New Upper Deck Trading Cards Include College Basketball Coaches, Olympians

Upper Deck is bringing out a new line of trading cards which will, for the first time, feature more than 30 active college basketball coaches, including Bill Self, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, Tubby Smith, Bobby Huggins and Jim Calhoun. The coaches cards will be part of a 400 card set covering multiple sports and featuring autographs and memorabilia inserted in the packs. Other stars featured in the set range include Tiger Woods, Landon Donovan, Dara Torres, Amanda Beard (no word on whether the card features her Playboy shoot), Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan in his UNC days, Sasha Cohen and inexplicably Jose Conseco representing baseball.

Cal Cuts Baseball Team and Four Other Sports

In the most jarring example yet of the pressures being felt by athletic departments across the country caused by the Great Recession and the college sports arms race, University of California Berkeley announced it was dropping baseball, a sport which it had fielded a team since 1892. In addition, it is also dropping men's and women's gymnastics and women's lacrosse and is reducing men's hockey to club status, all as of the close of the 2011 academic year.

The athletic program has been receiving millions in subsidies from the school; in fact, last year the university provided athletics with $12 million in support.  With budgets tight across the entire university, the administration decided it could no longer justify support at that level.  These reductions will supposedly reduce the need for support down to a more manageable level of $5 million.

You have to wonder if cutting baseball was the most appropriate response.  Berkeley is not exactly a hockey hotbed and travel to other D-I hockey playing schools is expensive as they are few that are close.  The same is true for lacrosse, so cutting those programs makes sense.  However, baseball is a Pac-10(12) sport with a more than 100 year tradition at Cal and it's hard to picture a BCS school, particularly one that fancies itself as a major athletic institution without a baseball team.  Cutting baseball has also not gone down well with certain vocal and well-heeled alumni, including current major league ballplayers, which may lead to significant fund raising losses.

Rachel Alexandra Retired From Racing

One of thoroughbred racing's most illustrious fillies has been retired from racing.  Reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra has been sent to the breeding shed by her owner Jess Jackson before the end of her four year old year, with no explanation other than a reference to her less than stellar 2010 racing performance.  Her retirement ensures that there will be no match-up between her and the undefeated champion older filly or mare Zenyatta, winner of last year's Breeders Cup Classic. 

As a three year, old Rachel Alexandra turned in one of the most historic performances ever waged by a three year old filly.  She was the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years, following her more than 20 length victory in the Kentucky Oaks.  She followed up on the Preakness with a better than 19 length win in the Grade I Mother Goose, then won the Grade I Haskell  defeating 3-year old male champion Summer Bird by t6 lengths and followed that by becoming the first filly or mare to win the Grade I, beating older males in the process.  Each of these races was on a different track and some had different surfaces.  None of that bothered Rachel Alexandra.

Rachel Alexandra will now be bred to two time horse of the year Curlin.  As owner Jess Jackson said in a statement yesterday. "Imagine what possibilities those two super horses might produce,"

 

Here's a video recap of her 2009 historic racing campaign:

Marketing the Wizards

Is there any team in the NBA, other than possibly the Knicks, that faced a tougher marketing issue heading into this season than the Washington Wizards.  Last season was a disaster with their star player lost to a 50 game suspension and then the balance of the season in a halfway house for pulling a gun in the locker room.  The team had built its entire marketing plan around Gilbert Arenas and Agent Zero really proved to be less than zero when it came to his effect on marketing the club as it did all it could to recover from the hit it took from his bone-headed action; this on the team whose owner changed its name from Bullets because of the implications of that nickname on the youth of DC.

The team was sold to Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Capitals, who is also the former marketing chief for AOL, way back when AOL really was something to be the chief marketer for - you know back before it was sold to Time Warner. Leonsis has put in motion major marketing plans, in areas big and little, which, with a little luck in the draft lottery, have already begun to pay substantial dividends.  This year's marketing is not going to be centered on any one player, not even number one pick John Wall, but it will include several players, the owner and some of the more famous Bullets/Wizards of the past, names like Unseld, Monroe and Hayes.  The Washington Post gives a quick overview of those plans and it makes interesting reading in how to bring a team back from a crisis and restore it to the center of a city's sporting consciousness.

Weekend Reading

Here are a few links for your weekend reading pleasure:

NCAA discussing the possibility of losing teams going to bowl games (San Diego Union Tribune)

Just how low does the WAC have to reach to replace the schools departing for the Mountain West (Idaho Statesman)

Turner gets 14 year deal for digital rights to NCAA championships and management of NCAA.com (AP)

Madison Square Garden and JP Morgan Chase announce "marquee partnership" deal worth at least $300 million (Sports Pro)

How student fees are being jacked up to pay for college athletics (USA Today via The Wiz)

NHL get its own version of Hard Knocks; announces a reality show with HBO (Mediaweek)

Carmelo to the Nets

The New York Daily News is reporting that Carmelo Anthony has signed off on a deal that will send him to the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets in the latest of the string of off-season deals reshaping the NBA landscape.  The deal is said to involve four teams and will send Derrick Favors to the Nuggets with Andrei Kirilenko from Utah along with draft picks.  Devin Harris would go to Charlotte with Boris Diaw going from Charlotte to Utah.  Got all that?  There may be some other role players or draft picks involved. The Daily News says the deal may be announced as early as Saturday. 

Should this deal come to pass it will certainly be a good back-up shot for the Nets having failed to land LeBron earlier this summer.  Landing Melo will give the Nets not only a go-to scorer to build a team around but a star to market the team as it moves into its new Brooklyn home in 2012.   The only people more unhappy with this deal than Nuggets fans are the management of the Knicks, who now must face marketing the train wreck that masquerades as a NBA team playing in the Garden against a real, bonafide, Redeem Team star just across the bridge in Brooklyn.  Good luck with that.

Tuesday Tidbits

Here are a few of the things I have been reading:

Corked baseball bats don't help power hitters (Scientific American via Abnormal Returns)

NFL now caught between its twin monsters: TV ratings and ticket sales (WaPo)

Penn State receives $88 million to fund arena and men's and women's hockey teams (PSU); will Big Ten hockey soon follow (Star-Tribune)

Muni Bond Watch turns eye on minor league stadium bonds and picture isn't pretty (WSJ via Sports Economist)

The next boom in sports television: high school football (Dallas News)

What have you been reading?

World Equestrian Games: What Does Being Title Sponsor Mean?

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, the olympics for the horse set, open this week in Lexington. It will be the first time the Games have ever been held in North America and Lexington, a rather sleepy town of 250,000 nestled in the Bluegrass of Kentucky is preparing for a worldwide invasion of 800,000 people over the next two weeks. Competition will take place in eight different disciplines, which , unless you are involved in the horse business in some way, breeder, rider, relative of the foregoing or a really devoted fan, you will not be familiar with most of them.  I know that I wasn't and I used to be heavily involved in the thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.

Have you ever heard of Alltech?  I thought not.  The title sponsor of the Games is a Central Kentucky based company that is a world leader in animal health and nutrition, including  horse feed supplements and beer, algae and to be introduced at the World Equestrian Games, coffee.  Alltech originally committed $10 million to become the title sponsor of the Games.  As the planning for the Games continued, Alltech realized an opportunity to strengthen its brand recognition and the ability of Lexington to put on a successful Games if it committed additional money and manpower to the organizing committee.  To date, Alltech has spent about $30 million and, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, "the line between  the Games organization and Alltech has seemed increasingly blurred."  Alltech pllans to use the Games to roll out several new products and to build relationships with 67 customer companies. 

There is no doubt that Alltech's involvement in the planning and marketing of the Games has been unusal.  Jim Host, former CEO of Host Communications and a ground breaker in the field of sports marketing said of Alltech: "I don't think we'll see anything like this again. I've never seen anybody execute better what's been done by Alltech. And it's helped the games."

Tuesday Tidbits

I thought I would put up a few links to articles I had been reading lately since it's been a bit hectic around here these last couple of days. Hope you enjoy:

Origin of NFL nicknames (CNN), 
Remember last year's AFL throwback uniforms, you know, the Bronco's vertical stripe brown socks, well here's the story on where they came from (Mental Floss),
Reggie Bush returns Heisman Trophy, now what (LATimes)
Taxpayers still on hook after stadiums abandoned (NYT)
It's matches like last week's Spain v. Argentina that fuels clubs anger with FIFA over calendar (NYT)
NFL's highest paid players: inappropriately skewed towards rookies and unproven players (Forbes)
Did you know that Coach K and Team USA won the World Basketball Championship with the Redeem Team left at home? (SI)

NFL Players Association Seeks Right to Decertify if Owners Lockout

The NFL Players Association is circulating cards among players permitting the union to decertify in the face of a lockout by the owners at the end of the current collective bargaining agreement in 2011.  The NFLPA is not leveling decertification as a threat but wants to maintain the option in order to strengthen its hand in negotiations for a new CBA.

Should the union decertify, it would enable the players to sue the owners for violation of antitrust laws by conducting a group boycott in locking out the players. Maintaining itself as a union would not allow the union to sue because of the labor exemption under the antitrust laws.


The circulation of these cards is just one indication that the new CBA is going to be one difficult negotiation and will take at least as long as there is time remaining on the clock before the current one expires.  As is generally the case with collective bargaining, there is little incentive for the parties to compromise until midnight hour and the option of decertification gives the union an arrow that is at least as dangerous to the owners as a lockout may seem to the players, thus equalizing the playing field and increasing the likelihood of an eventual settlement.

Blackouts Loom Large as a New NFL Season Begins

The surest indication of the continuing effects of the Great Recession is that it has even affected the golden league, the NFL.  Up until the Recession first hit in 2008, it was unheard of for the NFL to suffer league-wide drop in ticket sales.  Then came the Recession and ticket sales have dropped in each of the last three years.

The drop-off this year has been so bad that as many as 11 teams may be subject to blackout when their home season opens. To be fair, the economy is no  solely to blame.  The quality of HD broadcasts and home theater AV systems has made the home viewing experience the equal of the stadium experience in many ways - especially for those fans whose seats would have been in the upper reaches of the stadium where they would have been watching the game on the stadium's big screens anyway.  In addition, the troubles of some of the 11 teams on the field surely has contributed to the drop in ticket sales.  Nevertheless, the major reason would still seem to be the economy and unless teams decide to buy up the unsold tickets for distribution to servicemen and women or underprivileged kids, the league will be seeing (or not seeing, to be more accurate) more blackouts in quite some time.

JP Morgan Chase, Madison Square Garden Said to be in Largest Ever Naming Rights Deal

Madison Square Garden is about to undergo a massive $800 million phased renovation that will not be completed until 2013, but when finished will create an essentially new MSG.  If a recent story by Sports Business Journal is correct, then a significant portion of the financing for the project has been secured in the largest ever sponsor/arena rights deal, as JP Morgan Chase is paying $300 million for a ten year deal to become the marquee sponsor of the new MSG.  It is important to note, that the Garden has not sold the naming rights to the building, which will continue to be named Madison Square Garden, but that JP Morgan Chase will have naming rights inside the building, including the old Felt Forum, will have extensive media rights, and will have media and ticketing rights that extend to all MSG properties, which include Radio City Music Hall, the Chicago Theater and the Beacon Theater. 

Interestingly, the three largest naming rights deals in North America have all involved financial institutions, and, not surprisingly, have been in New York City.  This deal eclipses the $20 million per year that Barclays is paying to put its name on the arena under construction in Brooklyn that will be the new home of the Nets and the $20 million per year that Citibank is paying the Mets for the rights to Citi Field.  Each of those deals, however, run for 20 years.

Woods, Z. Johnson on Ryder Cup Team

American Ryder Cup team captain Corey Pavin announced his captain's selections for the Ryder Cup team which will take on Europe at Celtic Manor in Wales.  To no one's surprise, Tiger Woods was selected despite his less than stellar play of late.  Joining him as a captain's pick are Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink and Rickie Fowler.  Johnson won the Colonial, Cink last year's Open Championship and Fowler has five top 10 finishes this year. although the last one came when he finished second at the Memorial back on June 6. 

Of the four selections, Fowler will definitely be the most controversial, as it is not evident to most, including me, why he was selected, at least based on his performance on the Tour this year.  He is only 21 years old, is 25th on the earnings list and while he did finish 14th at the Open Championship at St. Andrews (which could well be the reason Pavin picked him) he missed the cut in the two tournaments before that and didn't finish higher than 33 in the four he played following the Open.

Derrick Caracter's, uhm, Light Laker Contract

The oft troubled Derrick Caracter, formerly of the University of Louisville and most recently a post player from the University of Texas El Paso, showed enough promise in the NBA Summer League the champion Lakers gave their second round pick a two year contract, with  at least the first year, or a portion of it, guaranteed. While not typical for second round pick (only first round draft picks are assured guaranteed contracts) it is certainly not unheard of and Caracter is certainly not the only second round pick to earn a roster spot this summer. 

What makes his contract different is how the Lakers baked in an incentive for him to commit to handle the one area that caused the club the most concern.  Going into the draft, the knock on Caracter was his work ethic, desire and commitment to conditioning, all of which combined to get him shipped out of Louisville by Rick Pitino.  The Lakers signed Caracter to a $473,000 contract for this year, but if he weighs 275 pounds or less on September 10, the whole contract becomes guaranteed.  If Derrick is not willing to do the work and get in shape for the money, no amount of coaching magic by the Zen master will do the trick.  Here's hoping Derrick's been using Nutrisystem; he was always a fan favorite in the Derby City and deserves to have some good things happen for him.  HT.: JSK

Friday Night Lights: Lingerie Football League Returns to TV

You know you want it.  You know you missed; your Friday nights just haven't been the same.  Well, your wait is finally over.  Friday night lights have gotten brighter as the Lingerie Football League returns to a television near you this Friday, September 10 at 11PM ET on MTV2.  It's full tackle, 7-on-7 football, unlike any other - the LFL, the real fantasy football league. 

In case you have forgotten what it's like (really, how could you?), here's the trailer for the new season:

MTV Shows

Conference Realignment Western Style: Blood Flows Into the Great Salt Lake

It's often said about departmental politics in colleges and universities that the politics is so brutal because the stakes are so small.  Maybe that's why the conference realignment game being played out among the Mountain West, WAC and West  Conference Conference seems to be on a whole other plain of duplicity and hard feelings than even the infamous ACC midnight raid on the Big  East.  At least in that raid, with the exception of the Boston College, there were no expressions of fealty to the league being abandoned before the jump was made.


The realignment dance out west began when the Pac-10(12) decided to explore expansion.  Shortly after the expansion discussions began, it became evident to BYU that it would not become a member of the PAC-10(12) and that Utah likely would.  At that point, it became clear to the leadership of the WAC that an opportunity was presenting itself to elevate the league's status to becoming the top non automatic qualifying conference in the land, by providing BYU with a spot for all of its teams other than football and working out an arrangement that would allow BYU to go independent in football, which is something that BYU had been exploring for years.  To that end, the WAC asked each member for a five year commitment to the league and each member agreed, whether that agreement was in writing and the nature of the agreement is going to be something that a court will likely decide but I'm getting ahead of myself.  


The Mountain West, now fearful of losing its two best programs, went searching for new members, other than Boise State who had jumped from the WAC before the discussions described above took place.  The league asked Utah State but the Aggies declined in solidarity with its WAC brethren and in reliance on its agreement with the other members.  It might end up paying a very heavy price for that choice.  The WAC then asked both Fresno State and Nevada, who each thought about their commitment to the WAC for about five seconds and jumped to the MWC, probably believing BYU was staying.  Now, Utah State, having been totally deceived by Fresno State and Nevada, wants a mulligan on the MWC decision and supposedly they are in discussions. 


Yesterday, BYU announced it is leaving the MWC to go independent and will affiliate with the West Coast Conference in other sports.  If that doesn't ring a bell, it is the wholly owned subsidiary of Gonzaga basketball.  BYU also announced an eight year agreement with ESPN for broadcast of its games across the ESPN family which justifies its decision.  In fact, it even has Southern Call at least thinking about taking the same route.  Who knows maybe Texas will take its Longhorn Network and go independent as well, although they have all of the advantages and none of the disadvantages so I guess it wouldn't make much sense for them to leave the Big XII (X).

The WAC meanwhile is now scrambling to see if they can keep a league together.  The biggest loser in all of this may be Hawai'i who desperately needs a conference to ensure enough games for all of its athletes.  It's bad enough trying to schedule football when the visitor receives and extra game to make up the travel costs, but the Olympic sports have similar travel costs (admittedly the teams are smaller) but no way to make up the additional expense.  If Hawai'i can't count on a conference to fill out its schedule its participation in Division I could be in jeopardy.  The second biggest loser could be the only school that acted honorably in the whole mess, Utah State.  If the MWC doesn't extend membership to the Aggies and they are left with the other WAC schools trying to pull together a makeshift conference, they may just have to return to the Big West.


We would like to think of our institutions of higher education as places where our children go to learn the values that help govern our free society.  Based on the manner in which these schools conduct their business, the values that are being taught to out kids are the very values that embody the Wall Street mentality that put us in the Great Recession.  A college or university athletic department is first and foremost a reflection of, introduction to and manifestation of that particular college or university.  If this is the way that these universities wish to portray themselves to the general public, they should not cry too much when legislators cut the budgets of public schools and when public and private schools have a tougher time attracting donations.  Few people like to be associated with greed, duplicity and the callous disregard for general ethics.  College athletics in particular should be above this.