Website promotes webcasting of D-III sports

This weekend the Ithaca wrestling team is hosting the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference (ECWC) Championships. This isn’t a common occurance on the South Hill. In fact, it’s kind of a big deal. So much so, in fact, that D3cast.com has elected to webcast the event through their website. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that most people have not heard of D3cast.com. Essentially it is a site dedicated to broadcasting Division III sports over the internet. Here’s what they say on their website:

D3Cast is an organization created to present audio and video broadcasts of Division III athletics events over the internet (a process known as webcasting), and a web site where these broadcasts are streamed live and then kept in an archive for subsequent viewing. D3Cast is a member of the Bullpen Media Network.

The future of all sports lies in webcasting. It’s only a matter of time before every professional game is readily available online. The NCAA already webcasts all of the Division I men’s basketball tournament games on their website. ESPN.com also has complete college basketball games that are broadcast through their website. It’s positive to see a site on the D-III level devoted to only webcasting. While D3cast.com currently only has a small selection of games available, it is the only site to my knowledge that focuses solely on webcasting. This is the future of sports broadcasting, and it’s good to see Division III keeping pace.

Enough with the snow

For the first time in about a full day, the snow is starting to slow down. Mother Nature thoroughly dominated the east coast in the past 24 hours. Syracuse got so much snow that they had to postpone the first day of competition in the women’s swimming and diving state meet. Swimming. Canceled because of snow. Go figure. With most of the snow expected to be cleared by tomorrow afternoon or evening, the meet will eventually start. But right now I have to go enjoy a hearty game of snow football.

A little item for your enjoyment: I found an interesting NCAA proposal on a d3sports.com message board. It certainly raises some serious points. Any thoughts?

Say it ain’t so: Division IV on the way?

One of my beautiful colleagues that is currently studying in London sent me the link to an article in today’s New York Times. It discusses the future of Division III sports and whether or not it is realistic that we may see a Division IV as soon as 2009.

The main debate is over how much time and energy schools should place on their athletic programs. On one hand there are schools like the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which is highly ranked in a number of prominent sports. Stevens Point is also a perennial championship winner, having won two of the last three men’s basketball titles and a women’s basketball title five years ago. On the other side of the argument are the schools that emphasize academics over athletics, not heavily recruiting in pursuit of national championships.

Hold on a second here. Please, let’s revisit the Division III sports philosophy statement shall we?

Colleges and universities in Division III place highest priority on the overall quality of the educational experience and on the successful completion of all students’ academic programs. They seek to establish and maintain an environment in which a student-athlete’s athletics activities are conducted as an integral part of the student-athlete’s educational experience, and in which coaches play a significant role as educators. They also seek to establish and maintain an environment that values cultural diversity and gender equity among their student-athletes and athletics staff.

In case you skipped past all of that, it essentially says that D-III schools are supposed to place a greater emphasis on education, not athletics. Athletics are supposed to complement a strong education. But the article goes into detail about the tentative plan to split Division III in half. Schools that continue to place a strong emphasis on recruiting and winning would remain in D-III. Those schools would then pick six to seven sports to focus on, and remove the rest of the teams. Division IV would then be comprised of teams that placed less of an emphasis on winning. They would therefore have upwards of 15 teams.

Either way, this is clearly an important issue that will affect the landscape of Division III sports. Stay Tuned.

Dance Dance Institution?

It’s sunday night, so naturally I’m surfing the web instead of doing my work. And what do I find on YouTube but a Dance Dance Revolution video. You know, that game where people “dance” to the songs on the screen, stepping on the arrows on the floor mat that coordinate with the arrows on the screen. Anyway, this post is not about DDR, so look it up some time if you’re really interested in it (I’m so helpful).

The video I found shows two student athletic trainers at Hope College practicing DDR and discussing how it can help injured athletes in rehab. Check it:

I find myself strangely intrigued by this. Since Hope is a D-III school, I did some research on whether or other not schools had picked up this rehabilitation technique. I found that Brandeis University, another Division-III school, offers a physical education course in DDR. I kid you not. Here’s the course summary:

Students play a video game which requires them to use their feet instead of their thumbs. Following the lighted arrows with their feet, Dance Dance Revolution is aerobic in nature and can burn as many calories as a Stairmaster or jogging. Usually offered every semester.

As ridiculous as this game is (and trust me, it’s absurd), I’d be willing to bet that class is pretty popular at Brandeis. You get a good workout and most people find it fun. As far as rehabilitating injuries, I could see how that works. It exercises the lower half of your body, mainly the legs. My immaturity makes me want to see a 6-foot-seven-inch, 300-pound offensive lineman tear it up in DDR. But my mature self says Hope deserves praise for pioneering something new in rehabbing sports injuries.

The following video is completely unrelated, but I just had to post it. At least Brian Moorman’s team won the game…

No undefeated season for Amherst

Alright, it’s official - I’m bad luck. Just 12 days after I wrote about how impressive the Amherst College men’s basketball team has been this year, they lose their first game. Yup, they lost their first game of the season in their last regular season matchup. And they weren’t blown out or anything. No, they lost by a three-point dagger at the hands of Trinity College’s Patrick Martin with only four seconds remaining. Andrew Olson’s final shot attempt for Amherst fell short, prompting one of the best scenes in college sports - fans storming the court after an upset win.

This serves as a notice to the rest of the D-III teams across the nation - I’m bad luck. But in all fairness, hats off to Trinity. After the win against Amherst, the team’s record sits at 20-3 overall. And while they aren’t ranked in the top-25 poll (expect that to change now), they still received 10 votes last week. Adding a win over the top team in the country (and previously only remaining undefeated team) will help when the tournament selection begins. Expect Trinity to earn a much higher seed in the tournament now.

As for me, well, I’ll just sit here with my umbrella open, petting my black cat as I watch the reflection in a broken mirror. Too dramatic? Yeah, probably. Besides, Amherst is still 23-1 and still figures to be the top-ranked team in the country. I can only feel so bad about that.

Me and my Empire 8 updates

I love getting new e-mails. It’s like Christmas every time. I just received an e-mail from the Empire 8 with the subject line: Empire 8 Free webcasts for basketball championships. This is gold. This is like the Nintendo 64 I got when I was nine years old.

The e-mail reads as follows:

The Empire 8 will provide free live video webcasts of the 2007 Empire 8 Men?s and Women?s Basketball Championship finals.

For more information, please click http://www.empire8.com/020807-1.html

For general information on the conference, please visit the Empire 8 web site at www.empire8.com

The Empire 8 will also begin webcasting a number of regular season contests and conference tournaments beginning in the fall of 2007. Sweetness.

March means more than just madness

Let the countdown begin - only 29 more days until the D-III women’s swimming and diving national championships begin. Don’t tell me you’re not pumped. OK, well I understand if you’re not. I, on the other hand, am an addict and realize I have a problem.

Addictions aside, I genuinely get giddy when March rolls around. Of course I get to bask in the glory of the NCAA tournament, which is quite possibly one of the best week-long stretches of the year. My favorite team not residing on the South Hill is the Michigan State Spartans, and they always treat me to a heart attack or two in the tourney. But while Cinderella is sending teams home early, there is another championship event going on that gets a lot less attention.

Bear with me as I take a trip down memory lane and explore how I came to not only understand, but enjoy swimming and diving. It was my first beat as a freshman writing for The Ithacan. I was so eager to write that I jumped at any beat I was offered, even if it was swimming, which I hadn’t the faintest knowledge about. So I showed up at the glorious Hill Center Gymnasium to watch the team’s first meet of the season, and was treated to quite a doozy. Ithaca barely beat RPI in the final relay race, which should have secured them the gut-wrenching victory. Unfortunately, a member of the Ithaca team dove into the pool to celebrate the victory. Apparently that’s a big no-no. Ithaca was disqualified and RPI got the win. It was a tough loss for the Bombers, but I was hooked.

So, back to the present. Only 29 days until the women’s championship meet, and 36 days until the men’s championship meet. This year the meets will take place at the University of Houston, and if past results are any indication, expect Kenyon College to walk away with both crowns.

The women’s team has won 20 of the last 23 national titles. That’s only to be outdone by their male counterparts, who have won the last 27 national titles. Those are obscene totals, and I’ll be sure to follow up on whether or not they win again this year. If I were a betting man, I’d guess they will.

Valiants rule the college rinks

I’m done writing about Gino Bona, I promise. There’s a lot more going on in the world of Division-III sports. I’ll start by recognizing the top-ranked team in all of D-III men’s ice hockey: Manhattanville College. I’ve got to admit I was alittle surprised to find out that a school in Westchester, New York, just 45 minutes outside of New York City, has the nation’s best D-III hockey team right now.

Sporting a record of 17-0-3, the Valiants (yes, the Valiants) picked up all 15 first-place votes in this week’s USCHO.com/CSTV Division III Poll. How cool is it that this team is named the Valiants? I can’t think of a better, more original team name. OK, so maybe it’s alittle cliche. I guess I’m torn.

All I know is that I would love to see how many times newspapers have used “fought valiantly” in the leads of stories focusing on this team. Or any team from Manhattanville for that matter. I’m putting the over/under at 50 percent.

But seriously, any team that can say they are unbeaten through 20 games is pretty solid. In fact, the Valiants are one of only two college hockey squads in the country - Division-I and -III - to have an unbeaten record (the Plattsburgh women’s hockey team is 17-0-2). And with only four games remaining on the regular season schedule, an unbeaten regular season seems well within reach.

Winning aside, what’s the best part of being a Valiant? I personally think it’s the former New York Rangers practice facility used by the team, equipped with a hot tub, big screen TV and ping pong table, among other things. But I’ll let you all decide for yourself.

In the meantime, here, have this sweet logo:

Now that’s pretty valiant.

Also, in completely unrelated news that I desperately wanted to share, the Washington Nationals organization has begun to take note of their bloggers. I can only hope D-III teams give me the same kind of treatment.

Watch Bona’s commercial

Last night I promised that I would post the commercial if I found it online. Well, I did. So here’s the final outcome of Gino Bona’s pitch. Thoughts anyone?

NFL ruined Bona’s commercial

Congratulations to the Colts. Da Bears knocked my beloved Seahawks out of the playoffs this season, so I couldn’t be happier to know Chicago fans are going through the worst pain a sports fan can experience - losing a Super Bowl. That loss still eats at my soul, but at least now I have something to smile about. But enough about the actual game. One of the most anticipated moments of this year’s game for me was the debut of Gino Bona’s commercial.

Bona, a 1995 graduate of Ithaca College, won the NFL’s Super Ad contest, in which fans pitched their ideas for commercials. Bona’s pitch was hilarious. See for yourself…

However, the actual commercial was not what I was expecting to see. I had the chance to ask Bona a few questions over the weekend, and he told me the final cut was a bit different than his original idea. Now that I’ve seen the commercial, I see that by “a bit different” Bona meant “completely changed.” It’s disappointing to know that the NFL took control of the behind-the-scenes production, when it was supposed to be a fan-driven contest. And I was even more disappointed with the final commercial. I mean seriously, Brett Favre? Really? Don’t we read about him enough?

And don’t worry, when I find the commercial online I’ll be sure to post it so that all you loyal readers can watch it. As far as the rest of Super Sunday, let’s just say that I’m pumped about next season already. Seahawks in ‘08.

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