STAFF WRITER
Being that it is a week after the Super Bowl, we now enter football limbo…a time of months upon months without the game we all love. We can only sit in our dorm rooms or houses and start the countdown until the next kickoff. Luckily, drastic moves take place in the off-season that catch our eye and shed a little light on the game we all miss. Instead of a Saturday afternoon top-ranked matchup or a Sunday Night Football NFL spot, we get a statement from the NCAA Football Rules Committee.
In a world where social media can sway presidential elections and world events, surely it can influence sports. This fact has been proven time and time again as professional athletes have demonstrated their two cents on issues on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. But professional athletes aren’t the only ones who are networking online with millions of high school and college athletes alike joining the club. Coaches are taking notice to this as well.
Can you name one sports moment that is quite vivid in your memory and you know you’ll hold onto? How about the David Tyree catch against Rodney Harrison in Super Bowl XLII. If that clip still runs goose bumps down your spine, then you might be in luck. You may have the chance to relive that experience…
Monmouth University; the small private college planted in the heart of the Jersey Shore, surely cannot produce professional quality athletes, correct? There is much doubt that a school of such size and caliber will ever contribute to the ranks of the NFL, NBA, MLB and various other professional outlets…Boy could that assumption be farther from right! Monmouth University, since its inception, has seen its share of draft picks and names heard once or twice on nationally broadcast television.
As we close in on Thanksgiving and closer to the end in the NCAA football season, one issue has seemed to become prominent. This issue is responded to left and right in the online blogs and even major media outlets. It has brought legal analysts, head coaches, agents, players and fans into questioning and siding on the issue and has a substantial two-sided approach now.
Thought you knew NCAA sports? An expert on the ins and outs of the sport? Well that may be all fine and dandy, until the NCAA completely undergoes its conference realignment.
As the basketball season approaches, it’s hard not to focus on the lingering problem centered in professional basketball right now. The National Basketball Association, currently in a lockout because of conflicts between the league and the player’s union, has a lot of repercussions in NCAA basketball. First off, a significant amount of media attention will be jolted at the NCAA because of a lack of NBA developments. This is a dream come true for college fans looking for broader national media attention.
Barely three months out of high school and already your number’s being called. The lights are cast down, the pressure is set on your shoulders and the beaming eyes of 80,000 spectators monitor your every move. Third and long…better hope coach draws up a play that will get the first down, if not there will be some hell to pay as a media frenzy ensues and immediately questions about talent level arise. What could possibly be the scenario?
The time and place are set, the plans are made, just need the finishing touches and soon your group of friends will be going out to watch a sporting event. The setting is a Saturday evening on a warm day in fall and the occasion calls for an intriguing football matchup.
It’s Saturday afternoon during the fall season, and inevitably the vibrant college football season. You flip on an ESPN game to find top notch, bowl contending matchups. With the fans crazy and players amped, there’s nothing more you could look for in a college game. Except, that’s where you’re wrong; what is missing from this scene? The answer is the presence of African-American (and minority) coaches in NCAA football.