FOLIO
by Tom Weppel
NCAA BASKETBALL
The NCAA Tournament is in full swing, with forty-eight games to be played this weekend. By Sunday evening, there will only be sixteen teams left still playing.
There’s no question Kentucky and Kansas are the two favorites to get into the Final Four. Those two teams shared the #1 ranking for most of the season. Meanwhile, the other two #1 seeds, Duke and Syracuse, have slight weaknesses and could be potential upset victims.
As we all know, it seems everyone has an expert opinion as to who will win, especially in knowing which underdog team will pull off the major upset. Almost every year at least one or possibly two lower-seeded teams (seeds #10-#14) will get through the first two rounds and sneak into the ‘Sweet Sixteen’.
The crazy aspect to that whole deal is that no one is willing to essentially accept having the favorites win their contests! If you go by mathematical probabilities, studies show that the favorite wins about 87% of the time. So, keep that in mind when filling out your tournament brackets…
Once again, CBS is the one network that will be broadcasting this tournament. They try their best to show as much action as possible, from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening. But its almost inevitable that those who are watching at home will not get to see some great moments live, while they are happening. It is also tough to watch the last moments of a game, when CBS does their ‘cut-ins’.
The option is to try and go online to watch the game of your choice, or go to a local sports bar, where all games will most likely be on simultaneously.
One aspect of the games that are played in these four days is the fan attendance, or lack thereof. In other words, if you watch some of the games played, especially first-round games, you’ll note that arenas aren’t even close to being filled to capacity. In some cases, attendance was maybe only 50% of capacity.
And that’s ridiculous, lame…poor…whatever term you’d like to use. You can come up with a number of excuses, from the economy, to the simple fact that the travel possibilities simply aren’t there. The NCAA is enjoying their ability to scatter teams all over the country, almost trying to eliminate a possible home-court advantage.
Anyway, we shall see how these games shake out. The only thing I can successfully predict is that all the favorites will not win every game!
ESPN
I know it has been rather chilly this winter, but I can also tell you the heat you may feel coming out of the North is from the heads of the folks running the ESPN networks. Why?
In the last four weeks, ESPN, who is owned by ABC network, has been shut out of broadcasting the most major sporting event happening. In February, it was the Olympic Games, held in Vancouver. For the next three weeks, it will be the NCAA Tournament.
In both cases, ESPN has been and will be shut out of most highlights and ALL live action! That said, don’t think for a SECOND the boys running the ESPN networks aren’t absolutely fuming about this! They are so used to being THE source for sports programming, being looked at as the second option is NOT something they are liking in any way, shape, or fashion.
Don’t think NBC and CBS aren’t aware of this. They are each soaking it up to the hilt. It certainly stirs up some pretty intense rival feelings.
In upcoming years, it is entirely possible ESPN/ABC will try and retain the rights to air both the Olympics and the NCAA Tournament. If they get them, they will be very tight and guarded in what they allow to be seen on any other networks. Until then, they are relegated to simply discussing what is happening, or what did happen, playing second fiddle.
NFL
In these first two weeks of the free agency period, we have seen that a few teams are indeed ready and willing to shell out some bucks to fill their roster needs. The lack of a salary cap has not necessarily broken up the ways and means of a majority of the teams in the NFL so far. Conversely, there are also a few teams that have conspicuously laid low in signing any veterans.
If there was one team that stepped out of their usual tendencies, it was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Usually, they will build almost exclusively through the Draft. In the past week, though, they went out and did some deals, picking up veteran WR’s Arnaz Battle and Antwaan Randle El, who played with the Steelers previously. They also signed DB’s Will Allen and Ryan Clark to fortify their defense and special teams. And so it should be interesting to see how these signings work for Pittsburgh, heading into training camp.
And how about the Cleveland Browns? Is there ANY question they wanted to clean house at the QB position? First, they released the veteran Derek Alexander, who just signed with the Arizona Cardinals. Then, they traded former first-round pick Brady Quinn to the Denver Broncos for a non-descript RB and a couple of future draft choices. Once President Mike Holmgren got those guys out, he then turned around and brought in one of his former QB’s in Seattle, Seneca Wallace. Then, they just signed recent Panther reject Jake Delhomme, who did not play well last season at all. Of course, its also entirely possible Holmgren an Browns head coach Eric Mangini could draft a QB to fill out the position. And so it’ll be quite interesting to see the Browns go to camp in August, certainly with an entirely new offensive look.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars did two deals, signing former Chargers Kassim Osgood, then snagging former Packer DE Aaron Kampman, who they feel very good about, even though he comes in following ACL surgery in December. Kampman will hopefully bring strength and production to the D-line, who showed us virtually nothing this past season.
There are still a number of ‘name’ free agents available on the market. We shall see if they are signed, by how much, and to whom will they go. It is still very possible team curiosity concerning the future will affect their status, in various ways…
NOTE: Torry Holt was up in Connecticut recently, at the ESPN studios, promoting himself. He says he still feels like he’s got a few years left in him to catch passes. While here with the Jags, he didn’t seem to be as productive as the team would’ve liked. Conversely, my feeling is Holt was never comfortable here. Guess the stage in Jacksonville wasn’t large enough for him…
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