NCAA Football FanHouse

Video: College Football Is Cutthroat

Brian Grummell — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:59:00 EST

Filed under: Mountain West, The Word, UNLV Football

The video below is a 10-minute, profane (NSFW) interview with *former* UNLV quarterback Rocky Hinds. Hinds started at UNLV for a few games before a serious knee injury forced him to miss a season's worth of football. When he came back, it appears he was no longer invited to be part of the team. This news was delayed enough to make him ineligible to transfer to another school and be eligible to play right away.

This stuff actually happens a fair amount, particularly at places flying under the radar like UNLV. His coach will obviously tell a different and perhaps accurate story in this he said/she said affair, so by no means is this video the official and final word on the Rocky Hinds/Mike Sanford/UNLV breakup.

(Via: WildWest)

Video: College Football Is Cutthroat originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:59:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Badgers Escape Vegas

Bruce Ciskie — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:35:00 EST

Filed under: Wisconsin Football, Big 10, Mountain West, UNLV Football

After being rather thoroughly outplayed for the better part of the football game, the Wisconsin Badgers finally did in the final ten minutes what they should have been doing all night. They imposed their will on heavy underdog UNLV, escaping Las Vegas with a 20-13 non-conference win.

Senior quarterback Tyler Donovan's 29-yard scamper down the left sideline with 1:53 left capped a ten-play, 61-yard drive to give Wisconsin the lead for good. Donovan threw a pass to Luke Swan for the two-point conversion.

Wisconsin's defense then shut down UNLV in five plays, sacking Travis Dixon twice, and Donovan closed the night with two kneel-downs. Wisconsin is 2-0, and thanks to earlier college football craziness, the Badgers now own the nation's longest winning streak at 11.

While the end of the game was good for Wisconsin, the rest of it was uneven at best, and completely ugly at its worst. The Badgers struggled to make any big plays offensively, and they couldn't sustain many drives. The defense played a bend-but-don't-break style against UNLV's spread offense, which would have been nice had it not cost UW valuable field position most of the night. The Rebels put together a 14-play, 80-yard touchdown drive in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead, then strung together two more long drives to set up field goals. While the running game struggled to find holes, Dixon picked the Badgers' vaunted secondary apart most of the night, throwing for 258 yards.

It appeared UNLV wanted to attack that secondary, especially cornerback Allen Langford, who didn't give up much deep but was burned repeatedly on short passes. Watching the game, it was hard to understand why Wisconsin didn't shift their personnel a little more often. Instead of getting extra defensive backs on the field, UW often relied on man-to-man coverage on the outside. Because of that, we didn't hear the name "Jack Ikegwuonu" very much, but Langford was getting picked on every series.

(Actually, come to think of it, I'm guessing we didn't hear the name "Ikegwuonu" that much because the guys calling the game on Versus didn't appear easily capable of pronouncing it. That's a sour subject with me, but let's just say that I'm glad Wisconsin won't be appearing on Versus again anytime soon. That was not an experience I'm looking forward to repeating.)

Wisconsin's offense, as I mentioned, was void of any big plays against a UNLV defense that appears at least somewhat improved from what I saw from them last year. Donovan's late touchdown run was the longest play of the night for the Badgers' offense.

For now, it stands to reason that Badger fans will have to live with a fall in the national rankings. I'm thinking the voters won't take too well to a near-miss against a UNLV team that won twice last year and barely beat hapless Utah State last week. In the future, Wisconsin is going to have to play much better than this to be considered a national title threat.

Speaking of "national title", I know you're wondering, and yes, even national championship winners do occasionally get scares from lesser opponents. The 2004 USC Trojans needed a furious rally to beat Stanford, and the 2006 Florida Gators barely got by Vanderbilt and Florida State (14 losses between them last year).

Badgers Escape Vegas originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:35:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Learning from the mtn.

Charles Rich — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:44:00 EST

Filed under: Mountain West, Mid-Majors Basketball, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, NCAA FB Media Watch, Brigham Young Football, Utah Football, BYU, Colorado State Football, UNLV Football, Wyoming Football

With the Big Ten fledgling network still involved in a public spat with Comcast, comparisons to the Mountain West's less than spectacular first year with "The mtn." sports channel are inevitable. In the first year of operation, the mtn. has made it to a whopping 1.2 million homes.

It appears to be a flop. Utah and BYU took the lead and got the rest of the Mountain West members to help foot the bill in hiring an attorney to explore options with their TV deal.

In its annual meeting Tuesday, the MWC Board of Directors voted unanimously to retain Kelly Crabb, the lawyer originally hired and retained last week by BYU and Utah, in efforts to clarify the nature of the TV contract and delineate distribution strategies of The mtn. network.

Crabb will work with Commissioner Craig Thompson and an ad hoc committee made up of three Board members - BYU President Cecil Samuelson, Texas Christian University Chancellor Victor Boschini and Colorado State University President Larry Edward Penley. The conference presidents spearheaded the TV deal that the MWC settled on a year ago with the network co-owned by Comcast Cable and CBS' College Sports Television.

However, there is widespread displeasure because of the troubles in getting The mtn., distributed.

This has fueled speculation that the Mountain West may try to find a way to get out of its deal, and pull the plug on the mtn. The mtn. has not been picked up by either satellite provider, and very few sizable cable operators in the markets (PDF) where the schools operate (Comcast in Utah and Cox in Las Vegas and San Diego are the largest carriers that have it).
It's unlikely that the Mountain West would be able to pull the plug, nor is it clear that the schools really want to. They obviously want to make their fans happier and want to be added to satellite providers and more cable systems. The fans aren't pissed that the games are on the mtn. They are pissed because they can't see their team on TV. That's a lot of what the attorney they hired is likely to try to help accomplish. Negotiate and get the channel better distribution. That would include forcing Comcast and CSTV to work harder or cut the cost per household.

The Mountain West went the route of their own channel for a couple reasons.

Money was the big reason. ESPN actually tried to cut their payouts from $800,000 per school per year to $500,000. Comcast and CSTV offered the Mountain West $1.1 million per school per year.

The other reason, and almost as important. Control. The old contract with ESPN effectively made the Mountain West weekday fall programming filler for the Worldwide Leader. Teams would be playing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Friday nights. Usually after 10 pm Eastern. The fans of the teams who actually attended the games hated it. Attendance suffered and it's hard to market the schools, conference and programs as well when the that TV coverage shows stands half-filled because people weren't able to get to the games on the weekdays.

By going with Comcast and CSTV, the majority of the Mountain West games went back to Saturdays.

But the big service the mtn. network has provided for the MWC has been the flexibility in the athletic schedules, specifically in football.

"Saturday afternoons is when I believe we should play football," Whittingham said. "That's what the mtn. has done. Our home schedule is all Saturday afternoon contests. I think that's a big positive."

Fitzpatrick also noted that the mtn. offers unprecedented coverage within the conference, including on-campus cameras and televised coverage of MWC sports such as swimming, baseball and softball, which are enjoying exposure never seen in the conference before.

It also means their games are featured on both CSTV and Versus. While that doesn't come close to the market penetration by ESPN channels (just ask the NHL), they do have more of their games aired nationally. In the last year of the deal with ESPN, only 7 Mountain West games were on ESPN.

Additionally, the deal to have their own sports channel gave the Mountain West more control over the distribution rights (and revenue streams) from their sports. This means, in the long-term they do have options in streaming games live over the web via their own sites and getting larger cuts of subscriber fees.

Other conferences besides just the Big Ten will eventually follow suit. The control and potential new revenue streams will be too good to pass. The same reason Major League Baseball teams keep setting up their own channels.

Mountain West was merely the first, and the example of things not to do.

Previously on Fanhouse:
Big Ten Network Getting Political Pressure
Big Ten Network May Not Be Huge Fiasco
SEC TV Network? Prepare to Get Nothing Accomplished Again. Ever.

Learning from the mtn. originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:44:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Report: UNLV Says "No" To Lambeau

Bruce Ciskie — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:41:00 EST

Filed under: Wisconsin Football, Big 10, Mountain West, UNLV Football

A new tradition among college football programs is the practice of allowing home games to be played at "neutral sites".

Some schools do it so they can boost their attendance figures to meet NCAA Division I-A standards. Some do it to boost their regional profile. Some do it to make money and nothing else.

Others, like UNLV, aren't prepared to sell their soul for the chance to play a "home" game at one of pro football's legendary sites.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick turned down an offer to play a September 2007 home game against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The Sun report stated that Hamrick received multiple offers from "University of Wisconsin representatives", asking him to sell next season's home game against the Badgers for amounts of $1 million and then $1.3 million. The paper says Hamrick turned both offers down, saying that he didn't feel it was the right thing to do.

(In a Capital Times article today, UW denies that they were the ones who made the offers, saying that an unidentified third party made the proposals.)

If the report is true, and Hamrick really did turn down upwards of $1.3 million to play a home game more than 1,800 miles away from home, then I give him credit. I don't care who made the offer. The money might have helped UNLV's program in the short-term, but the loyal fans and supporters of the program in the Las Vegas area would have had every right to be upset about losing the chance to see a marquee opponent playing UNLV in Las Vegas, an event that doesn't come around every season.

Report: UNLV Says "No" To Lambeau originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:41:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Trojan Transfer Tallies Touchdowns in Vegas

Scott Olin Schmidt — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:20:00 EST

Filed under: Mountain West, UNLV Football

John David Booty was not the only former backup to Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart to shine on Saturday night. For his part, Rocky Hinds, who transferred to the University of Nevada Las Vegas, turned in one of the top five performances for a quarterback as the Running Rebels defeated Division I-AA Idaho State 54-10.

Hinds thre for 322 yards (fourth best in the Country) and a touchdown, and added 42 yards on the ground. Ryan Wolfe, a favorite go-to guy for Hinds, set a UNLV freshman record en route to 160 yards receiving.

Trojan Transfer Tallies Touchdowns in Vegas originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments