The Not So Happy Valley

Isn't it amazing what can happen in the span of a week?  Not only can an entire program be put under major scrutiny, but also a legendary head coach is fired, the president of the university resigns, and the entire campus makes the hit Three Days Grace track "Let's Start A Riot" sound like something out of a children's tv show.  Seriously though, Penn State fans and students are just nuts. 

However let's not forget about the victims in this whole situation.  From a personal opinion, Paterno did everything he was suppose to do.  He covered himself legally and he did the right thing by promisiing to retire at the end of the season.  The board of the university however saw things a bit differently.  Not wanting to deal the mess that it would cause having Paterno coach the last 4-5 games of the season, the decision was made late last night to fire the 84 year old head coach of Penn State who's been a coach at the program for the past 61 years. 

While I do not condone the actions of Paterno's staff in the slightest, the way this situation has been handled has been purely dreadful.  Joe Paterno took responsibility for his staff's action and told the board that he will reitre at the end of the season in order for them to not worry about forcing him out or not.  He did the right thing.  The board on the other hand did not.  While I've never been a Penn State fan myself, I still recognize the fact that this man is a legend in the sport world and an honorable thing to do would've been to let him finish this season the right way.  Not like this.

Joe Paterno gave 61 years of his life to this program.  He won 2 National Championships.  He holds the records for most bowl appearances and wins.  And he's the winningest coach in NCAA Football history with 409 wins.  You can't let this man go like this after everything he's done for this university.  I understand the reasoning behind it, but sometimes reasoning is just not enough to change public perception. 

NBA Lockout: The State of Flux Continues

It's officially been 123 days into the NBA lockout and so far, the entire 1st month of the NBA season has been canceled.  The NBA owners and players have made agreements on close to every issue except for 2 important ones.  Those issues being the salary cap debate and the league revenue split. 

To start off with the salary cap, the idea of anything other than a hard cap being implemented into the league is a complete joke.  The NBA does have a salary cap at this point, but it isn't as hard as other leagues.  If the NBA wants to make their product interesting, they need to make the league more balanced and to do that, the hard cap is the way to go.  If you look at the NHL right now, their system is a hard salary cap.  Now while, hockey may not be as popular as basketball is in this country, you can't argue the fact that after the NHL Lockout and the implementation of a hard salary cap, the NHL has become a much more balanced league and more entertaining in this blogger's personal opinion.  The NBA can still manage to have teams with 3 All-Star players, but the hard cap will create some better and tougher competition for those teams. 

As for the league revenue split, whoever agreed to give the players 57% of the revenue in the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement, should really be looked at with disdain.  57 percent? Are you kidding me?  Players should not be getting more revenue than the owners in any type of professional sports league.  If you ask me, the whole story of how 22 of 30 franchises last year lost money in one of the NBA's better seasons can be blamed simply on the fact that players were making most of the money, not the owners who have to fund these franchises. 

The bottom line is simple.  The owners need to demand 50-50 revenue split and a "very" hard salary cap.  Players will protest and be angry obviously, but players need to realize that the owners agendas, at least in this blogger's mind, are the absolute right call.  I wonder how Kobe and LeBron will be spending their extended time off?

The Nets: Coming To A Brooklyn Palace Near You

First off let me point out that the title of this may be somewhat misleading.  Technically, the Nets would only be coming to YOU if you lived in the New York Metropolitan area, so I apologize for that mislead.  However, don't think I was being mislead when I used the word "palace".  The Nets new arena is an absolute palace.  And for those of you who don't believe me, or think I'm some sort of bias Nets fan even though I'm far from one, see for yourself. 



If this doesn't make you want to move to Brooklyn of all places, what will.  This arena is an absolute gem and will easily give the traditional and historic Madison Square Garden, and home of the New York Knicks, a definite run for it's money in many different areas.

Back to the Nets though.  Was anyone else surprised that they decided to keep the name "Nets"?  Or even more importantly was anyone shocked that they decided to make their hometown Brooklyn and not New York?  This blogger was surprised on BOTH of those decisions. 

I remember watching CNBC yesterday and seeing a segment talking about how big of a branding opportunity they missed out on by naming themselves the "Brooklyn Nets."  You will rearely see this from me, but I actually agree with the "industry" for once.  This is a huge opportunity to change the culture around a franchise who has struggled in the previous few years and give them a brand new identity with a brand new arena.  Why wouldn't you take advantage of that?

I can see the argument about keeping the name "Nets".  The franchise has had that name ever since their inception in the American Basketball Association and their eventual move to the NBA.  But I don't agree with putting the name Brooklyn.  I can see giving the team a specific identity but it's not just Brooklyn that will be coming to see this team.  You have Long Island.  You have Queens.  You have Harlem.  You might even have a couple converters from Manhattan who are tired of the Knicks. 

I agree with keeping the Nets.  I agree more with the idea of being from New York instead of Brooklyn.  The Nets may prove to be competitive and there's no doubt the Barclays Center will be packed every night.  But just like their previous NBA Finals appearance, the Nets really "choked" on this one. 

The Fall of the Buckeyes

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Come to think of it, maybe we should put an emphasis on the "OH" part. (Somewhere in the blogging universe some loyal fan just yelled IO after I typed that. Way to buck up there. Ha. I kill myself sometimes.)

For all you non college football followers who we're in hibernation period this offseason, or if you were like me and curled up in the feetle position and wishing football would come back, may have missed the epic fall of the Ohio State University football program.  Wasn't this the same program that won the Sugar Bowl about 8 months ago?

Jim Tressel, one of the best head coaches in all of college football resigned.  Star quarterback, and "Pride of Jeanette" (cough overrated cough) Terelle Pryor decided to leave the team and enter the NFL supplemental draft.  4 of the team's best players we're suspended for the first 5 games of the season, Pryor would've made it 5 players but of course decided to take the easy way out, oh and to make matters even worse, the Michigan Wolverines are apparently taking the best prospects in the state of Ohio and getting them to come there.  I'm sorry.  A university that Ohio State has dominated for the past 10 years is invading their territory?  Can you say spit in the face?

Now all seemed well at first this season after the Buckeyes handled their first 2 opponents with ease.  Then came the game against the University of Nevin Shapiro Hurricanes.  Oh wait, I'm sorry I meant to say Miami, although technically, no that'd be cruel to kick Miami when they're down right now.  Kind of like the respect the sporting world use to have for "The U".  But that's for a different time. 

Anyways back to the Blackeyes, whoops there I go again.  For the first time since 2004, the Ohio State University Buckeyes are no longer in the Top 25 poll after losing to Miami this past Saturday.  Now is it a result of some of their better players not being there? Obviously.  However, there's a much bigger purpose that lies with this loss.  If you want to keep a winning program intact, you have to maintain some sort of authority and at least have some sort of moral code.

Then again what do I know, some lawyer in Columbus probably just paid a player for a game used football. 


Thanks for reading
Gregory R. Malek

The Legend of Brady

One of the more underrated aspects of professional football being back is the fact that Monday Night Football on ESPN also returns.  While the games may not feature our favorite teams, there's a reason why this certain game was picked to be on national television at the beginning.  And just from a fan's perspective, if you tell me you don't get pumped up when you hear Hank Williams Jr. string up his guitar and asks America "Are you ready for some football?" then there truly must be something wrong with you.  But I digress.

Anyways, this past Monday night featured a battle between two division rivals in the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins.  What normally would be considered a true battle between rivals, basically escalated into one man show.  That man was Tom Brady, Quarterback for the Patriots. 

With one of the greatest performances in NFL history, Brady through for a whopping 511 yards passing and 4 touchdowns.  Wow.  If this perfromance doesn't 'etch Brady's place in history as one of the greatest Quarterbacks of all time, then what exactly will?  This blogger is sure of one thing though, I wish I would've drafted Tom Brady for my fantasy football team when I had the chance. 

I bet alot of you followers are thinking the same. 



Thanks for reading
Gregory R. Malek

College Football: Super Conferences Coming Soon!

First I would like to acknowledge that my prayers go out to the family members of the KHL team that died in a plane crash Wednesday.  Truly words will not bring their loved ones back, but it's nice to let them be aware we will always keep them in our minds and our hearts. 

The business that is College Football has completely taken a U-turn from what it used to be.  We've gone from the debate about whether the BCS is the right way to determine a true national champion, to the plucking of collegiate teams from their respective conferences with the promise of more revenue to come. 

We witnessed the beginning of this last year when the Big Ten & Pac 10, seeing the potential profitability of a conference championship game and bigger TV contracts, both decided to expand their rosters.  The Pac 10 added Utah from the Mountain West Conference and Colorado from the Big 12.  That resulted in 2 divisions being created and the renaming of the conference to the Pac 12.  The Big Ten added Nebraska from the Big 12 and thus created a 2 division conference.  Congratulations are obviously in order to both commissioners of those conferences for their work, however when looking at this more closely, this may signify the end of the Big 12 conference.

The University of Texas recently inked a long term contract with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network in order to expand the brand that is the Texas Longhorns to even more homes across the country.  This event didn't make the Texas A&M to happy as they immediately sought to leave the Big 12, siteing an unfair playing field with the University of Texas when it came to revenue and recruiting.  The Aggies of A&M recently got their wish as the SEC formally announced Texas A&M's invitation to join the conference.  The once stable Big 12 is now unofficially sitting at 9 teams.

It's amazing how the college football landscape has changed over this past summer.  Conference expansion is now a hot topic among any casual college fan.  Will the Pac 12 and Big Ten expand even more? Will the Big 12 fall apart completely? Will the ACC and Big East try to get in the expansion game as well?  Will an "independent" school be willing to join a larger conference worth more potential revenue?  No one knows exactly what's going to happen but if you ask this blogger, 2 things are for sure. 

1)  We haven't seen the end  of conference expansion.  Not by a long shot.

and 2)  Conferences are going to need at least 14-16 teams in order to stay afloat financially. 

May the era of the Super Conferences begin.  And what an era it will be. 


Thanks for reading. 
Gregory R. Malek

Welcome Everyone!!

Good morning planet Earth!  For those of you who couldn't catch the Robin Williams pun, you really need to get out more.  Anyways, welcome to the newest internet blogging sensation that will surely have sports fans talking for decades to come.  My name is Greg Malek and I am a sophomore at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, PA.  Right now I am studying for my Bachelor's in Sport Management.  I'm probably gonna be mocked for this but I truly haven't decided exactly what I want to have a career in.  I've literally flip-flopped between marketing, finance, law, collegiate sports so many times that my head might explode.  For those curious about the name of my blog, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, which is where I still reside during my non academic terms and I decided what better way to connect to the masses than through my hometown on the three rivers.  Growing up in Pittsburgh, it's safe to say that I became accustomed to cheering for the Steelers, Penguins, Panthers, and my beloved Pirates (don't laugh).  I promise you I will not be the casual home town junkie who claims my team is better than yours.  I truly love the concept of sport, why else would I be spending four years of my life studying it?  Anyways, I encourage you to enjoy my posts and feel free to comment as you please.  Everyone has an opinion.  I just like to put mine in large paragraphs. 


Hope You Enjoyed Reading
Gregory R. Malek