Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. We’re now well into the college basketball off-season, and while there is often plenty to talk about, today we go even further into off-court matters than usual.
We start by talking about something that hangs over our entire business: the changing media landscape. To that end, the big story on Wednesday was ESPN laying off over 100 employees, many of them prominent people. College basketball was not spared, as the likes of Dana O’Neil, Eamonn Brennan, C.L. Brown and Len Elmore were all among those laid off. Outside of that, prominent names included Ed Werder and Danny Kanell from the world of NFL coverage, as well as Jayson Stark and Jim Bowden from MLB and SportsCenter host Jay Crawford.
And as if that is not enough, on Thursday morning news broke that Andy Katz was let go as well. That has me simply beside myself. Andy is who anybody that got into covering college basketball after 2000 has aspired to be, a tremendous worker and a good man. This column by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein says it all.
In short, few areas were spared. These weren’t people behind the scenes whose names you only see if you hang around long enough to see credits – these were the people you read stories by and saw on TV.
We next turn to the subject of college basketball’s opening night, and the related challenge of the sport being relevant. There is now talk of having a different opening night than we currently do, which is the second Friday in November, but that has its own drawbacks. Scheduling plays a role in the sport getting the attention of the casual fan during the heat of the college football and NFL season, as well as when the NBA opens up, and there’s a balancing act not only for the elite programs who carry the sport, but also other programs in Division I as well.
Next, we come back to a subject we had meant to touch on before, which is Wichita State’s departure from the Missouri Valley for the American Athletic Conference. There is much to discuss with this move, and basketball is all over the rationale for it. While the school appears to be doing this in the hope of more access to the NCAA Tournament, as I wrote a few weeks ago that appears to be far from a slam dunk. In addition, there is plenty of risk, although right now that appears to be mitigated. Several schools in the American Athletic Conference would gladly leave for the Big 12 or a similar conference in an instant if possible, though it appears the Big 12 is set for now.
In our closing thoughts, we reminisce a little on the passing of long-time Northeastern media relations director Jack Grinold, who both of us knew being in the Boston area for a long time (and myself being an alum of the school).
When we re-convene again, we will talk more about matters pertaining to the teams on the court next season. For now, enjoy this podcast talking about some of the business of sports, and we look forward to our next one.
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