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Be sure to read an excellent piece in the Philadelhia Inquirer about TV rights and the lack of a
national broadcast contract for Ivy sports.

The Inquirer piece is really very long but it's a vital store of information for serious Ivy fans. Take your time and read it all.

Author Jonathan Tannewald maps out the very extensive details on how the Ivy League is working to get a national TV deal for basketball and football.

Some of the highlighs are:

-The football deal with Versus has expired, and there is no guarantee it will be renewed by the network which is now named NBC Sports.

-The eight Ivy athletic directors are basically letting Ivy Executive Director Robin Harris take the lead in negotiating deals for the entire league. This is a big vote of confidence in Harris that many of the AD's did not have in her predecessor Jeff Orleans.

-Harris seems to "get it" as far as stressing the importance of more TV coverage, but does she get that not having postseason football weakens our brand? Until she puts two and two together, she's at a bit of a handicap.

-Columbia needs to learn from all of this just how important winning sports teams will be for the school. With all the media deals in flux, a winning CU football or basketball program is in a unique position to deal with the big media companies right on their home turf in New York City.

I've been a TV news producer for 18 years. It's hard for me to look at things through the eyes of a non-insider.

But I can tell you that you don't need to be an insider to realize the importance of getting Ivy sports on TV and marketing that package properly.

Versus did the best job yet of doing that in recent years, and I'd like to see the new NBC Sports network continue its relationship with the league.

But even Versus left a lot to be desired and there's much work to do.


The Lin Effect

Speaking of TV and media exposure, Ivy athletics are getting the best PR they've had in years as New York City is rapt in Jeremy Lin mania. I finally got a chance to watch him last night and the hype is deserved. Lin plays an exciting, but well-skilled game.

I'm not shocked that a league that has lost a lot of its fundamentals is being dazzled by an Ivy player schooled in the game properly and actually played his four full years in college.

I am willing to bet there are more Jeremy Lin's out there either playing Ivy ball now or sometime in the future. Maybe not one every year, and certainly not as great as Lin is now... but they're out there!

Davison Acknowledged

Before we all got giddy about Niko Padilla, (perhaps rightfully so), committing to Columbia, the talk of this blog was incoming freshman Alec Davison from Clements HS
in Fort Bend, Texas.

A new story out today about Davison reminds us that he is considered one of the top inside linebacker prospects in the entire country.

New Home

Fired Fordham Head Coach Tom Masella has found a new job close to home. He is now the associate head coach at Staten Island's Wagner College. Wagner is not playing any Ivy teams this coming season, but
has tangled with Cornell a lot in the past.

Shirt Controversy

Would anyone not attending a Charlie Sheen party confuse this image...

... with this one?

Well, the folks in the Columbia Athletics department aren't taking any
chances.

They have blocked the current Columbia College sophomore class from using the top image
in the official class t-shirt because it supposedly infringes on the trademarked image below.

This just doesn't seem like a smart move at all.

And creating new emnity between the student body as a whole and the athletics department is dangerous.

Check the comments after the linked story to see just what I mean.