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BCS Playoff Gains Approval while ESPN Extends its Rose Bowl Relationship

June 29, 2012 by

Earlier this week the second round of approvals needed for the creation of a playoff to decide the BCS Championship made it with flying colors as conference commissioners and university presidents and chancellors came to an agreement on the topic.

There are still a number of issues that need to be decided, but most of these are simply housekeeping issues. Among the topics are: Ink a new TV deal and work out how the revenue sharing will work, and of course what is the new name for the playoffs. The composition and election of the selection committee that will determine the playoff teams is also a topic that needs to be worked out. I wonder if they will also create a new trophy?

The move will end the reign of the BCS Championship Series after next year, when the four team playoff is scheduled to begin. There are a number of people that have called for a larger number of teams to be allowed in the playoffs, but that seems unlikely at least in the near term and the current playoff plan is slated to run for 12 years starting in 2014.

The semifinals will rotate between six bowl games and the final game will be put out to bid for host cities just like the NFL’s Super Bowl. It had appeared earlier that the bowl games had already been decided but it now looks like that is not true. The marketing activity to be included should be tremendous in the upcoming year.

At the WWL ESPN the news is that it has reached an agreement for a 12 year extension of its broadcasting the Pasadena Tournament of Roses with the Pas-12 and the Big Ten Conferences. Starting in 2015, after the current deal expires, the deal will continue ESPN’s broadcasting of the Rose Bowl.

ESPN could, and most likely will, get a nice bonus from the deal if the BCS Playoff system selects the Rose Bowl as a playoff site, as the agreement is expected to cover that opportunity as well. The Rose Bowl is the site of the 2014 BCS Championship already.

All of the games will be played on Jan 1 at 5 pm ET except for the years that the 1st is on a Sunday. The broadcasts will span much more that television and will include, ESPN Radio, ESPN Mobile TV and can be seen on smartphones, tablets, online and on Xbox LIVE via WatchESPN and will be available on ESPN 3D .

Filed Under: BCS, ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, Rose Bowl, WatchESPN Tagged With: , ,

Cadel Evans Seeks Title Repeat as Tour de France Unfolds With Vast Network, Mobile Viewing Options

June 29, 2012 by

Australian Cadel Evans, riding in the midst of an unheralded season, will seek to successfully defend his 2011 title beginning Saturday in the 99th edition of the Tour de France — a route highlighted by more time trial distance and less severe climbing.

The race, beginning with a prologue in Liege, Belgium, will encompass 21 days of racing and two rest days and conclude with its traditional finale — circuits around the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 22.

For race enthusiasts not in attendance, the Tour de France will have an unprecedented variety of online viewing options, paced by nearly 300 hours of network broadcast, online and mobile options via the NBC Sports Network. Live race video online, however, isn’t free — it costs $29.99 for the entire race, or $4.99 per stage. Plus, you need to sign up for a Map My Ride account.

Hundreds of online cycling publications will also feature live Tour de France content, most notably in the event’s official site, letour.fr and two largest cycling websites in the United States, cyclingnews.com and velonews.com.

The race’s official site letour.fr currently has vast archived Tour de France history and daily will offer a live updates and nearly instantaneous results.

VeloNews.com and cyclingNews.com will have multi-platform journalists at the race providing daily reporting, analysis, video and a live feed text feed from each stage.

Bicycling Magazine (bicycling.com) will offer daily multimedia content from the Tour de France, while steephill.tv will offer an exhaustive list of content and global live feed options.

The riders, race staff and media will also be a large part of the social media mix. More than 100 of the entrants have Twitter accounts accessible via the Twitter handle, TDF 2012

This year’s overall title competition will suit a strong time trial rider who doesn’t necessarily possess dominating climbing skills. The race features only three uphill finishes but includes more than 100 kilometers of time trials.

Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) is favored for Saturday’s 3.8-mile prologue and Germany’s Tony Martin (OmegaPharma-Quick Step) and American teammate Levi Leipheimer will also likely be in the time trial mix.

Evans (BMC), 35, didn’t race in May and has only a victory in the three-day Criterium International in April this season. Evans will be supported by a strong teammate group featuring 17-time Tour de France participant (and hopeful 16-time finisher) George Hincapie, Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, and 23-year-old American Tejay van Garderen.

The Olympics, which begin less than a week after the conclusion of the Tour de France, has sharply altered the overall competition and other sub-plots like the best sprinter and climber contests.

Mark Cavendish (Sky) of Great Britain, who already has 20 Tour de France stage wins, has lost weight and has predicted he won’t dominate sprints as he has in recent years in favor of focusing on the Olympic road race.

Likewise, former world titlist Tom Boonen of Belgium, a six-time Tour de France stage winner, is skipping the race as is promising American Taylor Phinney (BMC). Both riders are also focusing on the Olympics.

Alberto Contador of Spain, a three-time race winner, and two-time runner-up Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan), who inherited Contador’s title in 2010 when the former was post-race suspended for the using the banned stimulant clenbuterol and who also finished second twice, are not competing.

Contador’s suspension will last until the end of the summer while Schleck is recovering from a spine injury sustained in early June while racing in France. Norway’s Thor Hushovd, who won two Tour stages last year, will also be absent this year while he recovers from a virus.

Eight Americans will compete this year, with Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) of Wenatchee, Wa., who won his first Tour de France stage last year, favored in sprinting stages and veterans Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) and Chris Horner (RadioShack), all top-10 overall finishers.

Bradley Wiggins (Sky) of Great Britain, who has three wins this season, Robert Gesink (Rabobank) of the Netherlands, winner of this year’s Tour of California, and Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), second last year in the Tour of Italy are among a half-dozen potential overall title contenders.

After three days in Belgium, the race progresses from the English Channel across northern France to the Vosges, south to the Alps, farther south to Cap d’Agde on the Mediterranean Sea, then into the Pyrenees and conclusion in Paris.

James Raia is a California-based journalist who writes about sports and leisure. Visit his cycling site at tdf100.com

Filed Under: Apps, Cycling, Tour de France, Twitter

Friday Grab Bag: Dolphins with iPads, New NFL Game Times

June 29, 2012 by

The Miami Dolphins are the latest NFL team to jump on the iPad train as the team has adopted the tablets as an alternative to the huge binders that had been the traditional form of NFL playbooks. The team joins a growing number of NFL teams that have taken this approach including the Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Bucs and the Green Bay Packers.

However the Dolphins are also apparently taking a hard line on players’ usage of the tablets. While they can surf the Internet to some degree, they will be fined as much as $10,000 for access unauthorized sites such as YouTube and Twitter, according to ProFootballTalk.

Microsoft buys Yammer for $1.2 billion
Microsoft has added corporate social networking developer Yammer Inc. into its corporate embrace with its $1.2 billion purchase of the startup. The company said that it intends to incorporate the tools, which have a Facebook quality, into its Microsoft Office group.

Yammer has seen strong acceptance to its technology and has 200,000 companies using its tools including major players such as Ford Motor Co.

Mobile users increasingly access Internet
The Pew Internet & American Life project has published an interesting study on the use of mobile phone use for Internet browsing and purchases. It found that 17% of cell phone owners use the phone as their primary device for cruising the Internet, and often their only tool used for accessing it.

The study found that 88% of US adults have a cell phone and that of these 55% of them use the phone to go online, a notable increase from the 31% Pew found when it last did a similar study in 2009.

NFL moves late kickoffs back 10 minutes
The NFL has moved the opening kickoffs for the late afternoon games from 4:15 ET start to 4:25. The move will help eliminate the overlap that occasionally occurs when the early game runs long, something that often seems to happen if the second game is the one that you have been waiting all day to watch.

This should also help now that the new overtime rules are in effect that could also lead to more overtime games as it will now make more sense for a coach to go for a tie in the waning moments of the game knowing that he has a shot at getting the ball and scoring in OT.

RIM delays smartphone after bad quarter
Beleaguered smartphone developer Research in Motion has reported that it had a worse than expected quarter with revenue at $2.8 billion with a loss of $518 million, its shipment of its flagship BlackBerry phones was only 7.8 million, down 41% from the same period a year ago.

The company plans to slash 5,000 jobs but still expects to have another bad quarter, predicting a loss for the current one as well. It has delayed the delivery of its next generation phone, the BlackBerry 10, until the first quarter of next year.

Judge halts Samsung Galaxy Sales in US
Apple won its latest round against rival Samsung when US District Judge Lucy Koh reversed her previous position and granted Apple’s request to prohibit Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States.

She said in the ruling that Samsung does not have the right to flood the market with products that infringe (presumably on Apple patents). Apple needs to post a $2.6 million bond in case the injunction is later to be found to be incorrect and so pay for damages inflicted on Samsung.

Samsung has not taken the ruling lying down and has already appealed. It has asked that the US District Court of Northern California suspend the order pending an appeal.

iPhone hits 5th anniversary
In June 2007 Apple launched its iPhone and has not had a need to look back as it has helped propel Apple to the powerful position it holds today as a company. In the five years of its life the phone has generated an estimated $150 billion in revenue, just from hardware sales, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Then of course there is the sale of peripherals, apps, software and services. Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple has shipped 250 million iPhones globally in that time.

Tablets usage as second TV continues to grow
NPD DisplaySearch’s latest Global TV Replacement Study has found that the use of tablets as a platform for viewing television and video has doubled over the last year, in part the usage has been driven by the overall growth of tablet sales, according to the survey.

While tablet usage as a second screen has edged to over 10% of consumers using one for viewing, it still has a ways to go to reach the level of laptops or desktop computers, which over 40% of consumers say they use for viewing purposes.

The All-Star Selection show is this weekend
For baseball fans the results of their ballet box stuffing will be found this Sunday when TBS hosts the section show at 1 pm ET. Still the show will not have the final rosters as MLB will then have five players from each league that fans can vote for to put one last person on the each team. The winner of the Final Ballot will be announced on next Thursday, July 5.

Filed Under: All Star Game, Apple, Baseball, Denver Broncos, iPad, iPhone, Lawsuit, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, NFL, PlayerLync, ProFootballTalk, Samsung, Tablets, TBS Tagged With: , , ,

Watching NASCAR this Week: The Quaker State 400

June 29, 2012 by

Clint Bowyer dominated the Sonoma racetrack at last weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma yet still had to withstand a strong performance from Kurt Busch to earn the green flag. He led 71 of the 119 laps in a race that witnessed few cautions and 8 lead changes and which had an average speed of 86 mph, or as a friend said, lap car speeds.

It was a near thing for Bowyer as he ran out of gas at the end of the race and had to walk to victory lane. Busch, in an unsponsored car fell back at the end and the top 5 was filled out with Tony Stewart finishing second followed by Busch, Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson.

Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway.
Next up is the Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway. The track is a 1.5 mile tri-oval and will be the site of a great deal of speculation as to Matt Kenseth’s future. At the end of the season his contract with Roush Fenway Racing expires and will not be renewed. He is slated to be replaced on the team by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

So far this season Kenseth has one victory and eight top five finishes and is the leading point’s leader. ESPN is reporting that now Kenseth is claiming that he has a deal for 2013 but is declining to say where. Let the second guessing begin-or is it still at first guessing level?

Twitter- Instead of pointing to a number of Twitter addresses as we have in the past it seems to make much more sense just to send you to a site that appears to have consolidated a who’s who of racing twitter addresses instead. So head over here for a list.

Broadcast
June 30 at 6:30 pm ET on TNT

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Greg Biffle -11
3) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -14
4) Jimmie Johnson -25
5) Tony Stewart -63

Nationwide’s Road America race last week was won by Nelson Piquet Jr., a race that I missed because ESPN decided to broadcast it like something the late LeRoy Neiman would have painted (my cable company is having trouble with some ESPN broadcasts).

Piquet ran a solid race but at least some of the news has to do with Jacques Villenueve how was dominating for a time and racing for a top finish still on the last lap. Then on the last lap to go he was pushed into the grass and came back on the track and collided with Danica Patick, spinning her out from the 5th place position she was in-she eventually finished 12th. The top five was filled out by Michael McDowell in second, then Ron Fellows, Max Papis and Sam Hornish Jr.

Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway

Broadcast
June 29 7 pm ET ESPN 2

Nationwide Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillion -11
3) Rickey Stenhouse Jr. -23
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -34
5) Cole Whitt -75

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, ESPN, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, TNT, Tony Stewart Tagged With: ,

Recon Instruments Seeks to Enlarge Heads-Up Display App Space with SDK

June 28, 2012 by

Recon Instruments has taken an important step in expanding the demand for its Heads up Display technology by opening it up for developers with the release of a software developers kit (SDK) for Android that will open up the platform to third party developers.

Possibly lost amid all of the splash that Google provided at the opening of its Google I/O show yesterday Recon used the event, packed with Android developers, to reveal the details of its HUD SKU to the market.

While its main focus has been on developing for ski goggles, the HUD devices have been used for a range of other uses including by a skateboarder who recently set a speed record, and recorded the event using Recon’s technology.

I suspect that as additional apps are developed Recon will start to see its products used in a growing number of fields which will be increasingly important as competitors are starting to crowd the field. Google showed a live working demonstration of its Google Glass project at the show yesterday and they were used in ski diving and rappelling down a building.

A number of other developers including Oakley and Vuzic are also working on at least somewhat similar projects, so the larger the app ecosystem for Recon’s platform the more likely it will have long term success.

The SDK will enable the development of apps for the current version of MOD Live, the current HUD from Recon, as well as the next generation that is currently under development. The basic components that developers will have to work with include a GPS unit, Bluetooth connectivity and a host of sensors including on board altimeter, barometer, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyro, 3-axis magnetometer, and temperature sensor.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Google, Live sports via mobile, Recon Instruments Tagged With: ,

Watching Golf this Week: It’s ‘Game On’ for Tiger at AT&T National

June 28, 2012 by

If Arnie has a tournament and so does Jack, why not Tiger? The one PGA Tour stop most closely associated with Woods — the AT&T National, at Congressional outside D.C. — has its charismatic host back playing this year, probably among the favorites to win so long as the U.S. Open weekend Tiger doesn’t reappear.

There’s no getting away from El Tigre this week — from the GAME ON pose in the AT&T National website ad which shows Tiger flashing his guns to the feature story on the PGA Tour website — it’s all Tiger all the time, and since like Memorial he has won here before (most recently three years ago, the last time the National took place at Congressional) he feels comfortable, so he has to be included among the favorites. Lots of talent in the field this week, although U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson is taking the week off.

What may bear for some interesting viewing this weekend are reports that Congressional is set up at U.S. Open toughness, perhaps to try to reclaim some honor that was lost last year when Rory McIlroy made Congressional look like a Las Vegas pro-am while setting a U.S. Open scoring record. You could say the rain was to blame, making the greens easy to shoot for. But AP golf guru Doug Ferguson’s piece Wednesday seems to hint there may be more bogeys than birdies outside our nation’s capital city this weekend. If you are looking for a U.S. Open encore, tune in.

Here’s where to follow the action:

AT&T NATIONAL

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, June 28 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, June 29 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 30 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 1 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6:30 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday-Saturday; 11 a.m. — 5 p.m., Sunday

ONLINE
No Live@ video this week — the PGA’s live online video doesn’t return until the Barclays in late August, so you will need to get your online fix from…

PGA SHOT TRACKER
If all you want is shots and distances (which can be addicting) get your fix via Shot Tracker, which is in the house for the AT&T National.

FACEBOOK PAGE
There’s a nice shiny trophy on the AT&T National’s Facebook page. Gotta like that.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The Tiger Woods Foundation is handling the official Twitter feed for the AT&T National. So far, mostly local stuff like scavenger hunts and donation links.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. She said not only was she driving to the National, she was bringing her clubs.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
No video fly-by (which is sometimes overrated) but a nice interactive hole by hole course guide of Congressional Country Club from the tourney’s website. Here’s the PGA Tour site’s nuts and bolts.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Nick Watney, in a tourney held at Aronimink outside Philadelphia. And Rory McIlroy won last year’s U.S. Open, held at Congressional.

LOCAL FLAVOR
The AT&T National has a long tradition of honoring the military — check this page out for more info. The Washington Post has a lot of Tiger stories (surprise!) on its special golf page, which is helpfully titled “other sports.” We blame the Nats.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Jason Dufner, 1,849 points
2. Bubba Watson, 1,617
3. Hunter Mahan, 1,572
4. Tiger Woods, 1,452
5. Matt Kuchar, 1,423

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Tiger Woods; 5. Webb Simpson.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

Filed Under: AT&T, CBS Sports, Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, PGA, Tiger Woods, US Open Tagged With: , , , ,
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