My goodness gracious.
The University of Georgia has fired head football coach Mark Richt.
Rutgers has fired head coach Kyle Flood and athletic director Julie Hermann.
Pennsylvania-ISIS head coach James Franklin has fired offensive coordinator...I forget...John Donovan, that's his name.
The University of Virginia has fired head coach Mike London.
Louisiana State did not fire head coach Les Miles.
Before today there were thirteen, I think it was, head coaching vacancies in college tackle football. Add a couple more to that!
(Sorry non-sports people, I usually cease and desist after Saturdays and I did ignore the Miles non-firing last night and the Donovan firing today but it was Donovan, Flood/Hermann, Richt, back-to-back-to-back, boom, boom, boom, so that's that.)
To get the rest of this topic over with in one post, one of the biggest business stories this past week was that ESPN had lost 3,000,000 subscribers in the last year, 7,000.000 in two years. ESPN is owned by Disney. A couple weeks ago ESPN shuttered its acclaimed Grantland. ESPN is in a tight spot. Their business model for the last several years was to buy up, in a lot of cases create, live programming properties. Most spectacularly, they created a separate television network for the University of Texas. They threw money at the college conferences to televise their games, created bowl games so they could televise them. ESPN/Disney money was one of the driving forces behind the disrupting conference realignment a few years ago. The thinking was that live programming is always at a premium, it is highly popular with television viewers, and like land, they ain't making any more of it. Except ESPN did make more of it, like the Chinese creating those islands. As a consequence of all this creating and buying ESPN's fixed costs way into the future are humongous. The deals they signed with Texas and the conferences are for many years. On top of that they lose 7,000,000 subscribers. That is a wicked combination.
Arsenal drew at Norwich today in the EPL. After City's loss to Liverpool, and I think Arsenal got a poor result that day as well, I emailed my Arsenal friend that I thought it was embarrassing, that's the word I used, that Leicester was in first place. I thought it made all of English football look bad. The traditional Big Four, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, are the face of English football. Only Man City has cracked that Big Four and now the world is used to them, they are viewed as one of the world's Big Clubs. But all of the traditional Big Four and Manchester City are down this year,--so far--and the struggles in Europe continue. After thirteen matches when a Spanish, Italian, or Chinese soccer follower looked at the EPL table and saw Leicester City at top-I didn't think that was a good thing. My Arsenal friend responded "yeah, but." Yeah, but it makes watching the games involving one of the have-nots more exciting. I'm glad he was excited today watching Arsenal draw at the "Canaries"
The NBA "Warriors" won their eighteenth straight last night. They haven't had their head coach all year. (?) Steve Kerr has missed the entire season so far recovering from back surgery. Luke Walton, the assistant coach, has led them this entire amazing start. That is amazing.
The University of Georgia has fired head football coach Mark Richt.
Rutgers has fired head coach Kyle Flood and athletic director Julie Hermann.
Pennsylvania-ISIS head coach James Franklin has fired offensive coordinator...I forget...John Donovan, that's his name.
The University of Virginia has fired head coach Mike London.
Louisiana State did not fire head coach Les Miles.
Before today there were thirteen, I think it was, head coaching vacancies in college tackle football. Add a couple more to that!
(Sorry non-sports people, I usually cease and desist after Saturdays and I did ignore the Miles non-firing last night and the Donovan firing today but it was Donovan, Flood/Hermann, Richt, back-to-back-to-back, boom, boom, boom, so that's that.)
To get the rest of this topic over with in one post, one of the biggest business stories this past week was that ESPN had lost 3,000,000 subscribers in the last year, 7,000.000 in two years. ESPN is owned by Disney. A couple weeks ago ESPN shuttered its acclaimed Grantland. ESPN is in a tight spot. Their business model for the last several years was to buy up, in a lot of cases create, live programming properties. Most spectacularly, they created a separate television network for the University of Texas. They threw money at the college conferences to televise their games, created bowl games so they could televise them. ESPN/Disney money was one of the driving forces behind the disrupting conference realignment a few years ago. The thinking was that live programming is always at a premium, it is highly popular with television viewers, and like land, they ain't making any more of it. Except ESPN did make more of it, like the Chinese creating those islands. As a consequence of all this creating and buying ESPN's fixed costs way into the future are humongous. The deals they signed with Texas and the conferences are for many years. On top of that they lose 7,000,000 subscribers. That is a wicked combination.
Arsenal drew at Norwich today in the EPL. After City's loss to Liverpool, and I think Arsenal got a poor result that day as well, I emailed my Arsenal friend that I thought it was embarrassing, that's the word I used, that Leicester was in first place. I thought it made all of English football look bad. The traditional Big Four, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, are the face of English football. Only Man City has cracked that Big Four and now the world is used to them, they are viewed as one of the world's Big Clubs. But all of the traditional Big Four and Manchester City are down this year,--so far--and the struggles in Europe continue. After thirteen matches when a Spanish, Italian, or Chinese soccer follower looked at the EPL table and saw Leicester City at top-I didn't think that was a good thing. My Arsenal friend responded "yeah, but." Yeah, but it makes watching the games involving one of the have-nots more exciting. I'm glad he was excited today watching Arsenal draw at the "Canaries"
The NBA "Warriors" won their eighteenth straight last night. They haven't had their head coach all year. (?) Steve Kerr has missed the entire season so far recovering from back surgery. Luke Walton, the assistant coach, has led them this entire amazing start. That is amazing.
