Title IX being Twisted!?!?

On November 22nd we discussed Title IX and its history and how it came about. Now a days athletic directors and coaches have the game plan for how to get around it so that their football teams and basketball teams can compete at a national level. The easiest and soon to be the most popular way to comply is to cut men's sports teams or demote them to intramural. This is an easy way to save money and comply with title IX which is all they want to do because in the end what is worse having a couple hundred swimmers and fans mad at you or a couple million football fans? Its the easy easy way out...but people are beginning to catch on and beginning to rally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/sports/02gender.html?_r=1

My question is what are your suggestions for how we can change this rule so that no teams have to be cut?

Racism in Sports...Still?

I find it so hard to believe that we as a nation and as a world in general still looks and judges people by the color of their skin or the good they worship, but even in the year 2011 it is still a huge problem in society as well as sports. I have been around people of different races and religions my whole life. I am from what you may call a melting pot in society. When I came to Slippery Rock which is only 40 minutes north of where I am from I learned that a large percentage of the students who attend SRU didn't know a person of a different race or religion and some have never seen a minority in real life. I couldn't believe this stat but it is the sad truth. This video gives a good look at the racism that is still very prevalent in sport. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CkiPK2IcvQ

My question is how long do you feel it will be before racism is no longer a problem in sports and society or do you feel like it can't happen?

Ryan Ryan Lyin Braun...

Wow just when Major League Baseball thought they could see the end of the tunnel this happens. On November 8th we discussed athletes and drugs. The thing is when people in the 90's and 80's heard athletes and drugs chances are they thought of cocaine and Lawrence Taylor or Joe Willy Namath and alcohol. You ask anyone 25 and younger and they are gonna say McGwire, Sosa, Barry, A-Rod, Canseco, Ramirez and the rest of the Mitchell report. Its is like an epidemic or a wildfire that was a subculture for so long that now people are so far into them and we are just beginning to learn what they are. And now one of the MLB's golden boys has been linked to HGH baseball couldn't have had this happen at a worse time. He is looking at possibly a 50 game suspension and fines which is the usual punishment for a first time offense. I wanna know what do you guys think that MLB should do to these violators?

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111210&content_id=26144628&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

"All I Want for Christmas is Basketball"

Thats right I am getting my wish I don't know about the rest of you out there but I am really pumped about opening day of the NBA regular season especially with the match ups we will be viewing. Take a look at these 5 games. http://www.nba.com/gameline/20111225/

Now If that isn't exciting I don't know what is. I mean it wouldn't be Christmas without the NBA almost like it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the NFL, but not quite 4th of July and Baseball status yet. So i Guess my question is, is everyone else out there as excited as i am.

Athletes and "MyTwitterFaceing"

Ok so I have never had Myspace, Facebook, twitter or anything remotely close to those things and yes I tend to be a little bias when it comes to the debate on whether they are good for sports and athletes or aren't they? I think that they are a very easy way for people in general to get into trouble. I am sure that some athletes use theirs to do good things like promote charity events and things of that sort but the majority of the news we hear about these things are negative and deconstructive to them and the team/organization they he or she may work for. So in a lot of ways I feel the bad things that happen out weigh the good things these are being used for. There are many dumb things that athletes have been quoted on twitter of saying that are going to be around forever, such as the jets current corner Antonio Cromartie having this to say about his organizations catering service “Man we have to have the most nasty food of any team. Damn can we upgrade 4 str8 years the same ish maybe that’s y we can’t we the SB we need.” Antonio Cromartie...Thats a very bold statement about food Im sure is delicious and who can forget Rashard Mendenhall's quotes about Bin Ladens death and how we shouldn't be celebrating it as a country. I gave you one from a list and one from my memory but take a look at the rest of these. http://live.drjays.com/index.php/2010/08/31/tweet-downs-the-dumb-things-athletes-say-on-twitter/. But i wanna hear what the rest of you think is it good for sports and people or not?

Sports and the Media continue to evolve and change, but can they continue to make money for each other?

In class on October 27th we discussed sports and the media and whether either could survive with the other. Due to the creation of the internet print media has seen a steady decline in their revenues do to the fact that it is too easy to get on your computer at home and look up whatever stat you would like in seconds. However most of these print media companies have turned to subscription based websites which has helped to keep them alive...On the other hand though there are many forms of media that are thriving because of sports. Television for instance is a huge benefactor of sports. The NBA finals two years ago charged $400,000 for a 30 second ad and they had 60 slots available which produced a whopping $24 million for ABC that year. The question posed to us in class was can these two survive without each other and I feel that as long as the two still exist and people continue to love pro sports that both will prosper even if they have to make adjustments like a lot of magazines and newspaper companies have had to do. Let me know what you think.

http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0810/Whos-Cashing-In-On-Pro-Sports-Revenue.aspx#axzz1gMV05whv

Minority Owners In The three Major Sports Leagues in the USA

Minorities have come a long way in terms of equality and opportunities in the work place considering how oppressive things used to be. Now don't get me wrong we as a nation still have a long way to go until everything is even and we have a "level playing field". Sports for some reason has been very slow in terms of the progress minorities have made in the big business aspect. As we discussed in class on October 25th most franchises are owned by white males. The thing that bothers me and I am sure bothers many others is the fact that the majority of players in these leagues are minority groups. 80% of players in the NBA are minorities, 70% in the NFL and 40% in the MLB and yet when it comes to ownership only 2 out of the 92 teams in these leagues have had a majority owner who was a minority (and Michael Jordan is one of these two). I understand that you have to have alot of money to be a majority owner in these leagues and if you cannot afford it you can't afford it. But what gets me is owners like Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban who have never played the game at a level even close to what they witness on a weekly basis and they try to make decisions that will impact the game...That is why you have Coaches and General Managers, who up until about the passed decade or so were majority white males and still are, but atleast they are making progress in that regard. So my main point here is that if you are an owner of a sports team and you have never played that game at a high level let the people you hired to do these jobs do them. These owners have been in power for a long time and have become somewhat of a fraternity and I feel like all these things need to change and more oppurtunities need to be offered to minority ex-players and business men who are minorities. Let me know what you feel about this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5461985

No NBA on Christmas Day!!!

Thats right no Basketball on Christmas atleast thats where we appear to be headed. The players and owners are at eachothers throats and can't seem to even stay in the same room together for more the ten minutes. On Oct. 13 we discussed sports that celebrate certain hollidays well i feel that basketball on Christmas is just as important as football on thanksgiving but this year we may have to go without let me know what you think.

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/09/09/labor-timeline/index.html

President Obama as a Sport Fan

Though it is great to see our president interested in sports some people feel that the president should be focused on more important issues then the super bowl and March Madness. On one hand I enjoy seeing our president talk sports but there are alot of problems with our society right now and maybe he should step outta the public eye when it comes to athletics. Let me know how you feel.

Check out the article at http://www.thepilot.com/news/2011/mar/13/sports-and-politics-have-always-been-intertwined/

College Presidents must take Charge

In class on October 4th we discussed abuses in college sports. Recently we have been bombarded with news of scandal and dirty money being handed out and just a clear disregard for the rules. We are getting to the point where the government may have to step in. A Blue Ribbon panel has challenged the college presidents to seize control of their athletic programs. The real question is what can they really do? The whole reason this panel is doing this is because they do not want the government to get involved. The problem I see is what more can they do?

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19910320&slug=1272685

Athletes as Role Models

This past Sunday the Green Bay Packers played the St. Louis Rams. It wasn't much of a game to begin with. AJ Hawk made a sack on QB Sam Bradford. Apparently he forgot that he was on camera as he gave the Rams sideline his own version of the number 1 sign. This is very shocking for a few reasons. This is a team that won last years super bowl and are undefeated this year, plus AJ Hawk has always been a quiet player which makes this very uncharacteristic of him. On September 20th we discussed athletes as role models and up until this weekend I would have considered AJ to be one but now im not so sure.

See article at http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sports/nfl/packers-aj-hawk-doesnt-get-how-cameras-work-flips-world