Does your bracket look good after two days? I'm feeling pretty good after getting 26 out of 32 right in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and heading into the second round with 14 of my Sweet 16 still remaining, with only Clemson and UConn knocked out. I'm kicking myself for changing my mind about St. Mary's-Miami, but all things considered I like where I stand.
But there are 51 people I'm in awe of: Those are the 51 who sit at the top of the more than 3 million entries on the ESPN.com leaderboard, the 51 people who got 30 out of 32 picks correct in their brackets. Of those 51, seven still have all 16 of their Sweet 16 alive. That's impressive.
But it's also a reminder of how ridiculous it is when you sometimes see those contests that promise multimillion-dollar prizes for anyone with a perfect bracket. A perfect bracket is not going to happen. If more than 3 million people enter at ESPN.com and no one can even get 31 out of 32 right in the first round, we can forget anyone going 63-for-63 in the Tournament as a whole.
Incidentally, of the seven people who got 30 picks right in the first round and still have their whole Sweet 16 remaining, two picked Texas to win it all, two picked Memphis to win it all, one picked Georgetown, one picked UCLA, and one picked, of all teams, Villanova.
Speedo Guy III came and went in the UNC-Duke rivalry ... and hopefully he will never come back.
ESPN spent all day on its family of networks showing a feature on the original Speedo Guy. He was a Duke grad student who, back in 2003, stripped down to his skivvies and danced while UNC's Jackie Manuel shot (and missed) two free throws.
ESPN thought it'd be neat to do a feature on his which saw Speedo Guy (who is now a minister), Jackie Manuel and Mike Krzyzewski (who said that no one should ever do that again) discussing the incident. No one listened because Speedo Guy II appeared in 2005 while UNC's Marvin Williams shot (and missed) two free throws.
ESPN's Reece Davis noted that UNC has missed all free throws that Speedo Guy has danced to. Trap set. As you can see in the video above, the bait was taken.
Thanks to Brahsome for posting this video from last night's Illinois at Wisconsin game, demonstrating, once again, just how popular ESPN reporter Erin Andrews is among fans of college sports:
You have to listen closely, but you can hear the Wisconsin fans chanting "Erin Andrews" as she does her report. I then find it a little awkward when Brent Musberger and Steve Lavin proceed to talk about her popularity, with Musberger saying he wants to go to the Playboy Mansion with her. I'm not sure if it's appropriate for a man to talk about wanting to go to the Playboy Mansion with a female co-worker young enough to be his daughter.
ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb, like most of the World Wide Leader's employees, has to chat it up with the fans from time to time. Well, the exchange got a little out of hand last week:
Jables (NY): Has anyone ever told you that you look like Eddie from "The Munsters"? Doug Gottlieb: (4:03 PM ET ) Yes, as a kid, and yet I am still on TV... Mike Indiana: How did your mediocre basketball career prepare you for a mediocre broadcasting career? Doug Gottlieb: (4:04 PM ET ) So your mediocre life can prepare you for a mediocre afterlife...and by the way, which one of us works for ESPN... hey and next time...when I you say 30 minutes or less....get here on time with my pizza. John (Notre Dame): Doug, I lost my credit card, where were you last night? SportsNation Doug Gottlieb: (4:27 PM ET ) Ask your mom. Johns Mom (Notre Dame): GOTTLIEB I KNOW YOU STOLE MY SON'S CREDIT CARD! SportsNation Doug Gottlieb: (4:34 PM ET ) Ten years ago I made a mistake...and payed for it...18 years ago YOU WERE your parents mistake and they are still paying for it.
Just when you think schools and products can't put their logos anywhere else, something comes along to challenge that. Because, apparently painting your house and rooms or body in the officially licensed team colors is not enough. Nor are toothpick holders, watering cans, bird feeders and popcorn popper carts.
Now, you too can get your central air conditioning unit with licensed panels of your favorite team. The point of this is apparently so friends and neighbors can see this and shake their heads at how far gone you have reached. That or it makes a nice target.
In an announcement made last week, the all-powerful IMG -- one of, if not THE leading sports talent agency in the world today -- announced that it would acquire the Collegiate Licensing Company from the Battle family, in a deal estimated to be in the neighborhood of $100-140 million (although terms were not formally disclosed, as both IMG and CLC are privately-held).
IMG represents an impressive roster of clients that includes Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, LaDanian Tomlinson, Ronaldo, Maria Sharapova (pictured, b/c it was either that or a shot of a Peyton, Tiger or a TV studio), and Roger Federer. They also negotiate licensing rights for Major League Baseball, Wimbledon, the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Golf Association, amongst others.
As if that all weren't enough, just yesterday they announced that they'd also be acquiring Licensing Partners International, who represents the PGA Tour, Churchill Downs, and the cash cow known as the Canadian Football League. In short, IMG is the big dog in the sports agency world, and shows no signs of slowing down.
The blog TechCrunch discussed the rumored purchase of Rivals.com. TechCrunch creator, Michael Arrington posted that past securities fraud issues involving Rivals.com CEO Shannon Terry could derail the acquisition. To be clear, the issues took place in 1998, and the company where it took place was not and did not involve Rivals.com.
According to the post Rivals.com was nearly bought by Fox in 2005 and then AOL. In both cases Terry failed to disclose his past fraud litigation until it was discovered in the due diligence phase. The post says in both instances that shortly after the discovery, the deals fell apart.
Well, Terry and his lawyers didn't like the post. Not one bit. Being lawyers, they sent a three-page demand letter for a correction, retraction and apology for false and defamatory statements in the post. If the terms are not met, they threaten legal action on (or about) April 18, 2007 in Tennessee civil court.
TechCrunch naturally posted the demand letter for all to read. They also state that they are now in huddle with their own lawyers over this, so they cannot comment any further. Arrington and TechCrunch are offering Shannon Terry to the chance to directly respond on Tech Crunch with a response to refute the facts and opinions in the original post . That's unlikely to happen.
Now, it's wait and see with regards to the rumored deal, and the showdown with TechCrunch.
When there's money to be made, lots of things become mainstream. In the past two years, the sports media industry has recognized the importance -- but especially the money to be made -- in paying attention to college recruiting. At the same time, there seems to be a wariness at embracing the recruiting sites too closely.
ESPN created its Scouts, Inc. group to track recruiting and evaluate high school talent for football and now basketball. With the weight of the 800 pound gorilla in sports media behind it, to cross-promote on ESPN.com and the various TV channels, it has gained prominence. All the while, though, the whole recruiting venture is treated like a separate company that is merely a contractor for ESPN.
Fox Interactive Media bought Scout.com in August 2005. The price tag was a reported $60 million. Despite the ownership, there is very little to indicate ownership by Fox.
Viacom/CBS/CSTV acquiredMaxPreps.com for an undisclosed sum last month. This in addition to their own recruiting information that they had been building with Tom Lemming. MaxPreps will continue to operate as a separate site.
College recruiting is big business, we already knew that - but THIS big? Fox paid $60 million for the recruiting network Scout.com about a year and a half ago, and now it appears that Yahoo! is preparing to pay up to $100 million for their competitor Rivals.com. It's amazing to think there's enough guys sitting around paying monthly fees to follow the latest news about 17 year old kids and their future college choices to support two separate companies worth over $150 million combined, but that's evidently the level we've reached.
Rivals has an interesting history, as the first incarnation of the site blew through $75 million during the original dot com boom, but the new version seems to be built much more solidly and is very heavy on the multimedia side. Rivals has also aggressively signed deals to provide content for other sites such SI.com, USAToday.com and here at AOLSports.com. There is no word on how a potential deal with Yahoo! would effect those deals, but you can assume that they would want to keep the content at Yahoo! Sports and those other deals would slowly be eliminated.
Let me see if I have this straight. The NFL Network struggles to get on cable systems because the NFL demands its station to be on one of the lower tier of package offerings by cable systems. This despite having NFL games in its repertoire.
The Big Ten Network plans to show all the conference's football games that aren't broadcast elsewhere -- at least 35 a year. It also plans to show at least 105 regular-season men's basketball games, 55 regular-season women's games, 170 other events from sports such as softball and track, and Big Ten championships.
The network also owns the rights to tapes of Big Ten football and basketball back to 1960, Silverman said, allowing it to produce "classic" programming similar to that featured on ESPN Classic.
Right now, the only major provider to agree to put the Big Ten Network on a lower tier is DirecTV. The funny thing about that. The Big Ten Network is co-owned by the Fox Cable Networks. The parent company of Fox Cable Networks, of course is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. When the deal was announced, News Corp. also happened to own a controlling interest in DirecTV (since sold to Liberty Media).
The reason is money. It's hard to get premium advertising dollars when your channel is on a much more expensive tier, necessarily limiting the potential number of watchers. Get stuck on the same level as Logo, Lifetime Real Women and Great American Country, and you will find yourself doing a lot of advertising for your other programming and public service announcements to fill the ad space.
But for the wise involvement of Fox Cable, the Big Ten Network would be at about on the same market penetration as the Mountain West Conference's .Mtn channel.
Long-term, this is probably the way most conferences will go. It gives them more control over their content/product and the distribution. It means more ways to sell and offer, especially in digital formats. Right now, though, it's going to be painful and piss-off a lot of people.
ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb, like most of the 
Just when you think schools and products can't put their logos anywhere else, something comes along to challenge that. Because, apparently 
In an announcement made last week, the all-powerful 
Still no actual confirmation as to whether 
When there's money to be made, lots of things become mainstream. In the past two years, the sports media industry has recognized the importance -- but especially the money to be made -- in paying attention to college recruiting. At the same time, there seems to be a wariness at embracing the recruiting sites too closely.
