Tag Archives: NCAA

The College Football Playoff: A Trial Run For the Ages

 

For many years, NCAA Division I college football fans have been begging for a playoff system in the “postseason,” and this year, their wish is being granted. Starting this season, Division I FBS college football will have a mini “playoff” at the end of the year, with the four best teams in the nation (as voted upon by a selection committee made up of experienced officials) playing in a semifinal, followed by the championship game for the two winners. Leading up to the playoff, starting on October 28th, weekly rankings will be created by the same committee, listing the best 25 teams in the country in order. The old system, which was made up of one championship game in which the two teams were selected by a computer program, is different from the new system, in which the selection committee does it all without any help from computers. They only use necessary data and  their own personal observations/opinions to make their decisions. I have called this a “trial run for the ages” because if this new system doesn’t pan out well, it will most likely be reverted back to the previous method, much to the dismay of pretty much everyone.

I am a big fan of the college football playoff for most of the same reasons as everyone; it is more fair, exciting, and we get to watch more football. As I previously stated, unlike the old championship scenario, the teams involved in the playoff will be selected by real, experienced people, not computers. This allows unimportant and irrelevant information to be excluded from the decision, which wouldn’t be possible with computers. For us, we just get to watch more great, high-powered football as well. The semifinal games will be played on New Year’s Eve and New Years’ Day, and I don’t know one college football fan that wouldn’t like to end the old year and kick off the new one with exciting and well-matched football. Plus, this new popular system will increase revenue for the NCAA and all of the schools involved. For example, schools that make the playoff will be able to make merchandise for making the semifinal, possibly moving on the championship game, and then potentially winning it all.

Personally, I feel that this new, intriguing system will be a great thing for college football, and it will only continue to grow in these coming years.

~Mark

First Defensive Player of the Year at JMU?

Nikki Newman, #30, a 6’ 2” Junior at James Madison University (JMU), plays for the women’s basketball team. Nikki is one of the three team captains; playing Guard and Forward. In her college career so far she has received many awards. In her 2009-2010 season as a freshman she received the JMU Athletic Director Scholar Athlete, JMU Team’s Most Improved Player Award, and was among CAA leaders in blocked shots (11th). In her sophomore season 2010-2011 Nikki again was among CAA leaders in blocked shots (10th), and rebounding (20th). She was also second on the team in steals and third in assists and blocked shots, and got the school record for games played by a sophomore (34/tied). More recently, her current season as a Junior 2011-2012 Nikki was named All-CAA Defensive Team of the Year, and named Conference (CAA) Defensive Player of the Year. She is the first player named Defensive Player of the Year in the schools history.

Recently, JMU’s Women’s Basketball team has been playing in the WNIT tournament. They are currently in the semifinals, they will play Syracuse on Wednesday the 27th. Now back to Newman; not long ago Nikki made a amazing shot from WAY behind the 3 point line, draining it! And is now a ECAC Play of the Week Nominee. There was 6 seconds on the clock and they were down by 3, and Nikki tied it up bringing JMU to Overtime. During Overtime JMU scored 14 points winning the game with 84-76 vs. Wake Forest.

~Jenny Vignola

Then There were Four

The Final Fight, for glory, for the ring, for the crown, for the trophy… for the NCAA Basketball National Championship. Today is March 28th, 2012 and in three days crowds will be jumping, colleges will be cheering, and blood sweat and tears will be spilled on the court, because on March 31st, 2012 the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four will tip off in New Orleans with Kentucky playing Louisville for the first spot in the National Championship game. Quickly after that game, Ohio State will attempt to upset Kansas for the final spot in the National Championship game. Winner of those two games will play each other in the NCAA Division I National Championship game on April 2nd. After the Men’s Championship Game, the Women’s  Final Four will begin. First strong hearted Baylor will attempt to knockout Stanford and get their chance at the title. Then Uconn Huskies are taking on the Fighting Irish in what is predicted to be a fight to the finish.

The University of California has the most NCAA Basketball Division I Men’s championship trophies, even though they haven’t made the tournament in the last 3 years. Pat Summit of the University of Tennessee has the most wins in a regular season as a coach, and the most National Championship wins for the NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Local favorite Uconn, has won 8 total National championships, the women winning  6, and the men winning 2. Lets hope that the women win it all again this year! Have a nice day! And be sure to watch the rest of the Final four!

~Alec Fowler

March Madness Has Struck

Over the past two years, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has had many surprising upsets that keep you on your toes every second. Last season, Not a single top seeded team reached the final four. Instead it was filled by VCU, a team that was not expected to even win their first game, Butler who had a surprise run in 2010 and was back again in 2011, Kentucky who was ranked at a four and had to upset two teams to get into the final four, and Connecticut, a team that struggled during the season but won their conference tournament to earn a 3 seed in the tourney. This season (2012) had two 15 seeds knockout out 2 seeds for the first time in NCAA history. Those teams were Lehigh over Duke and Norfolk State over Missouri.The upsets keep stacking on.

This leads me to wonder if a tournament with 68 teams really helps decide what is the best team. Many of the better teams have seemed to be upset by Cinderella’s and teams that only got in because they won their conference tourney. Some conferences don’t have teams that are that good so it seems unfair that they have just as much chance to win it all as a team that has to face harder teams all year long. Teams like that have never actually won but they still have a shot and when it does happen people may argue the unfairness of the tourney. Nonetheless I enjoy watching it every year. It is still an enjoyable bunch of weekends so don’t miss it.

~Andrew Levy

Do you Feel the MADNESS!!!!!

Are you feeling the madness yet? If you didn’t know the March Madness tournament is about to get going starting March 15th until April 2nd, and on April 2nd a National Champion will be decided. The March Madness tournament or the “Big Dance” was created back in 1939 when the NCAA was known as the NABC. Then it slightly changed in 1950 when the NCAA started giving at-large birth’s, which is chosen by the NCAA committee. Also, in 1984 a member of the NCAA named Bob Walsh created the March Madness celebration and ever since then all number 1 seeds have never lost in the first round to a 16 seed and the record for that since 1984 is 108-0.

Next, in this tournament they specially designed it so then all the match-ups in the first round equal up to 17, then in the following rounds there is no exact number because you never know which team will win. This is why the call it March Madness because you never know who will upset who. Another interesting fact you might not know is that every weekend during this tournament the number of teams is decreased by three fourths (Round of 64, “Sweet Sixteen”, Final Four.) Finally, where the teams play is never chosen right before the tournament they are preselected so that no team get a higher advantage then the other teams.

But if you can’t already tell, this Madness is quickly evolving and quickly getting more popular. Anyone could just go onto a sports website and find March Madness somewhere on the cover of it. They have also learned how to make money or turn these match’s into a competition by letting people make there own brackets which is a printable layout of all the match-ups and have people guess who they believe will win. They also make money on these games by making bets with other fans or other people about the winners of that particular game. But some questions that I still have for the NCAA committee is how do they chose the Final Four locations or National Championships’ location? How do they decide on the at-large births? Why do they play four extra games to see who makes it to the tournament why not just pick it there? Finally, how do you guys decide if one team with a better record gets a lower seed then a team with a lower record gets a better seed. To conclude, did you know that all number 1 seeds have only made it once to the Final Four at the same time out of 72 years (this year is the 73rd.) Do you feel the Madness now?

~Eric Dishnica

From Champions to Shambles

The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team was the NCAA champions last year, but now it looks like they won’t even get a shot at the title. The former champs have not shown their talent this year as the team struggles to a 17-14 record.  The question has been tossed around frequently but I feel it is time to give an answer to the decision of if the UConn huskies should make the NCAA tournament.  They are a decent team I will give them that but since 2012 they have gone 5-11 almost putting their record below 50 %. You can say that the losses have occurred because they are playing without their head coach Jim Calhoun for multiple games due to his health issues.  However, even though I love UConn, and even though they have been at a disadvantage for most of the year, I still think they shouldn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament.

This is my decision because they can’t win big games.  A lot of people will argue that they are playing like a championship team but, if they were wouldn’t they be winning games?  Syracuse, Kentucky, and UNC play like top competitor teams. Let’s face it if UConn played one of them they would be destroyed, not to mention they lost to Syracuse 2 times already.  I believe making it to the NIT tournament will be good for UConn and they can work on their game for next year.  Alright you’ve heard my opinion, now leave yours below on whether UConn should be in the NCAA tournament or not.

~Chris Papa

Husky Fever

Even though the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder, winter has it’s benefits. For me, I get very happy when basketball season arrives. Especially when my favorite team, the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies start their season. They will begin their season on November 11th against Columbia University. On that night, they will reveal their 2011 Big East Tournament Champions banner and of course, their 2011 National Champions banner at their on-campus arena, Gampel Pavilion. I am sure people around this great state will be very happy that night. There is a lot of buzz and questions about the Huskies coming into this season. Some include; will star recruit Andre Drummond live up to his hype? How will UConn recover from losing Kemba Walker? How are returning players going to play after winning a National Championship? Will Uconn repeat as champions? All of these and more will be answered this season.

As you may know, UConn ended their season with a 21-9 record last year on a magical 11 game tournament winning streak including the improbable 5 wins in 5 days Big East Tournament run, which ended up in a championship, and of course 6 wins in the NCAA tournament to win their 3rd National Championship and an overall 32-9 record. That is the past and now we are in the present. This year the Huskies have great players returning such as Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, Alex Oriakhi, and Roscoe Smith! They also have 3 star recruits coming in, their names are DeAndre Daniels, Andre Drummond, and Ryan Boatright. As usual, they will have a hard schedule in the challenging Big East Conference. On February 25, 2012, UConn will host rival Syracuse for College Game- Day, which is the “biggest game” on Saturdays during the college basketball season. Looks like that will be a great game.

Now onto the “big” question, will UConn repeat as National Champions? In my opinion, they do have a good chance. One reason is they have arguably the best head coach in basketball, Jim Calhoun. This is 26th year coaching the Huskies and he has over 800 wins and 3 National Championships. Next, they have a very solid freshmen class, along with good, experienced players with a National title under their belt. Finally, other teams just don’t have the overall strength that UConn does, plus us loyal Husky fans will always be cheering the Huskies on during the difficult season.

~Aidan Murray