I took my daughter to Levi’s Stadium yesterday to watch the 49ers for her Christmas gift. She had been impressed by Levi’s on TV and she thought it would be fun to see a game in person. So I took her to watch the 2-13 49ers, whose head coach and GM had been unofficially fired …
Yesterday, I took my Communication and Sport class to Avaya Stadium, home of the San Jose Earthquakes where we were taken on a tour of the stadium courtesy of our excellent ticket rep, Melissa. The students loved it. Many of them were really impressed with the stadium design, and how there truly is not a bad seat …
I teach one of the few sports-connected classes at Santa Clara University. This is what my inbox looks like right after the first day of class registration. And by the way, this is a not a humblebrag. If it is, it’s a pathetic one: “Oh hey students are trying to sign up for my course …
Read more “This is What Happens When You Teach a Sports Class”
As the Santa Clara/San Francisco/South Bay/Silicon Valley Super Bowl approaches, here’s an interesting read about Santa Clara University’s huge influence on the San Francisco 49ers at Santa Clara Magazine by Ann Killion. The team was started by a SCU grad who chose the team’s colors: red for SCU and gold for the gold rush. Their first coach …
Thanks to everyone who participated in the the 2015 music survey. As always, I ask my friends and family to tell me about their favorite songs, albums, and artists of the year, and they always come through with great stuff. Many songs I’ve heard before, so I give them a second listen. And of course, …
What’s the statute of limitations on when you can post your favorite music, books, or movies from a given year? I know we’re a month into 2015, but good music is good music. Although maybe that’s not true, because last week I read a Marc Ronson quote that was something like: “the only thing you …
Look, I’m just being honest. A few thoughts on the upcoming College Football Playoffs: This is a huge step forward from the BCS model. Huge. As I’ve said before, if you have 129 teams and they each play about 13 games, you can’t possibly have enough interaction to narrow the playoff field to 2 …
Read more “Some Boring Thoughts on the Upcoming College Football Playoffs”
We had this sweet guy for a week. We miss him.
The weird thing about the conference championships this weekend is that only one team in each game has a strong opportunity to continue on to the real championship, which you get to by going through the College Football Playoffs. If #10 Missouri (all rankings my own) wins the SEC championship, they will go to a consolation …
Read more “One Sided Championship Games – Alabama, Florida State, Oregon, and Ohio State”
Here are the teams that currently kind of control their path to the championship: Alabama Florida State Great list, right? No one else is included because every other team has the possibility of winning the rest of their games but not being included in the playoff. If Oregon barely wins their next two games, they …
Read more “Here are the Teams that Control Their Own Season”
At least according to these ratings. I still have them ahead of Auburn and Alabama, which surprised me, but Ole Miss does have a better strength of schedule to this point. Think about it: just because a team lost more recently, does that mean they should move behind another team with the same record? It’s simple …
Read more “Ole Miss is Still the 2nd Best Team in the Country”
(Top image from The Big Lead) Yahoo! writer Dan Wetzel has been posting something like this tweet every Saturday: My weekly reminder that the playoff was supposed to ruin the regular season. — Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) October 19, 2014 Saturdays in the fall are as glorious as ever, even with 4 teams getting in. The …
The SEC is dominating most ratings, including mine, at the midway point of the season. I have 5 SEC teams in the top 8. All these teams will have (or have already had) a chance to prove themselves and rise to the top. Notre Dame is making it interesting this year. I summarized my playoff format …
This is my first rating update of 2014. I think September is too early to try and rank teams. And frankly, October might be too early, too, but the A’s are out of the playoffs so I need a distraction. Speaking of playoffs, and college football: College Football Playoffs! I’ve always been a proponent of …