Jan 20
Jan 12
The Tallahassee Democrat notes that former Mr. Florida Football Xavier Lee has not enrolled in classes for the spring semester at Florida State. Friday was the last day for students to register and maintain their eligibility.
Bookmark it:
Dec 24
The BBC has an online poll going.Last date to submit your votes is the 4th of Jan.The winner will be announced during the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana on 1 February 2008.The nominees are
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal and Togo) ,Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea and Ghana), Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona and Cameroon) and Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla and Mali)
Bookmark it:
Dec 19
Dec 04
Nov 25
By the time the floodlights go out tonight in Real Sociedad’s Anoeta Stadium, Chris Coleman’s future in Spain could be a little clearer. If his team have lost, he probably does not have one… but if they have beaten Malaga – the leaders of La Liga’s second tier – he will have drastically improved his chances of seeing in the new year in San Sebastian, should he still want to.
Bookmark it:
Nov 21
Nov 19
Paul Oberjuerge LA Daily News
You can find College Station in Texas, State College in Pennsylvania and a Collegeville in Minnesota.
But if you are looking for Collegefootballtown, USA … gaze out the window.
You are living in it.
Greater Los Angeles is the world’s biggest market in which college football is king.
Some of it is the absence of the National Football League.
Some is the return to dominance of USC.
Some is the presence of a second major program, UCLA.
And then there are two huge, historic venues; major media coverage, two large alumni fan bases - and one huge rivalry between them.
At the end of the day (generally every Saturday in the fall), nobody does college football like we do.
We enthusiastically support not one but two major football programs.
Consider:
USC averaged a school-record 91,480 tickets sold for its six 2006 home games. The Trojans aren’t far behind this season, averaging 86,660 through five games - a number that will rise when UCLA packs out the Coliseum on Dec. 1.
UCLA is about to set a school record for average home attendance.
Through five games at the Rose Bowl the Bruins are averaging 77,167 tickets sold, with an attractive game with Oregon still to play.
USC sold every ticket for 2006 and ranked No. 8 in the nation in attendance - and might have rivaled No. 1 Michigan if the Coliseum seated 110,000, as does The Big House. UCLA was 24th in the nation in average attendance, 64,955 per game.
Between them, USC and UCLA sold a tad more than 1 million football tickets last season. No college town in the nation was within a quarter-million of that number; Ann Arbor, home of Michigan, was a distant second at 770,000.
All those fans in seats makes for local football programs rolling up enormous revenues, according to figures generated by the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.
USC’s football program generated $31.7 million in football revenue last season, and spent $18.7 million - leaving a cool $13 million in profit.
UCLA’s football program generated $23.5 million, with expenses of $16.9 million - and profit of $6.6 million.
That nearly $20 million in football profit, between the two teams, enabled both USC and UCLA to balance their athletic budgets - at $76.4 million for USC, $61.3million at UCLA.
And it’s just not dollars and cents that demonstrate the Trojans’ and Bruins’ hold on our imagination and wallets.
Where else does the fate of the coach of the region’s No. 2 college football program (UCLA’s Karl Dorrell) generate nearly daily headlines and speculation?
What other major metropolitan area entertains a vigorous debate on who should start at quarterback for a college team, as we do for USC?
(John David Booty or Mark Sanchez?)
Can New Yorkers name even one player for their “home” college program, Rutgers?
Did anyone in Boston even notice when Boston College was 8-0 and ranked No. 2 in the nation?
How many Chicagoland residents spend even a fraction of their time worrying about Northwestern or Notre Dame? As opposed to Rex Grossman’s latest gaffes?
Dallas and Houston like their college football just fine, but not like the Cowboys and Texans. Philadelphia loves the Eagles but Temple is a blip on the radar. Washington, D.C., is all Redskins all the time.
It would be easy to dismiss Los Angeles’ infatuation with college football as the product of no NFL team in town. And maybe it was, a decade ago.
But USC now clearly is bigger than the Raiders ever were, if attendance in a venue the teams shared tells us anything at all. So is UCLA, actually; the Raiders never averaged 77,000 per game.
And USC’s recent teams certainly rival the Rams’ zenith in popularity - their early years in Los Angeles (following World War II) and the Chuck Knox Era (1973-78).
USC and UCLA haven’t just replaced the Rams and Raiders; they have surpassed them.
If we look at the rankings of the nation’s top metropolitan areas, by population, not until we reach No. 23 (Portland, Ore.) could we fairly say we have found another place where college football might be bigger than the NFL.
Conversely, college football’s hottest of beds tend to be in small and mid-sized cities such as Ann Arbor, Knoxville, Athens, State College, Baton Rouge, etc.
Los Angeles is the Great Exception. The nation’s No. 2 market, with 13 million people (17 million, when the Inland Empire is included), but enamored of the college kids, not the jaded old pros.
This works out just fine, for a variety of reasons.
College football tickets are cheaper than NFL tickets, and easier to find.
Both the Coliseum and Rose Bowl were built for the Common Man.
Neither is larded with space-sucking luxury boxes. You can see UCLA or USC play without mortgaging the house.
College football is more entertaining than the NFL, in terms of variety of schemes, points scored, the importance of every game and sheer enthusiasm among the players.
College football has a far more entertaining set of peripherals, including marching bands, cheerleaders, fight songs and the controversial Bowl Championship Series ratings.
Neither USC nor UCLA played on Saturday, and it seemed to leave a hole in our weekend. Another indication of our continuing interest in both teams.
Sure, we will watch some NFL today, but with the sort of passing interest of channel surfers. Not with the significant rooting interest that USC and UCLA now both claim here in Collegefootballtown, USA.
It is fair to wonder when (if ever) an NFL team based in Los Angeles would catch up to the popularity of our two college football teams.
Argument No. 99 in why we don’t need the NFL. We are quite happy with the Trojans and Bruins, thank you, and the Trojans and Bruins are very happy with us.
Bookmark it:
