Deciding what’s a “football school” or a “basketball school” is an inexact science. Longstanding tradition — not wins and losses — often determines whether most fans’ hearts belong to the gridiron or the hardwood. Culturally, Florida State didn’t stop being a football school during its recent stretch of substandard performance, nor did Michigan adopt the […]
If it were up to me — and I grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, where you could literally hear the roar of the crowd from Spartan Stadium in my backyard on game days — the Big Ten would have stopped expanding after 12 teams. Penn State, added in 1990, and Nebraska, in 2011, were […]
Even by its own lather-rinse-repeat standards, the air of inevitability is particularly strong as we near kickoff for the 2022 college football season. Three teams (the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs and Ohio State Buckeyes) are dominating most national title conversations — and while that particular three-horse race isn’t terribly surprising, the degree to which […]
Boosters are the lifeblood of athletic departments around the country. The money poured into programs by supporters — from Phil Knight at Oregon to Jimmy Rane at Auburn — can then be used to do things like continually update locker rooms, install high-tech LED stadium light systems or build a slide in the middle of […]
May 1 may soon be a national holiday for fans of college athletics — call it The Real Signing Day. As the deadline drew near for players in fall and winter sports to notify schools of their intention to leave, the transfer portal — an NCAA compliance tool! — became must-click entertainment, with each new […]