Fisher Times-Post-Dispatch-Courier

It’s cold here in Missouri today, but I’m warm to the core right now.

Why?

NFL news: very little could happen in the NFL right now to make a Redskins fan happier than to see Norv Turner emerge as the leading candidate for the Dallas Cowboys’ head coach position.  Mmmm.  Warm-fuzzy.

Mr. NFL, meet Mr. MLB.  Mr. MLB, meet Mr. NFL.  Despite your obvious differences, you have sooo much in common!  For example, you both have federal antitrust exemptions that allow you to exploit your respective games and their broadcasts and use unfair business practices to keep competitors out of the market.  Sure, Mr. MLB’s exemption stems from an early 20th Century Supreme Court decision that declares (get this) that baseball is an exclusively local affair, and not "interstate commerce."  And Mr. NFL’s exemption stems from the AFL-NFL merger in the late 1960s-1970s and a congressional action exempting the NFL from antitrust penalties on the back of several promises made by then-Commissioner of the NFL Pete Rozelle.

What result?  Mr. MLB and Mr. NFL are now acting in predictable ways to abuse their exemptions to the limit.  Enter: Mr. DirecTV.  First the NFL broke its promise to Congress - to use its antitrust exemption in broadcasting to make sure that fans generally will have access to games - by signing an exclusive deal with DirecTV for its Sunday Ticket package.  It also moved Monday Night Football from network TV to cable and started its own cable network that now carries live football games.  The vast majority of broadcast games now are no longer available to fans generally.  Congress, particularly Senator Arlen Specter (apparently a big fan), has noticed, and is making noises about removing NFL’s exemption.

Now Mr. MLB has sold exclusive broadcasting rights to its Extra Innings package - formerly available to cable subscribers - to DirecTV for $100 million dollars.  This is only $30 million more than the cable providers were willing to pay, and with the proceeds split among the 30 teams, the difference amounts to less than the ticket revenue from a single game at Yankee Stadium.  The whole deal wouldn’t even pay Alfonso Soriano’s salary over the next few years.  The cost for MLB?  750,000 former Extra Innings subscribers that now have to subscribe either to DirecTV or get their games over the internet from MLB.com.  Or not get games.  Way to tick off tens of thousands of fans, MLB.  Here’s to hoping both leagues lose their antitrust exemptions.  Sports are now just as big a business as any manufacturer or retailer, but are the only ones not subject to these federal laws.  What’s in the public interest?  Less bargaining power for these monoliths so that we get more access.  This is certainly not a pressing issue compared to other things on the minds of Congress, but definitely more important than holding time-wasting hearings on steroids.

Finally, a new(ish) set of photos is up on Flickr. I hesitate to say new because the newest of the bunch was taken around New Year’s, and the oldest was in mid-December.  Oh well, there they are.

Beamerball has officially arrived in the ACC.

In basketball for Virginia Tech.  Who’da’thunk?

The Hokies are averaging 9.5 fewer turnovers per game than their opponents, have the most steals per game and the fewest turnovers per game in the ACC.  Now they’ve beaten both Duke and North Carolina within 8 days - Duke in overtime and #1 Carolina with a thumping (though the Tarheels did make the last moments tense and interesting).  They’re taking the ball away with regularity and turning those take-aways and turning them into points.  They’re protecting the basketball and not giving the other team turnover-points.  Now they’re 13-4 and 3-0 in the conference, without being in the top 5 in team scoring or assists (though they do have the top individual scorer in the league).

Remind you of another Virginia Tech ball-sport team, eh?

This, right now, is the team no other team wants to have to play in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in March.  Look out for them Hokie-ballers.

First - McGwire not voted in to the Hall.  Eh.  Ok.  Probably deserved a few more votes, but not really a story unless, 15 years from now, he’s still not in.  Then me and the BWWAA will have words.  (BTW, is there a more ridiculous acronym out there?)  There are known cheaters, racists, and liars in the Hall, but because they contributed so much to the history, lore, and fun (that horrible, horrible f-word) to the game there’s little debate about the propriety of that.  McGwire made the game fun for casual fans, and helped bring it back from the brink after the Players’ Strike in the early 90’s.  Plus he’s got the numbers to satisfy the guys who never bother watching a game but count every hair on the head of Cal Ripken and determine the statistical significance of that number to his success as a player.  Mark should be in, eventually.  Like it or not, he is a significant contributor to the history of the game.

More interesting: Canseco only got, what, 5 or 6 votes?  Out of 578 or so cast!  Not even enough for 1%, much less the 5% required to stay on the ballot.  This one fills me with mirth.  And disgust with the 5 or 6 writers who actually cast a vote on the most ridiculous of the Bash Brothers (ball bouncing off head for home-run, anyone?)

Second - Florida crushing Ohio State for the "championship."  If you need more evidence that the "experts" know less about predicting football than I know about advanced theoretical physics, I give you USC trouncing Michigan.  And Boise State beating Oklahoma.

More interesting: Speaking of Boise State, it’s great that this team that I’ve rooted for for years is being mentioned as a participant in "possibly the greatest game ever played," or at least "the greatest ending ever," and at very least "the best bowl game this year."  Also, it’s a shame that only one voter in the AP poll had the cohones to vote Boise State #1.  C’mon, guys, you know BSU wasn’t going to overtake Florida, so couldn’t a few more of you have thrown a bone to the ONLY undefeated team out of 119 D-1A schools?  Equal tragedy: the polls not voting BSU #2.

I say: if you win every game AND a BCS game, and no other team wins every game, you’re my national champion, because no one will ever objectively prove to me that this Boise State team would lose, while I can point to at least one instance of (a) superior strategy, (b) superior play, or (c) superior luck going to the other team for every team in the country not called Boise State.  OK - I’ll accept for the moment that there’s a BCS, and the BCS champion probably deserves to be #1 under this system.  Solution?  Boise State should be #2.  Good job, "experts" (not counting, of course, the coaches that let their ball-boys cast their votes in the Coach’s poll - keep it up boys!)

The bylaw reads: "Student participation in intercollegiate athletics is an avocation, and student-athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises."  Not in the bylaw: "Except by the NCAA and its member institutions, who [because we write the rules] will continue to be able to receive millions of dollars from fans, athletic companies like N*$#, television broadcast companies, and bowl sponsors all on the backs of these talented young people."

In defense of the NCAA and colleges, the athletes [mostly] ARE compensated through scholarships, travel meal-stipends, free lodging, and life perks.  This makes the debate [somewhat] difficult.

However, there are "walk-on" athletes who participate without scholarship money.  And all of this "compensation" is non-monetary (except the meal-stipends, which are trifling if memory serves), which means that, despite free school, free room, free board, free travel, and other perks, many athletes are, as Florida defensive tackle Joe Cohen says, broke.

No money to buy clothes.  No money to buy food and snacks not provided by the "meal halls."  No money to see a movie, or take a date to dinner, or participate in dozens of activities that "normal" students participate in.

Is it any wonder that every year we read about schools getting punished for student athletes receiving money from boosters, participating in sham jobs, and getting money under the table from agents.

Coaches and officials try to deflect some criticism by pointing at the money spent on scholarships, and the revenue potential for those that end up in professional leagues.

As said before, scholarship money is great, but not enough.  Especially for revenue-generating players who have no professional sports future.  Remember the NCAA commercial about how there are so many thousand student athletes and most of them won’t be going pro?  (BTW, why is NCAA spending money on advertising?)  How about the dozens of players on the Florida and Ohio State teams not named Steve Smith (or whatever that quarterback’s name is).  Just a few will end up in the NFL.  The rest have no future earning potential, but the NCAA and friends are still raking in the millions on their hard work without even throwing them a bone.  NCAA has even capped the gifts players may receive from bowl sponsors at $500 worth of stuff (ok, I have no problem with this one…)

NCAA is a hypocricy.  Coaches are paid millions, get bonuses for taking their team to bowl games and playoffs and championships, and are otherwise well compensated for their work.  Perhaps over-compensated, but they do a job and get paid.  The "student-athletes" who do the actual work get no such bonuses (except for football players who get those "goody-bag gifts), no salaries, and no stipends.  Perhaps we need an organization to protect the student-athletes from exploitation by the NCAA.

Solution: sports programs for student-athletes need to include a modest stipend.  Cash.  Given to the student.  For any use.  Then when the NCAA goes after a student who feels they need more by accepting bribes from boosters or other illicit money, I won’t feel any sympathy for the athlete.  As long as "modest" means more than $10 a month.  And where might this money come from?  Licensing deals and football bowl money is a good place to start.  Perhaps encouraging boosters to donate to a general fund so that money can be distributed equitably and in the open and in line with the rules.

Whatever the answer, the first step is for the NCAA to admit that it has a problem.  Adults charged with the education and integration of young-people into society are teaching a terrible lesson: greed is good, sharing is bad.

A number (that is, several) O’Hare airport employees, including pilots, reported seeing a UFO last fall (at the same time!)  You can read about it on MSN.com, but what I found amusing was the response of one union official:

“To fly 7 million light years to O’Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable.”

I gave blood today. Why haven’t you?