American Athletic Conference begins site search

Date: April 29, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: American Athletic Conference, Blau's Blog, College Basketball

The newly named American Athletic Conference will begin its search for a site for men’s basketball tournament in Philadelphia.

According to sources familiar with the process, representatives of the American will visit the historic Palestra in Philadelphia on Tuesday as a potential site of the men’s basketball tournament in March 2014.

Other sites that will be considered are Hartford, Memphis and Tampa. American Athletic Association commissioner Mike Aresco is intrigued by the Palestra because of its historical significance as one of the storied venues in college basketball as not only the home court of the University of Pennsylvania, but as a long time site of Big 5 basketball–Temple, Saint Joseph’s, Villanova, LaSalle and Penn–in a prime basketball market.

Shapland was a Hoya without paranoia

Date: April 27, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: A Jersey Guy Takes Note of the World, College Football

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Things a Jersey Guy took note of this week: It was only a footnote in another week of news filled with a college football playoff system, the National Football League draft and the NBA playoffs.

But in the world of college athletics, in the even smaller world of college basketball, time stopped for an instant with the announcement of the death of long time Georgetown Sports Information Director Bill Shapland.

Shap was 57 and the news of his passing was more of a surprise than a shock. He had been battling health problems for the past few years and had been hospitalized with a series of ailments.

Shapland was a Jersey guy before he was a Georgetown guy, which dates back almost 40 years. While the world lived through the Georgetown era of John Thompson and Allen Iverson, both the good and the bad, which prompted the term “Hoya Paranoia” , it was Shap who carried the message–both good and bad to the media.

Aresco sounds off

Date: April 25, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: American Athletic Conference, Blau's Blog

Comments: 5 Replies

PASADENA, Calif–American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco is here at the BCS meetings, doing what he has done since he took over as the commissioner of the Big East last summer. It has been anything but a quiet first nine months on the job, with defections, expansion, litigation and a steady buzz of controversy.

Now, however, things are calming down and Aresco took some time to reflect on the job with a Jerseyguy.com. It wasn’t hard to get Aresco’s feelings, filled with both passion and pain. So easy in fact that I will simply let Aresco tell his tale.

AJG: WAS THIS THE JOB THAT YOU EXPECTED WHEN YOU GOT HIRED?

CFP takes back New Year’s Day

Date: April 24, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Football Playoff

Comments: 2 Replies

PASADENA, Calif–Somewhat lost in the mild self-created hoopla over the BCS morphing into a 6 bowl playoff system that will commence in January 2015 with two semifinal games at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowls and a national title game at Cowboys Stadium, has been a major victory for college football purists.

The sport, once known for celebrating the end of its season on New Year’s Day, has taken the day back and again made it the focal point of its season.

“It will be must watch TV for two days in a row,” said Bill Hancock Executive Director of the College Football Playoff.

The ironic part is that the party responsible for diluting New Year’s Day–traditionally a time when even the most casual college football fans could sit back and watch the best bowls such as the Rose, Cotton, Sugar and Orange Bowls, and later the Fiesta Bowl–ESPN, is the prime reason why the new face of college football will be a look back to the future event.

BCS: New name, same power structure

Date: April 23, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: BCS, Blau's Blog

Comments: 7 Replies

PASADENA, Calif.–So they have a new name–the College Football Playoff.

Catchy right? And to think the BCS paid a marketing firm lots of $$$ to come up with that one.

And coming on Wednesday will be the announcement that Arlington, Texas will host the College Football Playoff on January 12, 2015, with the winners of semifinals on January 1 in the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, meeting for the title.

Good stuff. New stuff of sorts. But anyone who thinks that this is the start of a major new era in college football is mistaken.

Death to the BCS? Sorry, didn’t happen. Oh, they changed the name and they painted the walls put in new rugs and came up with some new wrinkles.

But here’s the bottom line.

BCS expansion may be over but…

Date: April 22, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: BCS, Blau's Blog

Comments: 3 Replies

PASADENA, Calif–Finally an act of sanity from a member of the BCS which has spent the past 10 years in search and destroy missions chasing extra revenue.

The main story lines that will come out of the BCS meetings which will begin on Tuesday will be about the name for the new playoff format which will begin in January of 2015, the site of the first title game and the bowls that will participate.

But in one brief announcement on Monday, the Atlantic Coast Conference made a move that should stop any more major raids by the 5 remaining major BCS conferences. But it could put the newly named American Athletic Conference in jeopardy as a target, specifically the University of Connecticut.

In the most simplistic terms, the ACC Presidents said that any conference school wishing to move to another conference can do so–but the media rights (television) for the school will remain with the conference.

New Big East needs to pick up pace

Date: April 21, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: American Athletic Conference, Blau's Blog

Comments: 1 Reply

It is a week away from being the merry month of May, and the leaders of the new Big East Conference are still taking their merry old-time in hiring a leader–commissioner–and staff for a league that will be officially up and running on July 1.

This is not the way to do business-new or old. If I were the leader of this Catholic 7, Plus 3 pack of teams, I would put an end to the nonsense in the next 10 days. I would come up with a list of three candidates to be commissioner, have them meet with the Presidents and then announce that someone has been hired.

BC football hopes blooming in spring

Date: April 21, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: BC Report, Blau's Blog

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The words coming out of Steve Addazio’s mouth were what you would expect to hear from any football coach in April.

“I see nice things out there,” said the Boston College football coach when asked for a quick analysis of a team and a program he was hired to fix as quickly as possible “I see some real positive things.”

Phase one of the transition to Addazio, who was hired to replace Frank Spaziani at BC after the Eagles’ crash and burn 2-10 season last fall, is now over. It ended quietly and reflectively as the annual Jay McGillis Spring game was cancelled in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Addazio and his staff will now have three months to put together a reconstruction plan for the Eagles, who will next meet officially in August.

A Week that definitely was …

Date: April 20, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: A Jersey Guy Takes Note of the World

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Things a Jersey Guy Took Note of this week:

Sometimes fiction becomes reality, not always in a good way. That’s the way it was this week if you were in the Boston area in the past several days.

I have been living here since 1987–so I get some kind of squatters rights in this area, even though I will always be a Jerseyguy.

And nothing, I mean NOTHING was more surreal than Friday as the Boston Marathon bombers were tracked down in real-time with the media covering it every second.

Rutgers hires a Rutgers guy

Date: April 18, 2013

Author: Mark

Categories: Blau's Blog, College Basketball

Comments: 3 Replies

Phase One of the continuing Rutgers search for respectability in basketball was completed on Thursday when Rutgers came to an agreement with Eddie Jordan to become the next men’s basketball coach. In typical Rutgers fashion, the official announcement probably won’t come until next week, but then again its only the height of the spring recruiting season in basketball, so what’s the rush?

Jordan is a Rutgers guy, so he knows the place. Maybe that’s a good thing. Jordan knows the NBA better than he knows college basketball. Maybe that’s a good thing if you recruit players who are focused on that as a post college career. But then again if Rutgers were good at getting those kind of players, they probably wouldn’t be always looking for new basketball coaches every few years.

Rutgers could have hired Jordan three years ago, but hired Mike Rice instead. It looked like a good move at the time because Rice was the hot young college coach coming from Robert Morris. Who knew that he was a also a hot-headed young coach who verbally and physically abused his players.

Oh, well.