In Conclusion..

I thought that blogging in this class will help me in the future as I am trying to become a sports journalist and or reporter. After the experience in this class, I really want to get in to blogging more and focus on being a better writer. Blogging, especially on sports topics that we discussed is good experience for me as I will most likely be debating topics of this nature my whole life. Particular to this class, I enjoyed talking about the Jordan effect and just learning about the effect he had on the game economically. I view myself as a Michael Jordan fanatic and whenever I get a chance to talk about him its always exciting because how inspirational he was as a player. Similar to that, I loved the topics about Lebron and Kobe comparing them to Michael and enjoyed that Dr. Spencer referenced my comments in class.
In my opinion, we had many good discussions with a lot of different people with different views on subjects. Particularly, I would like to give cudos to Fred Sharp as I think he had some of the best comments and insight of everything given in class. But in general I enjoyed blogging and the overall diversity that surrounded this class. I will say thank you to Nancy Spencer as she is and will always be a great professor!



-Max Householder

That’s All Folks…

I really enjoyed blogging this semester, the topics we discussed were great to hear others opinion from the class.  By blogging, getting and giving feedback, I was opened up to other onions I would not consider by myself.  I most enjoyed discussing issues between common sports played between men and women (soccer, tennis, basketball, etc.).  It’s interesting that at least in my opinion female tennis is more popular than watching the men.  I know this is true for me, the only male tennis players I can watch are Andre Agassi (retired) and Rafa Nadal.   Soccer is a sport in America it mostly picks up on popularity when it’s the year of the world cup (every four years); however, I feel whether it’s the women’s or men’s world cup they are equally hyped at viewed.  In fact, I would say professional tennis and soccer are the most equally broadcasted and thought of in respects to how the fan sees the game.

Another positive about the blog is it kept me thinking about topics outside of class.  Also it helped make me more aware of rising issues within current news and events.  I really enjoyed the group presentation on RG3, I think they did a great job, it’s a timely topic, and they gave great insight.  In leaving this class I have gained a greater awareness of certain issue, and a greater respect for those women who were pioneers in the Title IX movement.  I have also increased an ability to listen to both sides, for example in allocating money and resources in college athletic budgets and such.

-By Tony Fritsch

NBA vs WNBA

My part of our presentation had to do with the overall general differences between the NBA and WNBA.  These differences are often more obvious than others.  The men’s ball is slightly larger then the women’s ball and the three point line in the men’s game extends three more feet out then in the WNBA.  The shot clock in the NBA is 24 seconds while being 30 seconds in the WNBA.  It still doesn’t make much sense to me that in the college game women have a shorter shot clock then the men do, then you jump up to the NBA and they lose 11 seconds, and the women just lose 5.  The NBA also still has the 10 second back court violation while within the last five years the WNBA and women’s college basketball has discontinued it. 

I also touched on current WNBA players and women’s basketball coaches and their opinions on women playing in the NBA:

"If you could put me in a machine that could make me 6-foot-5 and as strong as they were, I could play in the NBA," Taurasi said (Smith, 2011, paragraph 3).

"If they could, they would," said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who coached some of the best players ever as the U.S. Olympic coach in 1996. "If it's all about physical strength, women simply do not have the muscle mass that men have. If we are talking about strength and speed and jumping ability ... that's not happening” (Smith, 2011, paragraph 8). 

"Never in my lifetime will a woman be able to compete in a men's sport -- nor should they want to -- where there is a physical comparison between the two," Auriemma said. "Anything where it's my strength versus your strength, I don't think it can happen“ (Smith, 2011, paragraph 10). 

Overall I thought it was interesting to learn some of the overall differences between the NBA and WNBA.

-Alyssa Robinson

NBA & WNBA Salaries

There are many differences between the NBA and WNBA; however, salaries are the one difference that the gap is very evident.

NBA: Team Salary Cap- $58 million

The average salary in the NBA is just over $3 million per year, but

totals vary depending on how many years they have been in the league. The minimum salary for a rookie in the 2010-11 season is $473,604. Elite players make $10 million to $15 million per year, with Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant having the highest salary in 2010-11.

WNBA: Team Salary Cap- $803,000

In the United States, professional women’s basketball players make significantly less than men’s players. The minimum salary for a WNBA player in 2011 is $35,880, with the maximum $103,500 for a six-year veteran who qualifies for a maximum contract. The average salary for a WNBA player is $69,690 for the 2011 season.

“People ask how I spend my off-season from the WNBA,” says Chastity Melvin, a forward for the Cleveland Rockers who is playing in Gdinya, Poland. “In some ways, the WNBA is the off-season. The fall and winter is when most of us make our real money.”

Professional women basketball players also have the option of playing oversees in European leagues.  There players can make double what they make in the WNBA ($150,000) and the season is much longer as well (6 months).  Players like Maya Moore (pictured above) play in both leagues.

More Salary Details

-Tony Fritsch

My Experience By: Alyssa Robinson

Playing college basketball for two years has really made me more aware of the fact that although someone’s sexual orientation might be different then mine, they are people and deserve respect.  I’m from a small town where no one to my knowledge was openly homosexual and if they were I can almost be positive they would’ve been looked at because of their orientation and not the person they are or their achievements.  It’s just how conservative my community is.

At first it was really different being around openly lesbian girls, playing on a team with them, and hanging out around them.  At first I’ll admit that it was awkward for me.  But I got to know them and realized that they were there to play basketball just like me.  I guess I feel like people that aren’t around homosexuals or give them a chance have a negative view point and I was the same way.  Just like people that are straight, homosexuals aren’t attracted to everyone of the gender they prefer, they have certain things they like in a person just like straight people.  It disgusts me when people feel awkward around homosexuals, but then again I guess I was pretty much the same way at one point but I’ve come a long way.

I think coming to college and having a couple good friends that are lesbians (even my roommate), has given me the opportunity to see them as any other person.  And I can’t even imagine how hard it is for them to deal with the hatred that they receive on a daily bases for just being true to themselves. 

Homophobia in Sports By: Timothy McLellan

The amount of homophobic athletes in the major sports in the USA is very disappointing to me.  It seems to be a major deal in all of the leagues too because no male athlete has openly come out of the closet during his playing career.  It is most likely due to people like Tim Hardaway who exclaim how they hate gay people and how he would distance himself away from homosexuals on the team.  This reminds me a lot of all of the extreme discrimination that sports had on African American athletes and I cannot believe that African American athletes to this day want to be separated from other athletes because of their sexuality.  I also believe that sexuality is not a choice and it is in people’s DNA, which makes it crazier to have such a drastic amount of separation and discrimination.  I have known of one male athlete that was gay that has been on one of my teams before.  He was a freshman on the soccer team when I was a junior.  No one on the team said anything mean to his face but there were a lot of comments made behind his back that some athletes participating in.  A select few of the upperclassmen and I took it as our job to look out for this kid and to give him a chance.  We made sure to include him in many of the off-field team activities.  Once he was hanging around our team often enough off the field, many of the players on our team warmed up to him and ended up liking him.  That is why I think it is so important for everyone to deserve a chance to be a part of the team before being ostracized immediately because of a person’s sexuality.

Championship Contenders

With the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship games being played this past Monday and Tuesday nights it left a great opportunity to compare and contrast.

Monday night featured Kentucky versus Kansas for the Men’s championship.  The game was played in Louisiana’s Superdome, home of the NFL’s Saints, because it was played in a football stadium seating capacity was much greater shown on the seating chart.

While the Men’s tournament was played on a much bigger stage, the Women’s played in Denver’s Pepsi Center, home to the NBA’s Nuggets.  Seating capacity for the Baylor versus Notre Dame game was much smaller at just under 20,000.

Viewers aside both games were competitive at times but resulted in lopsided victories for Baylor and Kentucky.  As we discussed in class with both teams featuring a tall and dominate post player, both of which won their respected Player of the Year awards, both games focused on those players.  Comments about those athletes were for the most part positive and it seemed as if they could do no wrong.  It took up until the second half for 6’10” Anthony Davis scored but the entire game they praised him instead of giving much of any credit to Kansas’ defense.

I felt in the Baylor game they did a better job focusing on both Brittney Griner and the matchup between Baylor’s guard Odyssey Sims and Notre Dame’s guard Skylar Diggins.

Another interesting point I noticed it seemed like with the women athletes they were focusing more on their off the court personalities rather with the men was more about their game.  I enjoyed the Women’s pregame “meet the team” and wish the Men’s would put more of a focus on that aspect as well, they are student-athletes!

Aside from the commentators I thought both games were well done from the broadcast phase, they both seemed fair.  I thought it was a little detracting how much they showed Robert Griffin III at the game, but I can see both sides to doing so.

Wrapping up the coverage it was unfortunate that the Women’s game had to end on a low point with Notre Dame’s Coach McGraw making comments on Griner’s game in what can be seen in a negative light.

-Tony Fritsch

Tiger Woods: Forgiven? By: Alyssa Robinson

By: Alyssa Robinson

Sunday, Tiger Woods won his first PGA tournament in over 30 months at Bay Hill.  In class yesterday we talked a lot about whether or not Tiger Woods is still associated with his nasty divorce that occurred over three years ago. 

A few other big names that come to mind when thinking about similar situations to me are: Kobe’s alleged rape and Lebron’s ‘decision’.  Lebron’s ‘decision’ is clearly the freshest of the three in my opinion but I think with all of them time healed.  Now I do agree that Tiger will always be associated with his nasty divorce, but the fact is when I watch an athlete compete I watch them because of their athletic abilities and not because of their background/home life.

I don’t have to agree with the different things these athletes do to be fans of them.  I think that with the spotlight on these athletes waiting for them to screw up, something is bound to happen.  Also you can’t please everyone; someone’s opinion that makes one person happy will make another person mad.  Back when we talked about Michael Jordan he had a controversial situation because he refused to give his opinion on a political question he was asked.  These athletes are paid to perform and it shouldn’t matter who their going to vote for in the up incoming election.

These athletes might be associated with a particular event, like Lebron and his ‘decision’ I hated him at first, but now it’s growing on me just as long as he doesn’t ever win a championship.  Much like Tiger, the fact that he is such a legend in the game of golf I am able to oversee his past mistakes and move on. 

Reading Nancy Lopez

The article by Jamieson (2008) dealt with how feminists during the time of Nancy Lopez’s reign on the golf course throughout the 70’s and 80 have had a hard time relating to her. The way I understood Jamieson’s arguments was that they kind of resented her for the way she kind of wanted to be normal and put in to a higher class of just your average every day Latino. This in a way relates back to what we talked about a few weeks back in that athletes of a different ethnicity besides white should represent their ethnic background in a way that will make people happy. Therefore when other ethnic woman see Nancy Lopez marrying two white males in Tim Melton and Ray Knight as the article Jamieson (2008) portrays, this gives them the idea that they are being betrayed in some way.

My feelings on these notions are that people are looking too far into this and should try to keep athletes on a level playing field as everyone else. Although it seems hard to do, we must realize that athletes are human beings just like us if a latina woman like Nancy Lopez wants to be a professional golfer in a primarily white dominate sport then we should let her do it. And to the fact of her assimilating herself into a more high class society than what latinos are used to, I would think that this would be setting a good example for young Latinas that they really can be whatever they want. In all fairness, Nancy Lopez was simply doing what she loved in a time where not just latino women had trouble gaining respect from society but so did women in general.

I also found it surprising about this article in how Nancy Lopez in her first few years on the pro tour was just as successful as Tiger Woods during his first few years on the tour. However, I doubt that she got nearly as much publicity as he did and yet probably a fair amount of negative publicity for leaving the game at times to have children with her Caucasian husband. Much like how Tigers image was largely based on him being a loving husband and father(in the early years) and had that all come crashing down on him during the incidents in November of 2009. As a result, I feel that both Nancy Lopez and Tiger Woods are more subjective to criticism not because they were the best at their game during their time period but because they were of a minority race that is not as generally accepted in white male dominant society.

~Max Householder

March Madness

With the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament I thought about what we have previously discussed in class regarding how unequal women’s sport are to men’s in terms of television coverage.  The next four weeks are the most television coverage any women’s sport league will receive throughout this year.  In saying that television coverage of the tournaments are still not equal.

While researching the amount of coverage women’s sports get compared to men’s I came across a very interesting article on aaf publications.  Within the article it broke down various aspects of the coverage between men’s and women’s basketball.  The article brought up the differences in camera use, editing, replay, announcing, terminology, and how the differences of that resulted in women’s games having a lower quality to them production-wise.  This is something women’s basketball does not have a say in and is definitely a negative for them.  Not only do they see very little broadcasting of their games, but when they do television networks are broadcasting them at an unfavorable value?  This to me is a bigger issue then the amount of games being broadcasted; if the quality of the broadcast is not present the quantity does not matter as much.  The bigger issue then becomes how the television audience’s perceptions of women’s athletics are skewed because of lower broadcasting standards.  I think television networks like ESPN need to and should reevaluate the quality of their work at the end of each season, and always look in what ways do they need to improve.

-Tony Fritsch

Williams Sister Article

I disagreed with a lot that the article, “Sister Act VI: Venus and Serena Williams at Indian Wells: “Sincere Fictions” and White Racism.  Although I think racism is still evident in today’s world and in sports, I think that articles just like this one only encourage for racism to still exist.  I think that people tend to make something out of nothing a lot of times.  Athletes are looked at under a microscope constantly and everything that is said and is done that revolves around them is leaked to the media instantly.  I believe that if people and the media keep talking about how racism is still a major issue of sports and society it will always be an issue in society.  This article talks about how Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and the Williams sisters got an enormous amount of endorsement deals and media publicity because they were black. However I think they got the attention that they received because they are the best athletes in the sport.  Not only were they the best, they were the best by a landslide.  They have earned the most attention and endorsement deals.  I did find it interesting that people were making racial comments at Indian Wells in 2001.  However, the article describes toward the end that the fans were most likely frustrated with the match between Venus and Serena not happening and the idea that their father fixed the outcome.  This scenario seems to happen a lot more than it needs to happen.  A comment that is made is not necessarily racist is blown up through the media when in actuality the fans were just expressing their content about not getting their money’s worth for the game.  In today’s sport news, Jeremy Lin has blown up the media as an Asian American point guard for the New York Knicks.  His story is a really great story about how he had to work very hard to finally earn playing time.  However, his hard work is often looked over and the excuse is made up that he simply just got overlooked talent wise because of his skin color.  SportsCenter and other ESPN shows such as First Take talked a great deal about the racial issues when that may not have even have been the real factor that even mattered.

-Tim McLellan

Michael Jordan

Today in class we discussed the impact of Michael Jordan not only on the sport of basketball but also with his brand and other items he is associated with.  It brought up a great question to think about; will there ever be another athlete that will have the same impact as him?  In my opinion not only was Michael Jordan the best to ever play the game of basketball but because of his fame and positive image his popularity still exists years after his retirement.  I’ve never thought too much until we talked about it in class, but lots of the top athletes today are associated with something negative, (ex. Kobe’s rape, Lebron’s “decision”) something that I don’t associated when I think of Michael Jordan (until maybe today when we talked about some of this flaws).

Maybe it was because I was so young when Michael Jordan played and I just see him as such a positive figure because of the great athlete he was.  Someone in our class mentioned today that athletes get paid to compete in their particular sport and not to speak on their political/religious views.  I think it’s a great point; Michael Jordan was smart to stay out of the political spotlight because you can’t please everyone and no matter what you’re going to upset someone.  

Regarding the article, ‘The Jordan Effect’ (Johnson, 1998) Michael Jordan brought in so much revenue not only in basketball but with his brand, sports videos, books, cologne, underwear, shoes, and sports apparel.  His items are still a very popular fad today as well.  In my opinion I think his popularity might have a lot to do with the time period he played in.  It’s hard to tell whether the players at that time are better than today’s players and maybe because I didn’t live at that time I’m not a valid source (just my opinion).  But I’m sure the popularity in the last 20 years in the NBA has changed one way or another.  It would be interesting to see whether the NBA was more popular back then or now.  With the recent lockout situation that cancelled the first few months of the NBA season I think a lot of people weren’t too heartbroken, but when it came back on Christmas Day it seemed to be more popular in my opinion.

-         - Alyssa Robinson