Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Worth A Look

If you are like us and don't have so-called premium channels on your TV you might have missed the 2008 film Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. The good news is it is available for free on Hulu, "with limited commercial interruption." I watched it last weekend and found it to be a terrific look at an unbelievable game played amid the turmoil of the late 1960s. Watch the film at this link.
Speaking of great rivalries, the 150th Lehigh-Lafayette (or is it Lafayette-Lehigh?) game – AKA The Rivalry – will be played at Yankee Stadium in 2014. The always thought-provoking Lehigh Football Nation blog has a story.
Be careful what you wish for. UMass is taking look at its decision to join the FBS. Turns out the first year wasn't just challenging on the field (1-11 record, outscored 40.2-12.7) and in the stands (10,901 average attendance at the New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium) but also in the pocketbook. Masslive has a story.
Of course, there's a reason why UMass made the jump. From a New York Times story earlier this week about the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum held in Manhattan:
Did you know . . . that college football was the top-rated program on four of the five Saturday nights that it aired in 2012? That consumers spent more than $4.5 billion on college sports merchandise in 2011? That more than 20 million college sports fans earn $100,000 a year? 
Caught SportsCenter's Top 10 plays this morning and wasn't at all surprised that eight of the 10 plays were dunks. One or two, OK. But eight of 10?
From The Dartmouth:
The College’s early decision applicant pool decreased by 12.5 percent from last year, dropping to 1,574 applications for the Class of 2017, while the number of students offered admission remained stable at 464 students . . .
Athletes make up almost 30 percent of the early decision class according to The D, which notes that "students accepted in the early decision pool must confirm their spot in the Class of 2017 by Dec. 21."