No 15 and No 16 seeds are winning in the NCAA tournament more than ever before and by some distance. Is it a statistical anomaly or the outcome of a broader trend?Upsets have always been a defining element of March Madness and this year has been no different. The 2023 tournament had barely tipped off when No 13 seed Furman, the smallest school in the field by enrolment making their first appearance in 43 years, sent fourth-seeded Virginia packing. By the end of opening weekend, half of the four No 1 seeds were already out. But none of this is terribly unusual in an event where fans have come to expect the unexpected.What is unusual is the teams who are...
There is a growing feeling that technology is keeping fans at home, but even those present at live matches seem obsessed with recording their own minimal involvement in the actionAsked recently at a press conference why he thought attendances at National Collegiate Athletic Association football games were in decline, the Northwestern University coach Pat Fitzgerald posited an intriguing, if slightly odd, theory. Picking up his mobile and waving it in the air before reporters, he proceeded to lay the blame squarely at the door of technology. “I think phones,” he said. “I think technology has been the decline in attendance, No 1.”Fitzgerald went on to tell the story of being out with his wife for a meal and being irritated...
For years larger-than-life coaches like Meyer could operate without oversight or interference, but society has evolved and sports have caught upFor years, the two most powerful coaches in college football have been Alabama’s Nick Saban and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. Combined, their teams have won nine of the last 15 national championships. They are giants in a sport where coaches are already exalted to mythical proportions, the highest-paid public employees in their states, their word greater and more important than even the presidents of their schools.So the fact that Ohio State put Meyer on administrative leave this week, pending an investigation into what Meyer knew about an assistant coach’s history of domestic abuse, shocked many. Meyer, it always seemed, was...
The one-time football sensation was derided when he signed a minor-league contract with the Mets to chase a new dream, but Tebow’s improbable if modest success deserves our appreciationFor all the gifs and memes and fragments of an Internet broken by his prodigious swings, Tim Tebow turned out to be a decent baseball player. Probably not a great prospect at 30 years old, but good enough to show that his second sports career wasn’t a joke. His best shot at a cup of coffee in the major leagues most likely ended with Monday’s diagnosis of a broken wrist. At the time he had been playing for the New York Mets Class-AA team, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, two levels below the...
This week’s roundup also features an Australian Grand Prix washout, the best of Gigi Buffon and an outrageous rally move1) Formula One 2018 is go, go, go – starting with Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix. Since moving to Melbourne Park, the race has become a regular curtain-raiser, but it used to end the season when held on the streets of Adelaide. Here’s a potted history of the race, and Ralf Schumacher taking off on the first lap in 2002. The 1991 edition was the shortest race in F1 history, abandoned after 24 wild and wacky minutes in a torrential downpour: Continue reading...