Martini Lunch - CWS Previews and that damned blogger incident that won't go away

by corn blight on Jun 14, 2007 1:03 PM CDT in Corn Flakes

Stewart Mandel's latest College Football Mailbag includes the following lines regarding Oklahoma's QB woes and Sam Keller coming to Lincoln: (emphasis mine)

but if you're Keller, and you're going into your last season to prove yourself before the draft, and your choices are playing for the Sooners or playing for NFL passing guru Bill Callahan, you're probably going to pick the latter.

Whooee! NFL passing guru? That's about as good a praising as I've ever seen Bill Callahan get anywhere lately. Maybe that's because the realization that Keller picked Nebraska over Oklahoma has finally started to set in. There had to be a reason - and that reason is "passing guru". That's not so bad now, is it?

Husker Mike talks about the Doc Sadler golf outing where Danny Nee is being invited back and wonders if that wouldn't work for the football program. I don't play golf. I don't like sports where there is no screaming allowed - I don't understand the concept. I'll bet Danny Nee still has a great scowl, though. Maybe Sadler could pick up on some of that.

Great bit over at Husker Extra talking about all the pitchers the baseball team is losing this season.

By Wednesday, the first five who were picked - Drew Bowman, Matt Foust, Tony Watson, Luke Wertz and Steve Edlefsen - had already signed contracts.

First reaction? They couldn't wait to get out of Nebraska! But pause for a moment with the realization that nearly everything on the internets these days is a reaction. Let's see.... the reason for this is - maybe they were good enough at Nebraska to get drafted, no doubt realizing a life-long dream and took it. We certainly produced a number of guys who were capable of getting drafted. That's good news too.

Husker coach Mike Anderson says as much:

"What we’ve done is develop a program that kids can get drafted and move on. The reverse of it is nobody’s getting drafted and we’re not any good. You know?"

Curt McCeever at the Lincoln Journal Star does a great job with the rest of the article, detailing who will be available for next season. I won't steal his thunder, go read the rest of the article.

CWS Previews Galore!

Baseball America has some CWS Facts and Figures out about the teams heading into the College World Series, and they've also released their CWS Preview, which is a darned fine piece of work. They have items of interest for fans attending the event in Omaha - including the Slumpbuster youth baseball tournament which will feature 325 teams and 10,000 participants.

Louisville blog Card Chronicle - provides part one of their CWS preview. Then you got your Rivals.com preview and the College Baseball Blog has a preview of all the CWS teams.

Don't forget the Official College World Series site - which has tons of information about things to do, fun to have, trivia, and just gobs o' stuff.

What about television coverage? Obviously the event is owned by ESPN.

I WAS WRONG when I wrote that perhaps ESPN asked the NCAA to enforce the live-blogging rule. (After 17 years of marriage, I'm guessing that I'll be wrong again tomorrow, so sue me.) However, I was right in the idea that the issue needs to get into the courts so we get some guidelines about what can be allowed by taking broadcasters like ESPN and an institution like the NCAA out of the picture.

Rich Gordon, an associate professor of journalism at Northwestern University and a director of its new media journalism program, said that "this is just the latest skirmish in a longer-term war" that will get more contentious.

"The law, as happens in many cases, has not kept up with the technology," Gordon said. "As a journalist, you’re inclined to wave the First Amendment flag. This is going to get messier before it gets figured out. The media trends are at odds with the leagues’ goal of controlling distribution and extracting a ransom."

There needs to be a lawsuit against the NCAA over this. Put the issue to test. Let's go, guys, what's the problem? Oh, that's right. Lawyers typically bill by the hour. We'll all know whether the Louisville Courier-Journal will proceed within 10 days. By then, with our short attention spans will anyone care?

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