SMTSU Member Spotlight: Paul Innocenti

Paul Innocenti is a freshman in Drexel University's Sport Management program.  He is from Alexandria, New Jersey, which is about an hour away from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Under Further Review: FAU is a Naming Rights Case Study

Last week, Florida Atlantic University announced a 12 year, $6 million naming rights deal for their football stadium.  It was a time for joyous celebration, euphoria for a cash-strapped mid-level athletic department.  All that was left was to sign the dotted line and announce the whole shebang to the media.

On second thought, maybe that’s a bad idea….

The Closer: Is Mark Emmert's job on the chopping blocks?

With the avalanche aimed at the NCAA's Indianapolis headquarters building more and more every day, the question of whether NCAA President Mark Emmert needs to worry about his job security is on the tip of many experts tongues. The 60-year old Emmert, has been the President of the NCAA since November 1, 2010, after serving as the President of the University of Washington since 2004. Previous to this position with at Washington, he had over 20 years of experience in Higher Education, at schools such as Louisiana State University, University of Connecticut, and University of Colorado.

NFL Considers Offseason Overhaul

The NFL Scouting Combine is the mark for most NFL fans that the offseason has begun. Once the Scouting Combine is underway that also signifies draft season. Some fans love the offseason, but others can’t wait until training camp opens in July. Overall the NFL offseason is a long spread out process that loses steam as it progresses. Due to this loss of fan viewership, Roger Goodell is attempting to come up with new was of revenue stream leading to the idea of overhauling the NFL offseason.

How The Big East Fairs For The Future

The Big East has always been synonymous with a basketball-focused conference since 1982 when they tried to bring in major football partners and failed. That decision has always been a handicap for a conference who has provided nationally recognized and prestigious basketball programs since its’ inception. When this basketball season concludes, only five founding members will remain from a conference that has been home to 20 different schools for basketball since 1979.

Water Cooler Talk: What to do about the NBA All-Star Game

The NBA All-Star game was this past Sunday and like always it was a very high scoring game with virtually no defense played at all.  The game lately has not been exciting and it doesn’t help when All-Star Saturday has been lackluster.  For this post I am going to compare the NBA All-Star game TV ratings to the other major sports.  I also asked fellow Sport Management Students Kevis Pinto, Michael Proska, and Lindrit Shkodra what they felt could be done to make the game gain viewership.   

Global Scope: 2014 Winter Olympics

Next year promises to be a very exciting one in the wide world of sports, with the FIFA World Cup in Brazil happening during the month of June. However, for those of you who may not know the Winter Olympic games will also be taking place in Russia, in a town situated on the coast of the black sea, Sochi. The Winter Olympic Games will be hosted from the 7th of February up until the 23rd, with 98 events in 15 different sports. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted on three different continents over time, but has yet to be hosted by one located in the Southern Hemisphere. Germany and Bosnia hosted the event one time each while Austria, Canada, Japan, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland have hosted the event twice. The United States and France are leading the pack in number of events held, with four and three respectively. Once February of 2014 comes around, it will be the first time a Russian city has hosted the games.

Above the Rim: Another Utterly Underwhelming NBA All Star Weekend

On paper, the NBA All star weekend should be one of the (best) sporting events of the calendar year. Unlike other professional all star games, the NBA hosts an entire weekend of events, with different (things) happening every day from Friday until Sunday. The two biggest events besides the All Star game itself are the Dunk Contest and Three Point Contest. Regrettably, these promising factors haven't lead to very much entertainment in the last few years. It seems as if I get sucked into all of the hype year after year. It's going be great!! The dunks are going to be awesome! And the three point contest! And the actual game! After it was all over this year, I felt really let down. It can't be this bad, right? With all of the best players in the league participating, why does this weekend continue to disappoint?

NFL Draft 2013: Philadelphia Eagles

What should the Philadelphia Eagles do with their draft picks this year? I can’t tell you how many countless times I have watched the NFL Draft and yelled at my TV furious with who the Eagles passed up on or took a chance on. This draft, if done right, could be the missing piece that could send the Philadelphia Eagles back to the playoffs. Unfortunately for Eagles fans and I, history shows that the Eagles will probably not get the most out of this draft.

           

Valentine's Day Teaches Us To Love Our Job

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –Confucius

Though Valentine’s Day is now in our rearview mirror, I thought it would be appropriate to connect the notion of “love” and your career.  For the purpose of this message, Confucius’s idea of a job and mine as a career will be one in the same (though, in reality, there are differences).

SMTSU Member Spotlight: Zach Tomlinson

Zach Tomlinson is a currently a freshman in Drexel's sport management program.  Coming from Hilliard, Ohio, Tomlinson attends Drexel to pursue his interests in venue operations, ticketing, and general management.  His love of both sports and business naturally led to pursuit of a degree in sport management.  One day he hopes to work is way up to his dream job of either becoming the General Manager of the New York Yankees or becoming the Athletic Director at Ohio State University.

The Man Advantage: College Basketball, The Curse of First

When this college basketball season started, I made a few assumptions: Louisville and Indiana were the best teams in the nation, but Michigan would threaten; the A-10 would be absolutely ridiculous and Butler and VCU would show themselves as the cream of the crop in their first year; and it would be Drexel’s year in the CAA.

"WE ARE...UNRAVELING": Penn State scandal as seen by the Paterno Family, Phil Knight, and Kevin Murray

This past week, the family of Joe Paterno released a 238-page report, defending Paterno and refuting the Freeh Report. Within the report, high profile experts, such as Dick Thornburgh, former Attorney General of the United States and Governor of Pennsylvania, and Jim Clemente, former FBI profiler, prosecutor, and child sex crimes expert, analyzed the full Freeh Report and the treatment of Joe Paterno by his University and Penn State by the NCAA. This report, a long with a lot of commentary from experts across the country, claims that the Freeh Report was not only bias, but "incomplete and full of inaccuracies."

Basketball: Formerly a Team Sport in the NBA

Today, an avid basketball fan prefers watching an NCAA Division 1 basketball game rather than an NBA game. The reasons for this are always the same – the teams are more focused on defense and the strategies to winning are based off of team basketball. Prior to the 2000s, this was the opposite. The NBA was more focused on team basketball rather than one-on-one play. This resulted in more fans actually enjoying watching the games. I wonder if team basketball and playing defense is more effective to winning and enjoyable to watch compared to the one-on-one style that has seemed to take stage in the NBA. I believe that team basketball and defense achieves both of the above.

Winners and Losers of the January Transfer Window

Loic Remy and QPR manager, Harry Redknapp

January 31^st marked the close of the transfer window. During the designated transfer window, English clubs are eligible to sign or loan out players. A usually exciting time period in soccer, this year’s January transfers seemed a bit lackluster. However, during this month-long shopping spree, clubs spent a combined £120 million, double that of last year. Below are in my opinion, the biggest winners and losers of January.

Water Cooler Talk: What Super Bowl Commercials Worked and What Didn’t

Super Bowl Sunday is one of the best days of the year to be a football fan.  This year the game was very competitive but the Baltimore Ravens were able to come out on top.  The game is great but my favorite part of the Super Bowl is the commercials.  This year I felt that the commercials were a little disappointing.  Even with the disappointment there were some that stuck out and others that just flopped.  I am going to talk about a couple commercials that I liked and some that I did not like. 

Global Scope: Africa Cup of Nations 2013

For those of you who were unaware, the Africa Cup of Nations has been going on in South Africa since the 19th of January, with two semifinals to be played tomorrow (Mali vs Nigeria and Burkina Faso vs Ghana) and the grand finale on Sunday. Coming into South Africa every nation was aware of the implications that this year's event would have on the champion: a berth to the FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by Brazil and with a start date of June 15th. Naturally the importance of the competition was greater than usual, and this led to some interesting story lines to be played out in South Africa's magnificent stadia, the same ones used for hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Above the Rim: NBA Trade Deadline Preview

With the NBA trade deadline just a few weeks away, teams are researching about how they can make their teams better and set them up for a playoff run or their long-term future. Some may need that one last piece to compete for a title, while others may just want to rid themselves of long-term salary commitments and rebuild with young players and draft picks. The first ball has already dropped with Rudy Gay going to the Toronto Raptors in a 3-team trade. Who could be next?

Clippers Eyeing Garnett

The Clippers have been a huge surprise this year and it looks like they might soon become the number one team in Los Angeles. It seems though that they are not sold on their rotation and are looking in the direction of a 37-year-old veteran to add to their repertoire.  That 37-year-old being Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics. 

Leaving Your Mark: Harbaughs Are Not The Only Brothers Competing Sunday

Mark Gress is the Associate Director of Employer Relations at Arcadia University and is formerly with the Steinbright Career Development Center at Drexel University.

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With the Super Bowl upon us, one of the primary storylines focuses on Jim and John Harbaugh, the head coaches of the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.  Did I mention that they are brothers?  It is extremely rare to see two brothers experience as much success simultaneously in the sports world.  However, on the sports business side, it happens more often and with equally interesting and captivating narratives.