Billion Dollar Ball lot 1/3

On March 5th Gilbert M. Gaul is visiting our school to talk about his book "Billion Dollar Ball" at Cinnaminson High School. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for writing this book.  The Billion Dollar Ball is a persuasive book through the big money culture of college football.  He references colleges such as Michigan State, Notre Dame, and almost all of the Texas schools.     Also, he talks about the big money profit that Texas University profits every year from just its football team, as well as the big money stadium they are putting in that fits over 100,000 people.  I found reading this book very influential and it was a great book to read for our sports and society class.

Questions for Mr. Gaul

1. Why did you decide to write this book?
2.  What inspired you to write this book?
3.  Did you play any college sports?
4.  How did you get a passion for sports?
5.  How much money did you make off of this book alone?
6.  What college did you attend?
7.  How many colleges did you visit while writing this book beforehand?
8.  Why did you focus on the University of Texas?

Experts on the NCAA

http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-ncaa-athletes-be-paid

http://ww2.kqed.org/education/2015/03/27/college-athletes-get-paid/

Sole Man

In our sports and society class we watched an ESPN 30 for 30 film called "Sole Man".  This film shows the remarkable journey a man of the name of Sonny Vaccaro went to to fulfill his dreams.  His ultimate dream was to spread his shoe company that happened to be Nike, and have people wear the brand all around the world.  He began by finding the best high school basketball players in the nation.  He would then provide the coaches of these athletes with Nike gear, and money.  The coaches then told their players to wear their products, and people who would see the players play in the shoes would want to wear the same.  But what made Sonny famous for who he is to this day, was the way he got big athletes to wear his Nike gear.  When Michael Jordan was a huge star in college Sonny noticed and told Michael that he would have his own signature shoe if he signed a contract with Nike.  After this deal was made, and Michael was soon led to his NBA stardom, Nike's companies sales sky rocketed.  The brand of the name of Jordan was known all around the world and Sonny was not done yet.  He found other big names in sports such as Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady and gave them their own signature shoe.

 But a few years later Sonny was fired of his job, because of leaving a bad reputation with Nike.  Sonny swore for revenge and began to work with the company Adidas.  It could be believed that his being fired from Nike had to do with Sonny not being able to convince Ed O'Bannon, a top high school prospect to the University of USC which was where his best friend George Raveling was the head coach at.  In later years O'Bannon and Sonny became very close and have been working on getting college athletes paid.  The two took this case to court and took on the NCAA,  and eventually won.  To this day student athletes are still not allowed to be paid but that will most likely be changed in the future.

NCAA Controversy

Throughout March and April the NCAA tournament is in full go.  Everyone is talking about it, and everyone is making bets on their brackets.  But with all of this excitement, there is also a little bit of controversy.  The NCAA is trying to find out new ways to make money, and one way is to expand the arena during the final four to an NFL stadium.  The NCAA is almost doubling their profit of ticket sales, because of how much bigger the NFL stadium is than a regular basketball gym.  But with this happening there is also a lot of people complaining about not being able to see the game.  With the seats being so expanded and so far away from the court fans have little to no visibility of what is happening during the game.

Not only this, but people are considering why the NCAA did not allow Louisville to play in the tournament but did allow UNC and Syracuse to play. All three of these teams were involved with cheating and the NCAA punished them accordingly.  The NCAA allowed Syracuse to play in the tournament but punished them by taking off 12 scholarships in their program.  On the other hand, UNC did just as much cheating as Syracuse but did not get any punishments.  People are saying the NCAA is doing this because UNC brings so much profit and without them in the tournament it would be a huge loss of profit, and the competition would not be the same.

 

Youth Basketball Commisioner

If we were in charge of a local youth basketball league,we would make it a positive, fun environment where it can also be competitive at the same time.  The kids in my league will learn the fundamentals of the game from scratch, and get taught the correct way to use their skills.  Until the players get how the game is played then the fun will begin.  There will be age split up groups such as the 2nd and 3rd graders together, as well as the 4th and 5th graders.  We would do live scrimmaging so the kids can put their previous taught skills learned into a real game situation.  At such a young age I don't believe the concept of sports should be about winning or losing, it should be about having fun.  I believe student athletes should not only care about winning or losing until they reach at least 5th grade.  We think that players that are pushed at a much younger age than this, such as in the show Friday Night Tykes is unnecessary.
Some of the rules in my league would be that coaches must let all of the players play in games.  Also, the coach should have a mindset to make the kids better players and utilize teamwork.  Lastly, coaches should be putting a positive influence on the kids by encouraging them to do better and practice on your own.  The kids in my league should have the mindset for work ethic, but also to have fun and have fun with their neighborhood friends.  Lastly, the parents of the kids should bring their kids to the practice every week with no exception.  If kids at this early point in their life know that it is alright to quit then they will do it for the rest of their lives'.

30 for 30

If I could any three 30 for 30 film by ESPN to watch in class, I would enjoy to see I Hate Christian Laettner, Winning Time:Miller vs. The Knicks, and No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson.  Since my blog is mainly on the topic of basketball, I would like to stay in the same topic of the sport I am writing about.  All three of this 30 for 30 films I have chose are very popular around the world, and is very influential, with many controversial topics.  In the past I have watched the Christian Laettner and Reggie Miller 30 for 30, and it was two of the best documentaries I have ever seen.  Also, the Allen Iverson 30 for 30 I have only heard positive things about.  It seems very interesting and it seems like it can have a lot of information that the students in our class can blog about.  Not only that but, I have never really heard what happened to Allen Iverson a few years back involving his case and his trial.  With topics like these, there will be many controversial topics like the ones that we have been blogging about in the past.  I believe if our class watches these three 30 for 30 films, it will leave a positive mark of how we will later blog about it in the future.

Female Journalism

Erin Andrews has always been one of the most famous sideline reporters, in the MLB, NFL, or NCAA.  But within the past few years she has been filing a law suit against another man who took nude pictures of her getting changed through a peep hole in a hotel.  The man has been stalking Erin for many years before the incident even happened, trying to get pictures of her at the beach or even at the mall.  About two years ago, the first case of the incident happened and the man was faced with 9 months in a federal prison.  But one he was released and the case seemed to be thrown away Erin Andrews sued the man again for a whopping 50 million dollars.  She later won the case, but she still lives in embarrassment each day knowing that her nude photos are out in the internet.

Female journalism seems to be the most popular in sports right now.  But, they seem to be getting a lot of criticism.  There have been cases of female reporters in the locker room after games when the players have been getting changed.  Most athletes think that it is an invasion to their personal space. One instance in 2015, there was a reporter interviewing an athlete in a locker room, and one point in the interview two other athletes on the team walked by the camera near naked not knowing that there was a camera and being broadcasted on television.  But the video of the two athletes were immediately blurred out and edited. Since this has been happening in so many cases in the past, reporters are beginning to respect the players space.  Within the past year, instances of cases like these have been dropping substantially.

In future years I believe female reporters will be protected and safe from stalkers around the world.  But I realize that when there is a female, primarily in a male working habitat, things like this may occur.  But I believe sport reporting companies will help protect these female reporters as best they can.  I hope that cases like this can be dropped and out of the way, so professional sports can be a drama free environment.