A Tale of Two College Sports…

For the NCAA’s two biggest sports it is the best of times and the worst of times.  The best of times belong to college basketball as the March Madness basketball tournament has produced the greatest surprise Final Four in history.  Blue bloods in Kentucky and UConn.  A Hoosiers’ sequel for last year’s runner-up, Butler.  And VCU?  So many people picked against them for even being in the tournament, much less being at the Final 4.  It is theoretically possible that the difference between the NCAA Champion and the NIT Champion was a bracket buster game between VCU and Wichita State about a month ago, where VCU won the game on two free throws in the final seconds.  Wichita State plays for the NIT Title tomorrow night, while VCU has a good shot at winning the National Title next Monday night.  Some people think that this is not the right way to crown a champion of College Sports, but it’s not going away anytime soon.  As this year proves, anyone has a chance to win the title once they get in.  The mid-major programs get a chance to compete with the big boys on the court.  It’s still so popular, CBS recently joined in a deal with TNT, TBS, and TruTV to maintain the rights to the title into the next decade.  Starting in 2016, TBS will replace CBS as the TV Home to the Final Four, and CBS was OK with it.

The worst of times belong to College Football.  Within the last decade, several elite College Football Programs have undergone serious investigations, even those who have won National Championships (the most recent examples are National Champion Auburn with their star player, Cam Newton and others, and Big 10 Champion Ohio State, whose mess is so ugly that the whispers of Death Penalty have begun to creep up in the discussion).  Now comes word that the BCS Bowls themselves have been the source of major corruption, as the Fiesta Bowl has basically admitted to a corrupt CEO getting perks no ordinary citizen would get.  The BCS Bowls are raking in monster cash, while even the big Schools like Ohio State are losing money going to these bowls.  And don’t think that the Fiesta Bowl is the only Bowl guilty of getting major money at the expense of Schools losing money.  No wonder the BCS Mafia don’t want a playoff.  It would damage the money-making shakedown these big wigs have invented and almost no one outside of 16 Big NCAA Schools like.  It is the worst time for College Football to go through these problems as it appears that College Football maybe the only major football that is played this season.

Clearly the Fiesta Bowl must be punished in order to keep the scam that is the BCS going.  It is likely the Cotton Bowl will be the beneficiary of the Fiesta Bowl’s fall, ironic considering that the Fiesta Bowl basically snatched the Cotton Bowl’s birthright to host a National Title Game over 15 years ago.  But it makes the situation even worse, because it trades one corrupt CEO for Jerry Jones and his Super Palace.  Not exactly what the NCAA had in mind.

It may take a even bigger scandal to force the Football Bowl Subdivision into a Playoff, something which the powers that be do not want.  But that’s assuming there are people of honor, not super-greedy people who want to keep the shell game going.  Meanwhile, College Basketball should benefit from an unavoidable NBA shutdown that is coming.  Next year, the Blue Bloods will be back and could produce a super NCAA Tournament.  I’m looking forward to College Basketball next season and will enjoy the Final Four this weekend.

AT&T no longer in “4G” crossfire, now carrying potential hammer

Several months ago, I blogged about the difficulty AT&T was encountering in the “4G” battles that were engaging.  You had 3 different takes:  Sprint going with WiMAX, Verizon going with LTE, and T-Mobile going with HSPA+.  AT&T seemed to be in trouble trying to figure out what to do, though long term AT&T appeared to be in good shape.  My speculation was that AT&T was going to do a hybrid of HSPA+ and LTE to try and split the difference.

AT&T was initially struggling, even though it rebranded its HSPA+ as 4G.  It only had 10 cities that really had 4G capability, well behind its competitors.  And Apple finally decided to come to agreement with Verizon on the iPhone.  It looked like AT&T was going to lose ground.

Then came the bolt of lightning AT&T needed to get back in the game.  On Sunday, AT&T agreed to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion.  In one strike, AT&T strengthened its hand, while potentially putting a nail in Sprint’s coffin.  The question is whether it will survive FCC regulations.

Here’s what it means in the short run:

(1)  AT&T can take advantage of T-Mobile’s HSPA+ rollouts:  AT&T only had 10 cities that could be considered “4G” with HSPA+.  By buying T-Mobile, their HSPA+ network vastly expands.  Not only that, but T-Mobile had put in new infrastructure that means future upgrades will require only software upgrades.  AT&T now gets the luxury of performing software upgrades for newer technology.

(2)  AT&T gains desperately needed spectrum:  AT&T was approaching a spectrum crunch and needed some way to add spectrum.  They add T-Mobile’s upper frequency spectrum which will provide some relief in the short run, and now put Verizon on the defensive for adding spectrum.

(3) The rest of world will use AT&T in the US.  AT&T and T-Mobile both used the world standards of 3GPP (which include GSM, UMTS, and HSPA.  With their merger, there will only be one national 3GPP network in the US (Verizon, Sprint, and MetroPCS use the 3GPP2 standards, which include CDMA and EV-DO).  That could be the biggest reason why the FCC might kill the deal.

(4) Sprint is in DEEP trouble.  Sprint is now running a distant 3rd in a two-horse race between two factions of the old Ma Bell network.  Worse, Verizon and AT&T have committed to LTE, while Sprint is still using WiMAX for “4G” for now.  Sprint will likely switch to LTE, but because they took so long to roll out WiMAX, they may be a damaged commodity.  They could be a target for buyout by Verizon.

(5)  Sprint isn’t the only one who could be taken over by Verizon .  MetroPCS and US Cellular could be targets for take over by Verizon.  On the surface, MetroPCS makes more sense.  The technologies are similar.  Or Sprint might make a bid for MetroPCS.

In the end, if this merger survives, AT&T will hold a huge advantage in the 4G battles that lay ahead.  And it will turn AT&T’s fortune around.  But, will we as customers be better for it?  That remains to be seen…

Too late in Libya

When the nation’s top intelligence official, James Clapper, recently told a Senate hearing that Libyan leader Col. Gadhafi would likely survive the rebellion in his country, opponents and supporters of the Obama administration were quick to denounce the opinion.  Sen. Lindsey Graham immediately called for Clapper’s firing.  Publicly, Pres. Obama spokesmen were dismissive of Clapper’s view, even though they support him.  It’s not politically correct to say that the Muslim rebels are going to be beat.  But here’s the thing:  the only thing I think Mr. Clapper got wrong was the verb tense.  It’s not that Gadhafi will survive,  HE HAS SURVIVED.  It is only a matter on time before the Libyan leader and his sons retake all of the country and crush the rebellion.

The window of opportunity to establish a no-fly zone and acknowledge the rebel government slammed shut, even with the UN passing its resolution.  It should have been established two weeks ago when the regime was on its heels and everyone was calling for Gadhafi to go.  But instead, the world waffled.  Gadhafi’s forces regrouped, began to use their superior weapons advantage, and began pushing the rebels back in the west and east.  Now, you only hear of Gadhafi victories.  Even with a no-fly zone in place, it likely doesn’t matter.  Gadhafi will re-take Benghazi within days, and will begin a mass extermination of opposition forces.  No no-fly zone will change that.  And even if a no-fly zone is somewhat successful, it only takes one accidental bombing of civilians to turn opinion around the world against the US. 

And the ICC bringing charges against Gadhafi is hollow.  Gadhafi will remain welcomed by world leaders just like Mugabe and other mass murdering leaders.  The world will soon forget this rebellion, sweep it under the rug, and wash their hands of this situation.  The damage has been done, though, and no matter how many times the UN washes it hands, I can still see blood on them.

Where Charlie isn’t doing well (sorry, can’t say the W word anymore with him)…

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past month, you have seen at least one or two news stories (OK, maybe about 30) regarding Charlie Sheen.  Charlie has been doing pretty well on the acting front starring in “Two and a Half Men” for many years.  Even with the announcement that he has been fired, Charlie has made a lot of money and has gotten to do things we can only dream of.  But, in his personal life, Charlie has not been doing so well.  Marriages and divorces, estrangements from his family, reports of domestic violence.  Charlie’s circle of friends and family has shrunk.  Attempts by family, publicists, lawyers, and even fellow Hollywood actors have been largely met with the equivalent of a big middle finger.  He has not just burned those bridges of friends and family, he’s nuked the entire river.  Those people who are still around him are only interested in glamming on to either some of his money or perks and will leave him once the party is over.  At least his kids are away from that party house.  Not that Brooke Mueller is much better of a parent as far as I’m concerned, but at least there are no kids in the nicotine-loaded house.

Charlie, giving people who really care about you and want to help you such a venomous response isn’t a good thing.  I’m sure your lawyers are giving you advice and that advice probably goes something along the lines of “STOP!”.  When I see individuals who would normally rally to your defense start to run away from you, it’s a sign your 15 minutes are almost up.  It’s time to try and repair whatever relationships you have with your family and friends before you end up at Rock Bottom.  It will never be what it should be, but at least you can salvage what you have and try to re-build your life from there.