The Sports Chase

So here it is the first week of March, spring and warm weather is here. Oh wait, we live in Indiana — psych! But at least spring break is right around the corner and, more importantly, March Madness. I don’t know if it’s just me, but March is one of the best months of the year.

It’s the month when grown men act like little boys in their bracket pools, office productivity reaches an all-time low and names like Pittsnogle and Farokhmenesh are eternally engraved in our minds. It’s the month when memories are made, whether good ones or bad, memorable or not. And we go to IWU, so we should remember all of our spring break. Party clean people, we signed a contract!

Anyways, the point is that I love March and all of the mayhem that it brings. It is college basketball’s one shining moment and never fails to disappoint year after year.

It is also a time when teams can redeem themselves after a long and maybe disappointing season. Conference tournaments offer every team a fair chance at making it to the Big Dance.

I have had the privilege to attend several NCAA tournament games in the past, and it is simply electric, which is why I think the Big Dance is the most exciting event in sports. In no other arena do unrecognized college athletes become gods to their schools and upsets are about as predictable as Dick Vitale picking Duke to win it all.

March is just another reminder of how sweet it can be to stay in college and play for their schools and state. Even superstars like Lebron James and Kevin Garnett have said they wished they could have played in the Big Dance.
There’s just something about the whole process: the brackets, the powerhouse teams, the underdogs, the unproductivity.

Professional sports just don’t stack up when it comes to the NCAA tournament. For one, the NBA playoffs last about a third of the year so the shine kind of wears off over time. The NFL and MLB playoffs are more brief, but long- shot underdogs are rarely seen. Of course, the Packers won this year, but everyone knew they were a good team.

Even tournaments at the mid-major and NAIA level are one of a kind events. If you have ever had the opportunity to watch one of IWU teams in Branson, Missouri or Sioux City then you know what I am talking about.

Players put everything on the line for their school and fans in this win or go home mentality. For 40 minutes, everything else is put aside and all that hard work pays off. The thrill of victory and the jaws of defeat enrapture our amped feelings.

March is a time of renewing and remembering our roots. There is nothing like cheering on your team to victory in the Big Dance. But let’s face it, even when our team loses it is still fun to watch the games for that one shining moment at the end of the year.

Sports are an emotional roller coaster ride. Take the basketball teams at IWU for example. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the MCC regular season and the women took the tournament championship.
Although they both turned in impressive records, IWU’s teams dealt with their fair share of adversity throughout the season: offseason workouts, practices, meetings, roadtrips, injuries, failures. These all make up the mix of a college season.

But when March rolls around it’s a whole new ball game, where all the hard work culminates into just a few games. So take a fresh breath of clean, frigid Indiana air, because March is here and the madness has only begun.

The Sports Chase

As the NBA All-Star Weekend drew to a close last weekend, many questions were left unanswered — and not just whether Blake Griffin is the best dunker of our generation. The annual mid-way point in the NBA was just a cause for fun and celebration but for serious talks about the future of the league as well.

Although the NBA has lost money in recent years, it is a billion-dollar business with the potential to expand its reach and revenue if handled correctly. According to NBA Commissioner David Stern, the NBA lost $370 million during the 2009-10 season and is expected to lose at least $350 million this year.

Even with steady attendance across the league, the players union and NBA owners are still taking their losses. If things don’t change soon, then all signs point to a lockout. As found in the 1998 lockout, this is the worst possible scenario for everybody, halting any momentum that the league has mounted up to this point.

Some say that the lockout might be a good thing and the only way that both sides will come to their senses. After all, if no one is getting paid, then no one is happy. Clearly there is enough green to go around, but it is a matter of who is going to take cuts so that teams fit under the salary cap. The majority of the problem in these disputes is the highest- and lowest-paid players bidding for bigger contracts and pushing the mid-level exception.

This may sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to you non- sports people, but hear me out. One suggestion to clear things up is the franchise tag, which has become commonplace in the NFL for all-star players. Players such as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have been granted this distinction which limits the market in free agency. How does it work exactly?

In Manning’s case, the Colts placed the tag on him, knowing that he was a free agent this season. This tag guarantees Manning that he will receive at least the average salary of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. He can still talk with other teams if the Colts allow, but the other team must give the Colts two first-round draft picks in compensation if somehow that squad acquires him.

This is just one way the NBA could solve some of its many problems with superstar players in free agency. Another simpler strategy for players and owners: Take a pay cut! Yet again, easier said than done.

Some say that the players are being greedy, which may be true, but they deserve fair treatment from the owners and know exactly what they’re getting and why. After all, they are the reason we are going to the games in the first place. No players, no games.

Although the numbers and revenue may have fluctuated slightly over the past years, the NBA is still one of the most successful and exciting leagues in the sporting world. And this comes at a point in the history of the league when everything is bigger and better. Players are stronger and more skilled, stadiums are larger and more luxurious, and fans are eager and more ready to spend than ever.

All I hope is that both sides come to their senses before it is too late. I wasn’t old enough to really remember the last lockout and its repercussions, but I know that it took the league four or five years to get the TV ratings and overall revenue back to normal.

It would just be a waste to not be playing the games … empty arenas, players staying at home, fans cooped up watching game reruns. It’s like a bad scene in the movie that lasts too long. Let’s hope it does not come to that. I always like a happy ending.

As I was watching last week’s Duke-North Carolina match up, I was reminded of how significant sports rivalries truly are. Even though I am not a fan of the Blue Devils or the Tar Heels, I watched with millions of other sports fans as the two teams clashed in Cameron Indoor Stadium. It wasn’t a season deciding game for either team, but it was the Battle of Tobacco Road, so it was special.

This made me wonder: How are these rivalries born? Does some person come along the lines of history and grant two teams rivals forever? Obviously, teams like Duke and North Carolina or Florida and Florida State are linked by location with almost a civil war mentality. Others like USC-Notre Dame or Chicago and Green Bay in the NFL are not border wars, but connected by sheer competition and grit on the field of play. I think teams are considered rivals when they have proven themselves on the field and share a unique bond of some sorts that internally link them. A rival is simply defined as a person or thing who shares the same objective or goal with another or disputes the other’s superiority. Realistically, we could tab a lot of teams rivals if we wanted to, because they are always competitive, but we don’t and I think that is a good thing.

Just because a kid can sing and dance doesn’t mean he or she is a superstar. If that was the case, then we would have little Justin Beibers popping up all over the place.

What I’m saying is that too much of a good thing becomes old. And let’s face it, not everyone is good. There are a lot of average singers in this world, which makes the great ones stand out. A rivalry is formed over time, sharing legacies and tradition that make the two teams unique.

But what happens when a team struggles for a length of time, and the glamour of the rivalry fades away? For example, some have said that the Ohio State-Michigan football rivalry is not the same because Ohio State has dominated, winning seven years in a row. But the rivalry is still very well alive. I can tell you firsthand. Warning: Do not walk through UM fraternity row in Ann Arbor with Buckeye memorabilia by yourself.

Let’s face it, though, every team goes through slumps ,but when the games stop becoming competitive does the rivalry stop as well?

Most sports fans are big on the history of their team and what sets it apart. This isn’t a bad thing; some of the best sports franchises and history are tradition-laden. But when that is the only thing you can fall back on then that is a problem. Cubs fans have been in a 102-year drought, but have still held rivals against the White Sox and Cardinals.

The point is that a rivalry is a rivalry for good unless some drastic circumstances occur where they can no longer compete on a level playing field. On the other hand, new rivalries are sprouting up all the time. In the pros, it’s almost on a yearly basis. In the NBA this year, all of the sudden the Heat are rivals with everyone, but especially Boston and Los Angeles. In the NFL, the Colts and the Patriots have developed a nice rivalry since 1970, but has really picked up in the past several years.

So what is the best rivalry of all time? Well, that’s another heated discussion. I think there must be an equal balance of skill and tradition not only in the past but in the recent present as well. From the players, coaches, stadiums, even the mascots… these all factor into the greatness of a rivalry. There have been many over time, but only a few consistent great ones and let’s keep it that way.

The Sports Chase Editorial

They’re not big enough, fast enough or strong enough. They choke in big games and can’t keep up with the rest of the country. These are all sentiments that I have heard a lot over the past months about the Big Ten. It seems like either you love teams in the Big Ten or hate them. Say what you want, but it seems like recently the Big Ten is getting a worse rap than this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Is this unfair or warranted? I’ll let you decide.

Let’s look at basketball first. At the start of the week, there were four Big Ten teams in the NCAA top 25. For a third week in a row, Ohio State sits atop as the only undefeated team in Division I at 24-0. No one is safe on the road, as the bottom teams in the conference such as Northwestern and Michigan have recorded wins over top teams Wisconsin and Purdue. Each team has at least 10 wins to its record.

The Big East has seven teams currently in the top 25 for basketball, but has a whopping 16 teams in their conference, with TCU joining the parade next year. The league even has DePaul, which hasn’t won a Big East game in the past two years. The Big East is always a contender in March, but have only won it all twice in the past 10 years. With only eight teams on the football side, they finished the season with zero teams in the top 25.

Then there’s the Big 12, which sports two of the top teams in the country in Kansas and Texas. In my opinion though, the Big 12 is one of the best basketball conferences in the country. But football, eh, not so much, especially if Texas and Oklahoma are having off seasons.

Hey, the ACC has some nice teams, like Duke, North Carolina and well, who else? The major schools at these conferences are always going to field decent teams because of the tradition. And in football, well some think that the league’s automatic bid to the BCS is a crime to teams like TCU and Boise State.
Let’s look at the SEC. In basketball, it has three mid- tier teams in Kentucky, Florida and Vanderbilt. Obviously football is a different story, as the league has won seven out of the last eight national championships.

So how does the Big Ten stack up? Since 2000, the Big Ten leads all conferences with the most national titles in all sports with 13.

Sure, the league took its hits in the football bowl season with only three out of eight wins, but those game are a new season in themselves. Most teams have a month to prepare for the big game, knowing anything can happen. Just try playing a bowl pick ‘em contest next year and see how well you do. It’s worse than picking the Big Dance, especially when your grandma picks more right, but she has never watched a full game in her life.

The point is that the Big Ten deserves more credit. At the heart of the Midwest, its teams keep things flowing for the rest of the NCAA body. Sure they might have a hiccup every now and then, but in the words of Hannah Montana, “Nobody’s Perfect.” From head to toe, the Big Ten is strong and complete, and even getting a little bulkier next season with Nebraska. So don’t hate, appreciate the well-tuned machine that is the Big Ten.