desire to assist low revenue teams. He is also beginning to face dissension among his ranks which should cause a sense of urgency in his moves at the negotiating table. We have thought the talks were close to settlement before and they have failed so there is no need to get too optimistic, but signs certainly are positive.

UPDATE: Football appears to be doing its best imitation of baseball as the league and the players have failed to reach agreement and called off talks as of Saturday afternoon. NFLPA attorney Jeff Kessler says that negotiations are: "as dead as a doornail." No word on when or if they will get back together to try again.

Wimbledon Bling Can be Yours - for a Price

Have you ever wanted to impress your friends with your tennis ability? Deceive them into thinking you had what it took to be a Wimbledon champion? Well, now is your chance. Due to the unfortunate financial circumstances that five time Wimbledon champion Bjorn Borg currently finds himself facing, he is putting his championship trophies and the two of the rackets he used to win them up for auction. It seems that Borg was a far better tennis player than he was an investor. As a result, he suffered significant losses and a failed investment that has wound up in court. In short, he needs the money and this is one quick and reasonably sure way to get it. So, here's your chance to impress your friends, family and that hot thing at the end of the bar. Get out your checkbook and get ready for the auction because opportunities like this one don't come along very often. It sure beats practicing tennis 8 hours a day for 20 years.

ESPN Has Completely Lost It This Time

In what can only be characterized as an orgy of inexcusable excess, ESPN is embarking on an experiment in coverage acrossall its assorted media of the Duke-UNC game Saturday night. It's coverage of sort that would make a fun of either team retreat to the basement and dunk his head in the tub holding the ice surrounding the beer keg screaming "enough already!" It's bad enough that the game is being broadcast live on two different channels, but to add to that live broadcasts from the student section? You have to inflict both Dick Vitale and the Cameron Crazies on the world with live mikes? Have the folks in Bristol completely lost their minds?

Look, this is the last weekend of the regular season of college basketball. There are games in every region of the country that are filled with bubble implications and the WWLIS decides to devote the entire day across all networks and media outlets to what, in the grand scheme of things, is an essentially meaningless game between two teams who are locks to make the tournaments. We all know both Duke and UNC are in and that Duke is a Number 1 seed despite losing last night to Florida State. So really, what difference does this game really make? I mean, who outside the triangle, really cares? It's official now, ESPN has lost all touch with reality and with its viewing base. I thought this was true long ago, and wrote about it before, but this has confirmed what I have suspected. This stunt is to me the height of navel grazing and I can't wait to see how low the collective ratings turn out to be.

Colts New Barn Gets a Name

The Indianapolis Colts are building a new home in downtown Indy and have been searching for a naming rights deal for some time now. Yesterday, the team struck oil, Lucas Oil Stadium to be exact. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue? The team signed a 20 year $121 million deal with Lucas Oil Products, a company headquartered in California with a manufacturing plant in southern Indiana. The company makes specialty oil additives and lubricants but is about to move into the motor oil for consumer car market through sales at Pep Boys. It is that market which drove the naming rights deal.

Still, it probably wouldn't have happened had Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, the Husband and wife co-founders of the company not been born in Indiana and still maintain a home there. They are Hoosiers through and through. Before this deal, they had once had the opportunity to sponsor an Indy car and had thought that was: "just about as big as you could get. Boy, I had no idea what we could really do."

While Lucas Oil Stadium may roll off the tongue, after reading an interview with Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, Indy has gotten a stadium named after a company that truly represents Indiana. Now, that may not be what the people in Indiana what the rest of the company to see, but it is the true Hoosier spirit. A couple who didn't get beyond high school but built a company from scratch because they knew they could, with good, solid Midwest values. Right now, the company is headquartered in California - that may well change soon. It would go down better in Hoosierland if the company were quartered in Indiana, but either way, get used to Lucas Oil Field or as I'm sure it will soon be called "the Luke".

APR Results Are In and Scholarship Cuts Are Coming

In the first year of reporting the results of the new Academic Progress Rates, the NCAA did not assess the penalty portion of the academic reform, giving schools a one year opportunity to adjust to the new regime. That one year holiday ended today. In the first year of penalties, the hammer fell mostly on schools from the lesser known conferences. In total, 99 Division I teams at 65 schools will lose scholarships.

In Division I-A football, 8 schools were penalized and none were from the 6 BCS conferences. In Division I basketball, 17 schools were penalized and only 1, DePaul, was from a BCS conference. Of the total 99 teams that will lose scholarships, 90 were men's teams and only 9 were women's. I don't have to tell you what that says about women student athletes, something about which they should be justifiably proud.

Interestingly, in what is a very rare occurrence for the NCAA and most other major organizations, the trial year last year seems to have done exactly what it was supposed to have accomplished. At this time last year, as many as 350 Division I teams were in danger of losing scholarships, but through hard work and attention to academics, that number was reduced to the 99 that were penalized today.

There are still adjustments that may need to be made to the system. As New Mexico State basketball coach Reggie Theus pointed out in the cited article, the system penalizes new coaches and new players for the sin of the past. However, this is done to a lesser degree than the NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations, for instance, which penalize the school and not the coaches. There is also a great danger that athletes will be steered into courses designed to facilitate progress to a degree through a "gut" major without any real commitment to an education. I'm not really sure how to expect the NCAA to monitor that, but I do know that to rely on institutional integrity is to be naive. Still, the initial APR report is a sign of progress. I was pleasantly surprised at the relatively few number of schools on the list compared to the trial run from last year. There are certainly some problem spots and a couple of schools that have significant issues, but all in all it is a sign of progress for academics and that is, after all, why these athletes are in school in the first place.