Ryan and Stephen's Scrapbook

  High profile college football coaches Nick Saban of Alabama and Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M have gone back and forth on the transparency of the Aggies' NIL deals. Saban had suggested that Texas A&M had "bought every player" while Fisher said that his team "had nothing to hide" However, neither school has disclosed much information publicly.  ESPN sampled 23 universities, with 20 of them being in Power 5 conferences. Most schools refused to provide much information on how their athletes were benefiting from their name, image, and likeness, including Alabama. Texas A&M initially stated they would comply, they have only provided records omitting both names of athletes and finances. We discussed athletics in colleges and universities in class, along with the pushback from the NCAA against athletes being able to benefit from NIL deals, and how the NCAA finally, though reluctantly, gave in to the pressure. While the NCAA has added rules to make sure that N...

It's not much of a secret that hockey does not have a very diverse fanbase compared to other sports. Even today, players from youth hockey to the NHL still experience racism from fans and other players. Issues like those and the death of George Floyd in 2020 lead to the formation of the Hockey Diversity Alliance by a group of players.  In class we have discussed diversity issues within sport, including the UCF Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport report cards, which the NHL is now looking to take part in.  Although, many players and staff already accept that the results won't be very favorable to the league.  Matt Dumba, a defenseman for the Minnesota Wild and member of the HDA, has recently spoken out pushing the league to improve.       “It just goes back to everything that’s been done for a long, long time in the same fashion. You know,      the old boys’ club and them dictating who is and who isn’t welcome. Yeah, I’m sick...

With the current Major League Soccer TV deal with ESPN, FOX, and Univision coming to an end, the league has taken a major leap in signing a 10 year deal with Apple worth $2.5 billion. Apple TV will have exclusive streaming rights for every game in MLS, the MLS + Liga MX Leagues Cup, and the MLS feeder system of MLS Next & MLS Next Pro. Games will also be broadcasted with no local blackouts, except for Leagues Cup games for Mexican viewers. In class, we discussed the shift that is taking place in the sport industry away from traditional linear TV towards Over-The-Top TV (streaming).  While most other leagues are split with some events on linear TV and some streamed, MLS and Apple have decided to go all out and have every game on a streaming platform. This does not mean the games will be exclusively streamed, as MLS is still in talks with it's current TV partners to simulcast some games that will be available in front of the Apple TV paywall.  Apple's announcement of the new...

  The Decline of Youth Sport In topic 5, we discussed "Youth Sports" and the state that organized youth programs are in. Youth Sport is a league, team or individual competition that occurs between birth and 18 years-old. In 2008, 45% of children ages 6-12 in the US participated in youth sports. But today, only 37% of the same age group participated in youth sports. 8% might not seem like much, but that age group is approximately 25 million, so instead of 8%, 2 million is the number to look at as that's how many less children are playing youth sport.  Another alarming statistic is that 70% of children participating in youth sport drop out at the age of 13. The reason for the departures is mostly due to negative parents and negative coaches. The environment is not suitable for kids and the sport is no longer fun to them. Here is a video on Poor Parenting in Youth Sport To further add on to the troubles of youth sport, the cost of participation  is on the rise. On average, p...

 FIFA has Petitions to Ban Iran from the 2022 World Cup In topic 7, we discussed "Sport and Politics" and how the two are interconnected. As Dr. Higgs often says, "sports don't live in a vacuum". We talked about sporting events being used as a platform for athletes and teams to voice their concerns and opinions. The first example of this was Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists during the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. They protested to raise awareness of the poor treatment of African Americans in the United States. Smith and Carlos were stripped of their medals and sent home. Another reason for athletes to protest is a condemnation of war. We discussed Toni Smith, from Manhatanville College, protesting the war in Iran. Also, we discussed Muhammad Ali, protesting the war in Vietnam. These decisions came with much scrutiny.  As history often repeats itself, there is more controversy surrounding p...

Sports Betting's Emergence In topic 8, we discussed the economy and how sports contribute to the economy. There are many sources of revenue for leagues and franchises such as media rights, sponsorship, merchandise, and luxury boxes to name a few. While there are many sources of income available, the costs of running a team continues to increase. Attendance is flattening out among most leagues and is trending downwards in the MLB. The future of sport fans is in question as Millennials and Gen Z are less interested in sport than the previous generations.  To combat the stagnated attendance, leagues need new sources of revenue to support the budget. One of the emerging sources of revenue for sports teams and leagues is sports betting. Gambling was only legalized in 2018 by many states and still is not legal in 20 states.  Numbers released from this June showed the revenue for sports betting remain steady among inflation and rising gas prices. The top four states among sports bett...