Matt Bish and Wally Reed explain the importance of a positive outlook while selling tickets for the New Jersey Nets. The Nets are currently mired in one of the worst seasons in NBA history.

I had a pretty busy week last week.  In fact, it was busier than usual and I am still recovering from the hectic pace. As a result, this post contains some of the random thoughts I had while reflecting on the events of the week. While my comments may appear to be scattered and unrelated they do reflect a certain theme and I hope you gain a new perspective as you read.

First, York College held Midnight Madness this past Friday.  Instead of hosting the event on the more “traditional” first day of basketball practice, our school conducts Midnight Madness in conjunction with Alcohol Awareness Week.  The Sport marketing students were responsible for marketing the event and they did a wonderful job!  Over one thousand students attended this year.  Everyone seemed to have a great time as they enjoyed various entertaining events, food, prizes and of course, an introduction to the teams.

Second, I played knock out at the event.  There are not many things that I am worse at than basketball.  On top of that, I honestly hate knock out because I always get my butt kicked!  Having said that, I enjoyed playing; it was fun. I certainly gave the students something to remember and it allowed me and other faculty and staff members a chance to let loose a bit. 

Third, during the busy week I noticed that there were some major miscommunications between many different people.  I was personally involved in two of the situations and I witnessed a few more. As frustrating as that was and did lead me to some conclusions.

So what did I take away from this week?

What are your thoughts on these points? How do you get through the tough weeks at work, school or in your personal life? Your tips and opinions are more than welcome here!

Day two of the CSRI Scholarly Conference on College Sport has come and gone.  Today’s sessions were mostly academic research presentations, and I will get to them.  There were two keynote speakers, though.  The first was Dr. John Gerdy (Ohio University), and the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics Luncheon speaker was Dr. Bernie Mullin (The Aspire Group).  Both were informative and took two different approaches.
Dr. Gerdy started the day off talking about how the intercollegiate model of sport has taken on the professional sport model with regards to football and men’s basketball.  He stated the reform in intercollegiate athletics should remain at the Division I level with football and basketball.  Dr. Gerdy also gave some alarming statistics regarding retired NFL players.  He said that two years after retiring from the NFL, 78% of the retirees file for bankruptcy or are under financial stress due to joblessness or divorce.  He went on to say that five years after retirement, 60% of the retirees are broke.  He attributes this to the lack of direction, planning and purpose while the players are in college.  Dr. Gerdy suggests the only way to reform the professional model is to eliminate the scholarship in exchange for a need-based financial aid agreement that is administered outside of the athletic department.
Dr. Mullin compared and contrasted the NBA and college basketball.  He said that that reform is needed in intercollegiate athletics and from the basketball side, a lot could be fixed if the students were forced to stay in college longer, giving them a longer period to grow as basketball players and as adults.  He noted that the players that only stay one year are neither physically or emotionally ready for the NBA.  Dr. Gerdy asked Bernie if it was the NBA’s fault that 60% of NBA retirees are bankrupt after two years.  Dr. Mullin not only said no, but he outlined what the NBA does to prevent it, and went on to say that if they stayed in college longer they would be more mature and learn the skills needed to prepare them for life after college.
I also saw two other interesting presentations. The first was Intercollegiate Athletic Participation and Undergraduate Student Engagement by Dr. Tammy Crawford (Washington State University).   It was an interesting study in terms of not only the types and levels of engagement student athletes had, but some of the statistics were alarming and need more investigation.  The statistic that was most eye-opening to me was this one:

The amount of effort put into the following activity:

Practice

95%

Attending class

73%

Spectator for another sport

47%

Preparing for class

41%

 
It is alarming to see that the student-athletes surveyed put more effort into being a spectator at a sport than preparing for class, but on the other hand they are putting forth a fair amount of effort to attend class.
Dr. Steve Dittmore (University of Arkansas) and Mr. Craig Crow (East Stroudsburg University) did a wonderful job presenting the topic Competitive Balance in the Founding BCS Conferences: Regular and Post Season Implications.  The premise behind the study was to see how competitive balance has changed since the BCS was founded in 1998.  There were two results that stood out to me.  The first was that all six original BCS conferences had an increase in competitive balance since the inception of the BCS in terms of the within-season results.  The second was that the recent conference alignment has positively affected competitive balance in the two most impacted original BCS conferences which are the ACC and the Big East.
The poster session with the YCP students went well as did their case study.  I will find out later if they will advance to the finals later this evening.  Overall, it was a good day.  I will update you tomorrow on the final day of the conference.