I love college basketball and with the season starting in earnest this weekend  let me tell you why I love the sport.  My love affair dates back to the NCAA Championship game in 1987 when Steve Alford and the Indiana Hoosiers beat the Syracuse Orangemen in one of the most exciting tournament games ever.   This also happened to be the first basketball game I ever remember watching as well. 

Last week I gave a shout out to my mom so this week I must mention that my dad helped foster my interest in the sport and spent countless hours in our alley, a.k.a. basketball court, shooting baskets with me and my friends.  Unfortunately, my basketball talent peaked as a member of the eight grade B team at Colleyville Middle School.  My co-worker, Adam Froidl, convinced me to come out of my retirement a few months ago so after a lengthy Brett Farve-esque news conference that was attended by many media members in and around Jefferson Ctiy I now play on Friday afternoons at a local church.  Of course I now need a rest every fifteen minutes and because of my height I get volunteered to defend and be humbled by Ted Wedel who is an immovable object five feet from the basket. 

So before a full slate of games begin tonight here is why I love college basketball:

I love…..

the early season tournaments.  There is nothing better than staying up late (well late is a relative term since I now have two kids and can’t make it past 8:30 p.m.) to watch the Maui Classic.

the Princeton offense.

sitting down on Selection Sunday and filling out my bracket….then just a week later tearing up my bracket thinking that I was so stupid believing that a 14 seed could get to the Elite 8.

that I can spell Kryzewski (I’m Polish, so that helps). 

that Butler was inches away from beating Duke in the ultimate David vs. Goliath match-up.

that the only time I’ve ever danced in an aisle and hugged multiple strangers is when my Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks beat the UT-Arlington Mavericks on a last second shot in the quarter final game of the Southland Conference tournament in 2003….my dad was embarrassed but it was a great game and believe it or not the UTA Mavericks play their games on a stage!

watching the conference tournament finals, especially the small conference tournament finals where only one team from that conference will advance to the “Big Dance” every year.

studying Ken Pomeroy’s ratings at www.kenpom.com .

that my wife was an all-state basketball player in Maine so I get a hall pass to watch as much college basketball as I want.

the genius of Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology on www.espn.com.

the obvious passion that the players have for the sport (it just doesn’t transition to the next level, well maybe not until the fourth quarter arrives).

knowing that a “true” champion is crowned at the end of the year.

It seems like this years basketball season has snuck up on me.  During an affiliate trip a few weeks ago I bought a college basketball preview magazine but since it was still 80 degrees outside and my Royals were finishing yet another disappointing season I didn’t feel like it was time to immerse myself in reading up on who was going to try and dethrone the Duke Blue Devils this year.  Well I look up today and notice that several exhibition basketball games start this weekend and it reminded me that the months of November and December are interesting and chaotic months around Learfield Sports.   Now I’m not saying that we haven’t  been busy up to this point, in fact we’ve aired  football broadcasts every Saturday (and sometimes during the week) as well as hundreds of coaches shows the past few months but when you throw in men’s basketball, women’s basketball and hockey game and coaches show broadcasts in the mix it can get down-right hectic. 

As we enter our first weekend of airing all of the broadcasts I mentioned above, I encourage you to take some time tomorrow (or any other day for that matter) to check out the studio web-cams that we have set up throughout our broadcast area that run 24/7 to see what our broadcasts operations look like.  The studio cameras can be found on the top right hand corner of our affiliate home page.  Now as many of you know our sports operations headquarters are located in Jefferson City, Missouri.  We air broadcasts for twenty two of our Networks from what many affectionately call Jeff City and this upcoming Saturday we’ll air twenty six different broadcasts.  During this time there will be twenty six board operators, six producers, two engineers, three scoreboard announcers and two highlight runners making certain that our broadcasts are aired in an optimal manner.  The first broadcast will start at 8:00 a.m. and our last broadcast will end around midnight, then on Sunday we’ll have another round of game broadcasts before the real fun starts next week when we’ll have a litany of football, basketball and hockey coaches shows to go along with the football, basketball and hockey game broadcasts as well.

“Traddddiiitttttiiiionnnnnnn…….tradition!”

Even though I constantly watched sports while growing up, my mother took me to see a plethora of plays in an effort to keep me cultured.  These plays ranged from Shakespeare to musicals (ugh), however the one play I saw the most (quite possibly over 100 times because my mom loved it) was Fiddler on the Roof.  At one point the main character, Tevye, sings about the importance of tradition in his culture, feel free to hear the entire song here.  In college football, tradition is a big reason of why this sport is so great.   One tradition that I really like seeing are the annual trophy games.  In some cases these trophy games date as far back as the late 1800’s and I love seeing teams race across the field to secure Paul Bunyan’s axe or the Big Brown jug.  So, in the spirit of these traditional trophy games here are my top three trophies in college athletics.

3.  Commander in Chief Trophy

Though this trophy is not given out for one specific game, it’s significant in that it is awarded to each season’s winner of the triangular series among the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy and the United States Air Force Academy.  First awarded in 1972 when Richard Nixon was the Commander in Chief, the idea was brought about by the former Athletic Director of the Air Force Academy, George Simler.  Simler believed that a trophy was needed to ensure that the games played between these storied programs ensured more significance than the games they would play against other teams throughout the season.  In several instances the President has personally awarded this trophy to the winning team at a White House ceremony.  Speaking of tradition, the Navy-Air Force game is typically played the first Saturday of October, the Army-Air Force game is normally played on the first Saturday in November and the Army-Navy game is regularly played on the second Saturday in December.  Navy has been in possession of this trophy for the past several years, though Air Force may claim the trophy for the first time since 2003 as they defeated the Midshipmen earlier this year 14-6.  However, they still must beat the Cadets in early November to claim the coveted honor.  I truly respect these academies and if you ever want to learn more about the Navy-Army rivalry I encourage you to read the John Feinstein book entitled, “A Civil War: Army Vs. Navy a Year Inside College Football’s Purest Rivalry.”  

2.  Floyd of Rosedale

In 1934 the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Iowa Hawkeyes took part in a game filled with much controversy as many Hawkeye fans believed star halfback, Ozzie Simmons, received several rough and unnecessary hits forcing him to leave the game multiple times.  The following year the coach of the Golden Gophers, Bernie Bierman, received a flood of threatening letters from fans across the state of Iowa.  When the Gophers got off the train in Iowa a few days before the game in 1935, Bierman received round the clock police protection.  The day before the game Clyde Herring, governor of Iowa, issued this statement, “If the officials stand for any rough tactics like Minnesota used last year, I’m sure the crowd won’t.”  After hearing this Coach Bierman was ready to put his team back on the train and head  home.  To lighten the mood, Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson sent a telegram to Governor Herring on game-day morning, which read, “Minnesota folks are excited about your statement about the Iowa crowd lynching the Minnesota football team. I have assured them that you are a law abiding gentleman only trying to get our goat…I will bet you a Minnesota prize hog against an Iowa prize hog that Minnesota wins.”  The Iowa governor accepted and after Minnesota won the game, Governor Herring obtained an award winning pig from the owner of Rosedale Farms in Fort Dodge, Iowa.  Dubbed “Floyd” after the Minnesota Governor, Governor Herring took “Floyd of Rosedale” and personally walked him into Governor Olson’s office.  Since the two schools could not continue wagering a live pig, Governor Olson commissioned a sculptor to capture Floyd’s image.  This bronze pig trophy is now awarded to the winner of the annual contest between the Hawkeyes and Gophers. 

1.  Chief Caddo

Of course, my favorite trophy game has to be the annual contest between Northwestern State University in Nachitoches, LA and my alma mater, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas who by the way are ranked #5 this season….Axe ‘em Jacks.  The winner of this contest earns the solid wood trophy which stands at 7 ft. 5 in. and is the largest trophy in college football.  As to common heritage of Nacogdoches and Natchitoches, there is some question about how the cities—each the oldest settlement in their respective states—got their names.  Both versions agree that an Indian chief with two sons sent one east and the other west, and they traveled the same distance and established villages. As for the folklore in question: one version, as reported by historian Samuel Stewart Mims indicates that the village the Chief Caddo presided over was overpopulated and the chief ordered his two grown sons to report to him precisely at sunrise. He told one son to walk east and the other to walk west until the very moment of sunset. The sons were to establish a village at the place they reached. The son who went west wound up in a grove of persimmon trees, and named his village Nacogdoches, meaning persimmon. The eastbound son reached a grove of papaw trees and named his village Natchitoches, meaning papaw. 

Another version says that the chief had twin sons, Nacogdoches and Natchitoches, and could not decide who would lead the tribe following his death. The chief split the tribe between them and sent each in different directions. They traveled for three days, one eastbound and one westbound, and wound up where the cities are located today.  Regardless of which story is accurate, I love the national recognition that my alma mater gets on ESPN’s College Game Day each season.

When visiting with our affiliates I always like to ask if they employ any creative tools to sell our programming.  There are several great ideas and promotions that I have heard over the years but there was one promotion that our Sooner affiliate in Muskogee, Oklahoma used a few years back that has always stuck out in my mind. 

The premise of the promotion included the station partnering with a local pizza restaurant to sponsor the football coaches show.  Leading up to the first show the station heavily promoted the program and as part of the sponsorship the restaurant offered to give a free pie to any caller that got on the air to ask Coach Bob Stoops a question.  Now keep in mind we run the Sooner Sports Network broadcasts out of Jefferson City, Missouri and were not aware that this promotion was occurring.  After the first show I remember that Keith Sampson, our Executive Producer, came to me indicating that we had a high volume of callers from the Muskogee area.  I didn’t think much of it because Bill Payne, Travis Reeves, Cliff Casteel and company at KTFX-FM have been a longtime Sooner affiliate and do a tremendous job promoting their programs.  The second coaches show got a little stranger as again we had several Muskogee faithful call in wanting to talk with Coach Stoops but this time after a caller got done asking the coach his football question he followed it up by inquiring when and where he could get his free pizza!  Needless to say that even though Michael Dean (host of the show) and Coach Stoops were a little perplexed they got quite a chuckle out of the question and the next day Cliff filled me in on their creative partnership with the pizza restaurant.    

This was a great promotion!  The station did a remarkable job coming up with a unique idea, promoted it well and after following up with Cliff earlier this week I am happy to report that the restaurant has been a regular customer ever since.

Now that what ESPN dubbed “Monster Saturday” is behind us and we are two weeks into the 2010 college football season it’s time to start thinking about the college basketball and hockey seasons.  Some may be saying, “you gotta be kidding me, it’s September and football just started!”   They’d be right, but we want to continue assisting our affiliates in making our programming a revenue generator for your station by supporting your sales staff in creating customized sales pieces.   Below is an example of what Brittany Heck, one of our great affiliate representatives, created for a Purdue Boilermaker affiliate highlighting an athlete from the stations hometown:

Boilermaker Sales Piece

There are several great aspects of this sales piece:

1. As you can see in the example above, it’s a very professional item that your staff will feel confident in presenting to their clients.
2. The sales piece is totally customizable, we’ll work with your staff and make sure that all of the necessary pricing and programming guidelines are included as well as your stations logo
3. Once we have the necessary sales information from your staff we take over the creation aspect of the sales piece alleviating the need for your staff to spend time working on a proposal
4. The sales piece is simple to include with your other sales material
5. It’s free!

We hope by offering this service we can assist your sales staff in having a great tool to sell your local inventory.  Football season may have just started but the basketball and hockey season is right around the corner and now is a great time to begin presenting those sales packages to your partners. Please contact your affiliate representative if you want to take part in this program.

The countdown to kickoff clock that I’ve been referring to the past couple of posts now sits at zero and last night we had our first set of football game broadcasts with many more coming up this weekend.  I was listening to ESPN Radio this morning and really loved the speech that Bill Curry, head coach of Georgia State University, gave to his team on the eve of their first game yesterday.  Essentially he was talking to his players about the fourth quarter and how his players would be tired and he asks his players what they would do.  Before he could finish posing the question one of his players yells out “I won’t let my teammates down.”  Bill Curry then asks his whole team what their teammate said and in unison the whole team yells out “I won’t let my teammates down!”  It gave me goose bumps!

Essentially this week we are in the 4^th quarter of our preparations for the 2010 football season and I can’t tell you how impressed I’ve been by our various departments.  Every year the week of kick means a lot of late hours for our staff and we are put into circumstances where most people would throw their arms up and say “that’s their problem” or “it’s too late to change/fix that.”  I can’t tell you how many times this week I’ve heard our producers, traffic coordinators, engineers and affiliate staff been posed with items where they could simply shake their head and not try and solve the problem.  Instead, I’ve heard people say “I’ll take care of it” or  “let me figure out how to fix the issue.”  Man, I love it, this speaks volumes about the people that I work with.  Are they skipping back to their office to face this daunting task?   Well I can’t say that I’ve witnessed that so far this week, but I can say that our staff as a whole are telling our property staff, our affiliates and each other “I will not let you down.” 

I am so proud to work with a group of such amazing people, the amount of pride that they take in their work is uncommon and will certainly be evident in the broadcasts that we air this season.

We are now one week away from our first football broadcast and if you haven’t noticed the information on our affiliate web-site is growing. 

Here are a couple items that I want you to pay special attention to when visiting your Network’s affiliate site:

Schedules

Once you come to this page you will notice there are several links which break down a schedule for each one of our different broadcast groups.  After clicking on a schedule link you will enter our calendar program and it will show you when the broadcast(s) will take place and also the broadcast start time.  You’ll observe that we currently have all of the dates and many of the times listed for the football and football coaches show broadcasts and will post the winter sports schedules once we receive that information.  We update our calendars frequently so please check back regularly for any changes that may occur.  Please note that many kick-off times will not be announced until conference season begins. 

Logs

Several years ago we would fax logs to our affiliates before shifting to emailing the logs, now we’ve taken it one step further by simply posting them on the affiliate web-site.  We found that this is the easiest way for our affiliates to gain access to the logs as they wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle (like faxes once did) nor would you have to worry about emails not coming through.  Our goal is to have the logs posted 48 hours before each broadcast, there are times when we are waiting on approval of the logs so if you notice they are past this time please know that the Traffic Coordinator assigned to your Network is working on getting them approved/posted and it is a priority for us to get this information to you as soon as possible.

Audio

Our producers take a lot of pride in offering our affiliates some sharp audio pieces that you can use to create promos and for your news updates.  On the audio tab you’ll currently find promo works parts and :30 promos for the upcoming football season.  After each football game we will also post a highlight package as well that you can use for your sports reports.

Affidavits

When we built the affiliate web-site last year one item that we wanted to include was the ability for stations to electronically fill out the affidavit forms.  After one year, we’ve found that this system offered a very low rate of return.  So this year we are reverting back to our former method of retrieving the affidavits by posting them on the affiliate site monthly.  You can return them to us via email, fax or mail. 

Station Information

We use email as our main form of communication for any changes that occur during the season and our database can only stay as current as the personnel information that you provide us.  If you haven’t already sent us an information sheet for your station this summer please do so or your staff may be left in the dark concerning some important information during the season. 

Procedures

This is probably the tab that people spend the least amount of time on, but they shouldn’t.  This tab has information pertaining to our weather delay policy, our distribution method and category exclusivities. 

As you can see our affiliate web-site has a litany of information to help you carry our broadcasts and the site will be constantly updated from now until the end of the season.  Please let your affiliate representative know if you have any questions during the season, and just in case you need that information their number is on the affiliate web-site!

There is a clock in our broadcast studio area that has been ominously counting down to the start of the 2010 college football season since early May.  Suffice it to say,  the numbers on this clock appear to get larger and brighter with each day that passes.  The clock now sits at 19 days and will end one day before our first football broadcast of the season, which takes place on Thursday, September 2^nd.   It has been a steady reminder that the football season is coming and that all the work that we’ve done this spring and summer is about to come to a head.  In fact in some ways the broadcast season has already started as we had a Texas A&M football coaches show last week, this seems fitting because after living in Texas for the majority of my life I think we could have a football coaches show any month of the year and there would still be a lot of interest. 

As many of you know, the first official top 25 poll came out for the FBS last week and I was pleased to see that there were nine Learfield schools in those rankings, including the Alabama Crimson Tide who are looking to defend their national title.  The FCS top 25 should be coming out shortly and several of our schools should receive mentions in that poll as well.  

There is definitely a buzz around our office and it reminds me of an orchestra in that different instrument sections (or in our case different departments) are working together to create a great sound.  Our engineering department has been running Network tests this past week, last week emails and other communication pieces started flying out en masse from our affiliate and traffic departments getting our affiliates ready for the season and our producers are cranking out several audio pieces as well.  Yes, before I know it that clock will hit zero and we’ll be off and running with the start of the 2010 football season.

The 2010 football season is about to kick-off with games on September 2.  That means our people at Learfield Sports are braced for the onslaught of getting the product ready so your stations can sound great.  

This is my 21^st Football Season start up at Learfield.  My, how we have changed the way we do things.   At the risk of sounding old or old fashioned, 21 years ago our staff consisted of two producers, who split many jobs.  Among those are:  affiliate relations, game production, crew preparation and traffic.  We also had an office assistant that helped us as we hand-placed all spots on each network’s log and mailed them out to stations (thank goodness for technology).   That’s three people getting the games for 5 Networks on the air.

Now, our staff included 7 producers who are multi-talented, but zeroed in on specific jobs in our prep.

Matt Brown makes sure our connections for broadcast is set.  Rick Kennedy and Ben Connelly are our imaging guru’s who have developed our sound on your speakers.  Ryan Kormann and Clay Broughton make sure all commercial copy is set and ready to go.  Our broadcast manager Tom Boman has been busy with our Network General Managers, making sure everyone is on the same page.  Our affiliate relations staff (4 people that have worked hard all spring and summer getting the stations together for our product, something you will hear about from their manager, Keith Kowalski from time to time.) and our traffic staff (7 more people, led by Felicia Moore)is getting logs ready for each and every broadcast.   My job to make sure your game day experience is not just good, but the best for not 5, now, but 42 Networks and their broadcasts.  That’s not including our engineers and help we get at many of our flagships and the hundreds of people that make up our broadcast crews.  

A great number of professionals make up Learfield Sports and we all are working together to make that “sound over the speakers” something you can be proud of.   I’m proud of not just how much, but how we have grown from my first season to now.  Enjoy the games and remember, “Go (insert your school here)”!   Keith Sampson 08/09/10

Kick-off to the 2010 football season is right around the corner!  It seems like just yesterday that our final broadcast of the 2009-2010 athletic season ended and in that short amount of time it’s amazing how much work has been done.  On the affiliate side, we have spent the past couple of months visiting with our affiliates either over the phone or through in person meetings to discuss the upcoming season and to review the previous season.  From the operations end, the focus has been on continually improving our already exceptional sound and to provide our affiliates with the necessary tools to promote and carry our broadcasts. 

The purpose of this affiliate web-site is to serve you, our affiliates.  This is the second season that we’ve had the affiliate site up and over the next couple of weeks we encourage you to spend some time on your Networks site.  You’ll find a lot of great information regarding broadcast schedules, sample logs and even promotional audio that you can use to get ready for the season.  We are constantly updating this site and quite frankly take a lot of pride in the information that we provide. 

With that said, know that we are always open to your opinions, never be afraid to tell us what you think of not only our affiliate site but also of our broadcasts.  Unfortunately, I haven’t come across anyone in our company that is omniscient so it’s vital for you to state your opinion.    How do you do that you ask?   Well it’s simple, you can either contact your affiliate representative or you can email sportshelpdesk@learfield.com.  That email is sent to someone in each department of sports operations and affiliate relations.  I promise you that we read and react to every email we get. 

Here’s to a great 2010-2011 season!