NCAA Basketball FanHouse

Losing Wendell Barnhouse

Charles Rich — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Texas Football, Big 12, Texas A&M Football, Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, NCAA FB Media Watch

The Big 12's gain is the loss for a lot of college sports fans.

"After 36 years, 23 Final Fours, all 10 Bowl Championship Series title games and a half-dozen laptops, I'm done," he writes.

"I will begin working as a writer/blogger for the Big 12 Conference web site (so I'll need laptop No. 7). The Big 12 wants its web site to convey information about its schools in both video and story form. I'll be somewhat involved with the former and heavily involved with the latter. It's a great opportunity that I'm lucky to have considering the death spiral of major newspapers."

Barnhouse had been the national college football and basketball writer/columnist for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Barnhouse's national reach, reputation and popularity grew as the internet allowed more readers access. His columns were considered required reading by many college sports fans. Barnhouse was also one of the few national college sports writers at a newspaper. Not at a national paper, magazine or TV/internet operation.

The Star-Telegram benefited from his reputation, but the actual value to the paper was low. The national following added little to their subscription base. This led the paper to decide to eliminate the national college beat. Offering Barnhouse the choice of a buyout or assuming role of Texas A&M beat writer. As Barnhouse wrote, "Nothing against the Aggies, but it was clearly time to bail out."

Losing Wendell Barnhouse originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big Ten Network Contract Remains a Mystery

Charles Rich — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:25:00 EST

Filed under: Michigan Football, Ohio State Football, Big 10, Indiana Basketball, Michigan State Basketball, Big Ten Basketball, NCAA Basketball Media Watch, NCAA FB Media Watch, Purdue Basketball

In the midst of an article about an Indiana University Trustee impotently complaining about the Big Ten Network stalemate, there's an interesting little nugget. Few people at the Big Ten schools actually have seen or read the contract with the Big Ten Network.

Eskew said he's also concerned that a year and a half after the contract between the Big Ten Conference and Fox was announced, not enough people know the details. He said he believes nobody at IU has read it other than Adam Herbert, IU's president in 2006. Eskew wonders if IU could get out of the deal if the cable issue isn't resolved.
...

[Neil] Theobald[, IU's vice president and chief financial officer,] said because IU has already used the money to issue $45 million in bonds for athletic facilities, there won't be any desire to pull out of the contract. School spokesman Larry MacIntyre agreed, saying that would be tantamount to pulling out of the Big Ten.

As for the Big Ten Network contract, Theobald said it's at the conference office in Park Ridge, Ill. He said he hasn't seen it, but that trustees "have access to it if they choose to read it."

In response to a public records request by The Star, MacIntyre said nobody at the school has the contract or a "definitive" description of its contents. But he said current school president Michael McRobbie and athletic director Rick Greenspan have been "intimately briefed on every detail."

And yes, they also checked to see if Purdue had a copy.
Purdue had nothing too interesting either.

The Big Ten Network and the Big Ten Conference, as private entities based in other states, naturally had no interest in sharing a copy of the Big Ten Network contract with the media. All but one member of the Big Ten are public institutions, subject to varying degrees of state public records requests.

It seems fair to assume that no school is keeping a copy of the actual contract, and that it was a deliberate decision to do so. Instead, those who are allowed to look at the contract have to go to it. Of course, it seems they aren't that eager to make sure those who can have access know they have access.

Big Ten Network Contract Remains a Mystery originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:25:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Can't Read Its Own Report

Brian Cook — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:24:00 EST

Filed under: NCAA Basketball Coaches, NCAA FB Coaching, NCAA FB Media Watch

Test tubes... of science(!) for a report with numbers and stuff.

The NCAA, as is their wont, does reports on stuff. Like the fact that contact causes injury. They've just come out with another of their long-term investigative studies, this one on the number of black coaches in various sports, and have the following results over the past decade:

Black head coaches at men's revenue sports nearly doubled from 12.7 percent to 22.4 percent.
Black head coaches in all sports went from 4.2 percent to 5.3 percent.
Black administrators rose from 8.4 percent to 9.5 percent.
Overall percentage of black athletes dropped to 23.7 percent from 24.5 percent.
Black athletes in football and men's and women's basketball increased from 50.9 percent to 54.5 percent.

All told this seems like good news, right?

Here's Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion:

"Overall, if you look at the growth of student-athletes of color who are involved in NCAA athletics, the big takeaway from this report is that the growth is not being reflected in the numbers of individuals who are either choosing or receiving the opportunity to become assistant or head coaches, directors of athletics and senior woman administrators."

Um. The "growth" in student-athletes of color is a negative one. On the other hand, the growth in black coaches and administrators is a positive one. Even if you are expecting the jump in football/basketball percentages to directly correspond to a jump in head coaching positions -- a very, very debatable assumption --, um... head coaches are old. The first time the 2006 number is going to be relevant is when the kids in that class are, like, 40 or 50.

Maybe these numbers aren't going up as fast as they should be. But they are going up, and the relevant numbers for comparison's sake are those from thirty years ago, not yesterday, unless there is a super-fast-track to head coaching positions I haven't been informed of. In which case, I am seriously pissed off and want in, like, now.

NCAA Can't Read Its Own Report originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Wed, 30 May 2007 22:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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