Daytona review
We had a great question Monday wanting a little more depth in our review of the Daytona 500.
OK. We're in.
(Side note: Paschall asked us on Press Row Monday if NASCAR won or lost the weekend. We said neither, but considering that this is the biggest race of the season with the most interest and easily the least TV sports competition, the fact that NASCAR was not a clear winner last weekend amounts to a loss all things considered.)
The biggest change of course was the new stage races which award points at two designated points during the race.
At Daytona, those stages were at lap 60 and 120, and because of the length of the track at Daytona, cause some strategery changes for the Toyota cars. Toyota drivers took green-flag pit stops at lap 18 and for Kurt Busch, it helped him win the first stage. (It did not work as well for some other Toyota drivers, however.)
That strategery will only be in place on longer tracks like Daytona, Talladega, Indy and maybe some of the road courses because drivers couldn't pit and stay on the lead lap at most tracks.
Anything that adds strategy options has merit because it adds to the drama of the decision and the chance to debate it after the fact. That's a huge subtle reason why sports are so engaging, especially football and baseball.
Still, the unfamiliarity of the stages and the caution flags and commercial breaks after the stages were complete made the whole thing feel weird more than anything else.
Maybe that changes as we become more and more comfortable with the system. Maybe not.
Either way, the changes did not result in a monster boost in viewership.
The Daytona 500 averaged 11.92 million viewers on FOX, that's an increase of about 5 percent and offered a 6.6/15 HH rating. There were modest demographic gains, according to Cynopsis Media, with upticks among M18-34, M18-49, M25-54 as well as A18-34, A18-49 and A25-54.
NASCAR's attempt to move beyond the South has obviously failed. According to Nielsen, Greensboro, N.C., topped ratings with a 17.5/31, followed by Greenville, S.C., (16.5/28), Indianapolis (14.4/26), Knoxville (12.7/22) and Jacksonville, Fla. (12.4/22).
UTC's Tre' McLean (23) dribbles around the pick of teammate Casey Jones (24). The Mercer Bears Chattanooga Mocs in Southern Conference Basketball action at McKenzie Arena on February 25, 2017.UTC hoops
A season of much hope and promise for UTC continued to spiral toward a painful finish.
The Mocs, without senior guards Greg Pryor (hurt hand from punching an inanimate thing) and Tre McLean (suspended), the Mocs lost at The Citadel on Monday to conclude the regular season.
UTC will play Wofford on Saturday in the Southern Conference tournament.
As we mentioned on Monday around these parts, there are no shortage of theories and more than enough finger-pointing to fill a box of Isotoners.
Here's TFP UTC beat ace Mean Gene Henley's report on the latest Mocs' set back, which included 12 points from formerly banished 3-point sharp-shooter Peyton Woods.
Also of interest, here's TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer's take on the collapse of the Mocs in the last month. (It's Weeds on college hoops, so you know it has to be good.)
As Weeds alluded to, It's hard to know when it started to unravel, but it's quite clear that it has.
Is it fixable this weekend in Asheville?
Potentially, because this team has a lot of talented pieces. But it's hard to see a team this at odds with each other figuring it out in four days.
Alas.
This April 16, 2016 photo shows Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban watching his team warm up before the start of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oklahoma City. Cuban says his decision to revoke the credentials of two ESPN writers who cover his team was driven partly by concern that automated game reports could eventually replace human-generated content. Cuban said Monday, Nov. 7, 2016 that he banned Marc Stein and Tim MacMahon from Mavericks home games to bring attention to the issue of companies using automation in sports coverage. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams) Cuban dictator
Mark Cuban was ticked at Bleacher Report, because Bleacher Report posted a childish and for the most part lame attempt at humor on social media.
BR sent out a tweet about a Dirk Nowitzki air ball with the caption "Dirk Forever," and Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, took issue with it.
And threw a hissy fit.
Here's more, including Cuban telling the New York Daily News why he did it. In that story, Cuban said there's a difference between humor and disrespect and the Tweet, in Cuban's view, crossed the line.
OK, that's his view.
But the fact that Bleacher Report caved and took it down because of threats he made to the president of BR's parent company, David Levy of Turner Sports.
"I expect an apology immediately or you can expect me to take a very strong stand in support of one of the greatest players of all time," Cuban wrote in an email to Levy and NBA commissioner Adam Silver. "Who the f–k thinks this is remotely acceptable and why are they working for you David?"
What a bush league move by everyone involved.
The original Tweet was dumb, but whatever. If we are going to start combing through every dumb social media post, well, have a nice life doing that.
Cuban's reaction was childish and immature. It also comes from a guy who had banished ESPN reporters from his team's credentialed list because he was not happy with how it covered his Mavericks. (Man, you have to wonder how is going to react when an actual controversy pops up, right?)
Finally, the decision to pull the Tweet because of Cuban's threats is out-and-out gutless and makes you have to question everything BR in particular and Turner in general reports about the NBA.
The talks of the problems of the media have been well-documented in a lot of spaces, and there are real problems in the industry.
But be it sports or politics or anywhere in between, if the vested newsmakers like Cuban are getting to shape the message and delivery of the news they like or don't like, especially through threats, then the entire system is in danger.
And in turn, every system then becomes in danger.
This and that
- Here's ESPN football analyst and NFL Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian's take on why T.O. and Randy Moss should not be in the Hall of Fame. Yes, you read that right. Two of three most talented wide receivers of the last 25 years not Hall of Famers. Polian did not actually scream, "Turn down that loud Rock-n-Roll music and get off my lawn you stupid teenagers" in the article but we're pretty sure he was thinking it.
- We talked some yesterday about the trouble all sports are having on TV. Now comes this tidbit from SI.com media writer Richard Deitsch, who quotes the Nielsen Year in Sports Media as stating:"According to the 2016 Nielsen Total Audience Report for Q3, on average, U.S. adults ages 18-24 spent over 57 hours per week consuming media. Over 20 hours (35.6%) of their media time was spent on their smartphones, while 15.5 hours (27.1%) was spent watching TV. This was the first year that consumption on mobile devices surpassed television across any demo."
- Also in Deitsch's excellent sports media column comes more details on the rumored split of Mike & Mike, which Deitsch broke last month. When asked about the details for the future on MMQB.com last week, here's what Mike Greenberg had to say: "I can tell you in all honesty that there are a ton of decisions that have to get made that have not yet been made. I am not saying anything that has been written is inaccurate or anything like that. It just is premature. There is a lot of conversation amongst a lot of people-Mike and me and the people that we work for about the way the business is changing. There are different considerations that our executives have to have. So the conversation that was brought to me was 'under the right circumstances, would you be interested in trying something new?' And my answer was 'under the right circumstances, yes.' We are working to figure out whether we get to those right circumstances or not. My gut feeling is we will. But the only disappointment I have in this is that our audience which started out as almost nothing and have been with us for all these yearswhenever the time comes that this decision gets made, I would have wanted it to be on our show where we announced it to the world."
- Interesting report here that Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins will accept a trade to only one team - San Francisco. If you are the 49ers, you have to pull the trigger on that one in our view. Cousins is worth the No. 2 overall pick in our view.
- The glorious drills known as the Underwear Olympics (aka The NFL Combine) start today. We love the draft. You know this.
Today's question
Let's hit some True or False, shall we? It's a Tuesday right?
True or false, the UTC men's basketball team has one game left this season.
True or false, it would be a good thing for Dale Jr. to win the points title this year. (Yes, the ratings would improve, but then he almost assuredly would retire.)
True or false, you would watch a morning talk show - think sports-meets-GMA - hosted by Mike Greenburg.
As for a Rushmore, well, on this day in 1979, Mr. Ed, the talking horse died.
Let's do a Rushmore of TV animals. Go.