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Watch: Full Outside the Lines piece on the one-and-done rule in MBB, Kentucky HC Calipari heavily profiled, in response to why people call him a cheater, "Well, when you vacate games from programs, that's the impression they're going to have...at the end of the day, 50 years from now when everybody's dead & gone, me included, they're going to look back on what I've done at different universities, what we've done for young people & we'll be evaluated," lots more in six-minute video - link
Good read from late last week on the Big Ten's TV contracts for FB & MBB that expire after the 2016-17 seasons, sharp increases likely for $1b deal with ESPN/ABC & $72m pact with CBS, Commish Delaney guarded on topic, "We are optimistic," Fox will likely try to get in the mix, last major sports property rights to be negotiated this decade, which makes for a prime opportunity - link
UAB's FB task force backtracks on their decision to engage OSKR to review the financials behind the Blazers FB program after VP of Financial Affairs & Administration Bolton raises issues with OSKR co-founder Schwarz's articles in VICE Sports that initially knocked the school's decision, OSKR says no one from the UAB side of the table gave them an opportunity to respond to concerns, task force extends timeline - link
NCAA MBB Tourney selection committee chair & Utah State AD Barnes talks more details of the process beyond his comments during the selection show on CBS, says supporting metrics were not in favor of those who ended up on the wrong side of the bubble, specifically Temple & Colorado State, thinks there will be more conversation in the summer about Dayton playing in the First Four in their home arena, suspension of St. John's student-athlete Obekpa did impact their seeding - link
American Athletic Commish Aresco continues to push for his MBB programs to upgrade their out-of-conference schedules, points to SMU's slate this year, wants league to be viewed as close to the 'Big 5' as possible, calibrated prices accordingly for MBB Tourney in Hartford, believes markets where conference schools are located have significant potential for greater support - link
Big East Commish Ackerman talks about how her league has stabilized as this season's MBB strength has helped the process, ratings on Fox Sports 1 were up 20% year over year, says of the early transition, "It was chaotic. Now we have our staff, we have our offices, & we have a year under out belts. We've got strong programs & very inspired coaching. Our schools, top to bottom, are showing they can compete with anybody." - link
There's nothing more synonymous with travel than a dying smart phone & designer Tsung Chih-Hsien has created a neat battery supplement for your device called 'Mini Power' that comes in vitamin-sized cardboard capsules that could be available in perforated sheets & torn off according to the amount of juice needed, disposable phone batteries have long been a staple of the Asian marketplace & are starting to make their way to the States - link
Hofstra AD Hathaway reflects on his experience with the NCAA MBB Tournament selection committee, served a five-year term during his time as UConn's AD, "It really doesn't hit you until your first year off the committee how much time you were spending watching games," also notes the national perspective & needing to get to know the profiles of virtually every team in contention, never witnessed one contentious conversation between group members - link
Missouri Valley Commish Elgin comments on the state of his league, says member presidents have met once on full cost-of-attendance developments, but have yet to make a decision on how to proceed, believes it will end up being optional, but that MBB programs will implement, Northern Iowa AD Dannen agrees, says he doesn't know of one school that is not planning on the upgrade - link
ESPN releases viewership data on their 36th year of televising MBB match-ups, averaged 1.376m per game, the second highest mark ever, had the top five most-watched games of the season, produced over 1,700 tilts in total on their family of networks, Louisville comes in as the top-rated market for the 13th consecutive year where a 5.9 season-long rating is the largest regular season rating for any sport in any market on record - link
Popular ESPN personality Simmons talks about his future while networking & recording at South by Southwest in Austin, has been doing podcasts for years, but still thinks the network has trouble monetizing them as they're more geared to "selling big things," believes his Grantland site is the best multimedia sports play on the web right now, hasn't had much conversation with company brass on his expiring contract situation, more - link
New Hampshire MBB HC Herrion excited for his squad to get to experience post-season play as they'll face NJIT tonight in the CIT, "They haven't been to a post-season tournament (outside the conference) in the history of the school - & they've been playing here for 112 years," hopes momentum will carry over into next season with continued strong student support - link
MBB HC developments: Alabama AD Battle will hire a new MBB HC after informing HC Grant he plans to make a change, Grant went 117-85 in five seasons that included one NCAA Tourney appearance, "In this business we are ultimately judged by wins & losses on the court...we haven't made satisfactory progress in that area;" Charlotte will part ways with HC Major who says the mutual decision is in the best interest of both parties as he continues to work through health challenges - link, link
Fanatics SVP of Strategy & Business Development Swallow is looking for the right Director of Business Development to join him to support & grow the company's partnerships in college athletics that already includes 125 DI schools & every 'Big 5' conference, "I used to perform the duties of this position myself & it opened up several important & rewarding relationships within the collegiate space." - link
A week old, but it may not get more interesting on the monetization of fans & experiences than what Disney is doing with their MagicBand that visitors wear & comes pre-loaded with personalized access, ride reservations, concession & merchandise funds, dining reservations & way more, piece explores back-story on the $1b execution, in addition to personalizing experiences, allows the company to mine reams of data to improve facets of the park, lots more - link
Sun Belt Commish Benson touches on a number of topics, not quite sold on the future of the MBB Tourney in New Orleans as attendance wasn't as good as he expected, also not sure about the format of the event for fans, says these topics & others will get good conversation at meetings in May, league's position on full cost-of-attendance gives schools individual autonomy on how to execute - link
Watch: Really neat time-lapse video of the massive NCAA MBB Tourney bracket being affixed to the exterior of the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis that will be updated each Monday of the event, takes up roughly 60% of the buildings facade, nearly stretching from one side of the property to the other - link
Florida Gulf Coast AD Kavanagh speaks highly of his past experiences with the College Insider.com Tournament as the Eagles will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday night, CIT chairman Kachmarik says his group has deals with schools that get voided if they end up making the NIT, believes the CIT can be highly beneficial for young teams to get a taste of the post-season - link
Touching story of MBB student-athlete Hooley at UAlbany will continue into the NCAA Tournament as HC Brown says of Hooley's last second three-pointer to beat Stony Brook, "It was like a fairy-tale ending. It was like a movie." Hooley missed eight games during the season to be with his ailing mother in Australia who passed away in late January, situation has been a rallying point for the entire university - link
Inside Higher Education completes their annual Academic Performance Bracket, takes the announced MBB Tourney field & advances schools based on APR, GSR & Federal Graduation Rates, Final Four consists of Kansas, Arizona, Belmont & Duke with the Bruins defeating the Jayhawks in the title match-up on the Federal measure after the two tied on both APR & GSR metrics - link, link
