Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September. Mr. BCS Goes To Washington -- Except I have a feeling Jimmy Stewart would find some way to rail against the BCS, however wrongheadedly. You see, the big word in the halls of Congress on Friday was "fair" but don't let that confuse you. While the Mountain West and certain members of Congress are using the fairness term to stoke public support, their real concern is about money.
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.
Was He Even Alive Then? -- Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin dove back to the pre-disco era in describing his football team after a recent scrimmage. "I feel like we're in the '60s right now with our offense. We've got to run the ball and throw play-action right now. That's about all we can do. It's pretty scary right now."
Mercifully football has moved beyond '60s era mundanity, but Tennessee fans might welcome '60s results as the Vols snagged two SEC championships over the decade.
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September. Maybe They'll Twitter er Tweet Their Decision -- USC has begun spring practice, headlined by a four-man race for the starting quarterback job. They're doing this with SarKiffian 2.0, newly hired offensive coordinator John Morton and quarterbacks coach/playcaller Jeremy Bates. Bates departed Denver just in time to avoid the mess that is Cutler vs. McDaniels while keeping a low, low profile.
With the Masters in our rear-view mirrors, there seem to be two different critiques emerging of the way CBS covered the event. One is that the network focused too much on Tiger Woods at the expense of the other golfers. The other is that the network focused too much on the other golfers when all most fans care about is Tiger Woods.
T.R. Massey doesn't go quite so far as to say Woods is the only golfer fans care about, but he does tend to take the latter argument:
In hindsight, I guess it was appropriate that CBS went ahead and coronated Zach Johnson when he left the 18th green. He did win, in the end. But the crying and baby-kissing is usually done after the tournament's over, not when there are still two guys on the course who could possibly win.
It's funny he says that, because I actually heard a number of people saying the opposite: That Johnson looked like he was going to win for about the last hour and a half of the CBS broadcast, and given that, CBS didn't show enough of him. I think CBS is in a tough position here because Tiger is by far the biggest ratings draw in golf, but the network has to show respect to all the competitors. But overall, I liked the way CBS handled things, giving Tiger more air time than any other golfer, but turning its attention to Johnson at the end.
Say what you will about the lack of upsets this year, but the American public doesn't seem to mind. TV ratings have increased from last year for the NCAA Tournament as a whole, and especially for Saturday night's Florida-UCLA game.
That's an extraordinary piece of good news for both the NCAA and CBS. Although the ratings increase sounds small (3 percent for Saturday night's games and 2 percent for the tournament overall), network television is seeing its ratings decline in almost everything. Any increase is a big deal.
The lack of upsets might, in fact, be the reason for the higher ratings: George Mason was a good story last year, but when fans tune in to the Final Four, they want to think they're actually watching the best teams. That wasn't the case last year. With two schools that have big alumni bases and well-known players taking the floor tonight, CBS must be very optimistic.
The video you see here is what CBS and the NCAA want you to watch if you go online for highlights. It's a professionally produced minute of highlights that was uploaded to YouTube by CBS itself, and CBS does not permit me to embed it here at FanHouse -- CBS wants to control how you see it.
That video has been viewed, as of the time I'm posting this, 65,763 times. But it's nowhere near the most popular YouTube video from March Madness. That honor goes to this video of Duke's Greg Paulus flopping against Virginia Commonwealth. The Paulus flop has been viewed 97,697 times.
Of course, that Paulus video wasn't approved by the NCAA and CBS, so it's entirely possible that it will be removed from YouTube soon. But for the time being, it shows the way the internet allows fans to see what we want to see, not what the leagues and the networks want us to see.
If you live in Kentucky or the Bay Area, yesterday's Louisville-Stanford game wasn't available in high definition. But if you live anywhere else in the country, it was. What on earth is CBS thinking when it decides not to show games in HD in the markets where the fans most want it?
It's complicated, but the short answer is that if you're getting the game in HD, CBS can't promise you'll see every second of it. And since CBS figures you want to see every second of your hometown team's game, it doesn't show those games in HD.
The long answer, as CBS spokeswoman Leslie Anne Wade told John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News, has to do with the multiple feeds required to televise March Madness.
there are technical limitations: The network doesn't have the capacity to send HDTV feeds on both the "flex" and "constant" plans. And since more than 80 percent of the country is still getting the standard signal (seriously - what are you people waiting for?), the only way to guarantee that the home market isn't mistakenly taken away from its game is to send it in standard-def. (The "flex" markets can move around in HD.)
"People have embraced HD at a faster pace. It's outpaced the networking capabilities," Wade told me. "To protect those markets, to make sure they are getting a constant game, they are getting an SD signal."
So there you have it. If you're not happy, you're far from the only one, but CBS says it hopes to have things worked out next year.
I like CBS studio host Greg Gumbel, but he took an early lead in the competition for the dumbest announcer comment of the NCAA Tournament this evening. During a live look-in at the Ohio State-Central Connecticut State game, Gumbel said with a tone of surprise in his voice, "I think Ohio State got off to a more solid start today than in any of their Big Ten Tournament games."
Yes, what a shock that Ohio State's three Big Ten Tournament opponents -- Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin -- are able to keep it closer against the Buckeyes than Central Connecticut State is. Ohio State (RPI 1) jumped out to a 21-11 lead against Central Connecticut State (RPI 147). No one could have seen that coming.
Studio analyst Seth Davis brought a little sanity to the proceedings, telling Gumbel, "I don't think anyone's going to mistake Central Connecticut State for a Big Ten team."
Sunday's NASCAR on FOX event from Las Vegas hit the jackpot this past weekend, posting an impressive 6.3/13 (10.5 million viewers) national rating, according to Nielsen. Sunday's 6.3/13 is up +2% over last year's 6.2/12 for the same race on FOX, and was by far the top-rated sporting event of the weekend.
NASCAR on FOX from Las Vegas outrated CBS' NCAA Selection Show by +47% (6.3/13 vs. 4.3/9 ), the largest margin ever recorded between the two events. Sunday marked the third-straight year in which NASCAR on FOX from Las Vegas has out-pointed the same-day NCAA Selection show on CBS .
Ratings for Sunday's race on FOX opened at a 5.5/13 and grew steadily throughout the broadcast, peaking at a 7.6/14 (13.1 million viewers). Despite direct competition from the NCAA Selection Show on CBS, Sunday's race also enjoyed substantial gains among the younger male demos:
Sadly, the Baghdad Bowl isn't what I thought it would be. I thought we were just going to line up a team of American football players against Iraqi football players, let them go at it for 60 minutes, NFL-style ... and the winner gets the oil. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
CBS analyst Randy Cross says he proposed the idea to CBS after visiting a U.S. military base in Afghanistan last year. The idea is for U.S. soldiers in Iraq - male and female - to don Colts and Bears jerseys for a touch football game that, he jokes, "will give you an early indication" of the Super Bowl winner.
Sounds like a good time, and if it helps someone over there smile a little bit, and feel a little bit closer to home, then I'm all for it.
The downside, though, is that it makes it possible for Rex Grossman to be the 4th worst quarterback playing football on CBS on Super Bowl Sunday.
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, 
Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, 
With the Masters in our rear-view mirrors, there seem to be two different critiques emerging of the way CBS covered the event. One is that the network focused too much on Tiger Woods at the expense of the other golfers. The other is that the network focused too much on the other golfers when all most fans care about is Tiger Woods. 
Say what you will about the lack of upsets this year, but the American public doesn't seem to mind. 
The video you see 
If you live in Kentucky or the Bay Area, yesterday's Louisville-Stanford game wasn't available in high definition. But if you live anywhere else in the country, it was. What on earth is CBS thinking when it decides not to show games in HD in the markets where the fans most want it?
I like CBS studio host Greg Gumbel, but he took an early lead in the competition for the dumbest announcer comment of the NCAA Tournament this evening. During a live look-in at the 
Sunday's NASCAR on FOX event from Las Vegas hit the jackpot this past weekend, posting an impressive 6.3/13 (10.5 million viewers) national rating, according to Nielsen. Sunday's 6.3/13 is up +2% over last year's 6.2/12 for the same race on FOX, and was by far the top-rated sporting event of the weekend. 
