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This web site has been quiet since Thursday night, but not because I wanted it to be. My daughter and I spent the weekend down at Disneyworld for "ESPN the Weekend" (as the invited guests of Disney Corporate Services, but more about that later this week). I had intended on posting stories from down there, but if you have ever stayed at a Disney property, you know that there are two inevitabilities: cell phone reception is horrid and what they try to pass off as "internet connectivity" is NFFWP (Not Fit For Work Purposes). Again, this will be discussed in a story later this week.

Freedom of speech, however controversial it may be, is perhaps the most hallowed of the fundamental tenets of the United States. In acquiescing to the demands of gay rights groups, the NCAA has removed CBSSports.com sold ad inventory from Focus on the Family off of the organization's championships web sites.

But by forcing this move, a move driven by hatred of the messenger, these same gay rights groups took a stand that could easily be interpreted as discrimination against strong families and organized religion. And that, my friends, is a slippery slope that should be opposed not only by the Catholic colleges and universities that are members of the NCAA, but by any individual or group that values our basic freedoms.

The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2010 has been announced, and leading the way for the eight member group is Christian Laettner of Duke and Sidney Wicks of UCLA.

Wicks helped Coach John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins to three straight NCAA championships from 1969-71. He was selected as the tournament’s most outstanding player as a junior in 1970 and earned at least one national player of the year award in each of his last two seasons.

The 2010 induction class also includes coaches Tex Winter, the innovator of the triangle offense who coached at Marquette, Kansas State, Northwestern, Washington and Long Beach State; and Davey Whitney, with more than 500 career wins in a long career at Alcorn State, including taking one of the first teams from a historically black university to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1979.

The 2010 induction ceremonies will be held on Sunday, November 21, 2010, at the College Basketball Experience (CBE) and the historic Midland Theatre in Kansas City, Mo.

2010 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Inductees

Wayne Duke, Contributor

After graduating from the University of Iowa, Wayne Duke began his career in sports information at Northern Iowa and later at Colorado. He was the first employee hired at the NCAA by Executive Director Walter Byers in 1952 and wrote the first manuals for the NCAA basketball tournament and the College World Series. Duke also began the compilation of the elaborate NCAA record books and was a prominent force in cultivating media interest, especially with television.

He became commissioner of the Big Eight Conference in 1963 at the age of 34 and moved on in 1971 to become commissioner of the Big Ten, where he was instrumental in the conference being at the forefront of affirmative action, the integration of women’s sports, limiting athletic grants-in-aid and improving academic standards and graduation rates.

Duke served on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee from 1975-81, when the tournament expanded from 32 to 40 to 48 teams, meaning teams other than conference champions could get into the field. He was also on the Basketball Television Negotiating Committee at a crucial time for the NCAA as TV money started to reach unimagined numbers.

Following his retirement from the Big Ten in 1989, he became the tournament chairman of the EA Sports Maui Invitational and is still chairman emeritus.

Tom Jernstedt, Contributor

Not long after graduating from and working as an athletic administrator at the University of Oregon, Tom Jernstedt (pictured left) was hired by the NCAA as director of special events. After 38 years with the NCAA, the relationship has not only been fruitful for Jernstedt and the NCAA but for all of college basketball.

While serving in various positions including chief operating officer, senior vice president and executive vice president, Jernstedt has been a steady and guiding force, especially as liaison to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. He has helped nurture the championship tournament through several expansion processes, not only in terms of the number of teams involved, but also in the size and scope of the venues, the revenues from marketing and broadcast rights, and the overall image as one of the world’s greatest sporting events.

Christian Laettner, Player

He may most often be remembered for his spectacular game-winning shot to top Kentucky in the NCAA tournament, but it was steady habits over four seasons that made Christian Laettner special. He helped lead Duke to the NCAA Final Four in each of his four seasons with the Blue Devils, who captured back-to-back national championships in his final two seasons (1990-91, 91-92).

CENTER OF ATTENTION: Christian Laettner of the Duke University
Blue Devil battles for position during a NCAA game against
Canisius College on December 7 1991. Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images

He made the All-East Regional team and second team all-ACC as a freshman before beginning to dominate as a sophomore when he averaged 16.3 points and 9.6 rebounds and was named third team All- America, second team All-ACC and MVP of the East Regional. While leading Duke to its first NCAA title as a junior, Laettner earned second team All-America honors and was the Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four.

He topped off his career with another NCAA championship in 1991-92, as the national player of the year as well as the Atlantic Coast Conference Player and Athlete of the Year. Ranked third in Duke history in career points (2,460) and rebounds (1,149), he holds the Blue Devils’ record for free throws made with 713. Laettner was the third player taken in the 1992 NBA Draft and played 12 seasons in the NBA.

David Thompson, Player (Founding Class member)

Among the most amazing leapers and scorers ever to play college basketball, David Thompson was a three-time All-America and twice was named national player of the year. As an 18-year old sophomore at North Carolina State, he averaged 24.7 points and 8.1 rebounds on his way to earning the first of his three Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year honors and was the youngest player ever named to the AP All-America first team.

Thompson powered the Wolfpack to the 1974 NCAA Championship as a junior and turned down lucrative offers from professional basketball twice to return to NC State for his senior season. The first player selected in the 1975 NBA draft, he is the only player in history selected as the most valuable player in ABA and NBA all- star games. Thompson was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1996.



Jerry West, Player (Founding Class member)

Arguably the best pure shooter in basketball history, Jerry West was a three-time All-America at West Virginia. West, who holds 17 Mountaineer records, led his team to three consecutive NCAA tournament berths and the national championship game in 1959 and averaged 29.3 points and 16.5 rebounds per game as a senior.

TAMING THAT CAT: West Virginia's Jerry West, right, soars through the air
to prevent the University of Kentucky's Adrian Smith from making a layup
during an eventual Kentucky defeat at home in Lexington on June 22 1959.
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

He was co-captain of 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team with Oscar Robertson. West played 14 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, was a 14-time all-star pick, and the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1972 when the Lakers captured the NBA championship. A two-way player who earned NBA all-defensive honors four times, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1980.

Davey Whitney, Coach

His teams won 711 games in 35 years of coaching but Davey Whitney (pictured left from his playing days with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues from 1952-54) did so much more than win basketball games.

The “Wiz”, who earned more letters than any other athlete at Kentucky State University, brought his Alcorn State University program to heights that never seemed possible. The Braves dominated the Southwestern Athletic Conference with nine championships and little recognition until 1979, when Whitney guided his team to a berth in the NIT, one of the first for a historically black institution. Alcorn also upset in-state rival Mississippi State in the opening round.

The next year, Alcorn earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, one of four for Whitney-coached teams, and topped South Alabama in the opening round. USA Basketball has recognized Whitney’s coaching talents on several national teams and he was the recipient of the NCAA’s first Journey Award in 1972.

Sidney Wicks, Player

Sidney Wicks was one of those rare collegiate players who only experienced perfection. Wicks played on three of Coach John Wooden’s UCLA teams and helped lead the Bruins to NCAA championships from 1969-71. The 6-8 power forward was the Bruins’ leading scorer (18.6) and rebounder (11.9) as a junior when he was named Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA Final Four and earned national co-player of the year honors from the Helms Athletic Foundation.

On the Cover: UCLA's Sidney Wicks appeared on the cover of the
November 30, 1970 issue of Sports Illustrated.

He earned player of the year awards from the USBWA and The Sporting News while again topping UCLA in scoring and rebounding as a senior. The second pick in the 1971 NBA draft by Portland, he played 10 seasons in the NBA and earned rookie of the year honors in 1972. He returned to UCLA as an assistant coach from 1984-88.

Tex Winter, Coach

Best known as the innovator of the triangle offense, Tex Winter was the head coach of five college programs, serving at Marquette, Kansas State, Northwestern, Washington and Long Beach State.

Teaching Down Under: Former college and NBA Coach Tex Winter teaching at a
basketball training camp for New Zealand players. Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images

The University of Southern California graduate was the first full-time assistant coach at Kansas State and helped Coach Jack Gardner and the Wildcats reach the 1959 national championship game. He became the head coach at Marquette at the age of 28 and stayed for two seasons before returning to Kansas State as the head coach.

Winter guided the Wildcats for 15 seasons, won eight Big Eight titles and was the national coach of the year in 1959, when K-State was rated the number one team nationally by both wire services. He later carried his coaching expertise to the NBA, where he helped the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers win 10 NBA titles.

Last night I posted about Daryn Kagan's view on Tony Kornheiser's two week suspension for his on air remarks about Hannah Storm's choice of wardrobe. Daryn has graciously granted permission to republish the full text of her post here (followed by a couple of poll questions for readers).

Daryn Kagan spent three and one-half years doing sports for CNN. She knows what it is like to be a woman working in television sports. Interestingly, she has done a very, very non-typical blog entry tonight, an entry that comes down in favor of (in a way) Tony Kornheiser and in disagreement with ESPN's decision to suspend him for his on-air comments about Hannah Storm.

Tony Kornheiser of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, took a "stand" on the February 16, 2010 airing of the DC-based and locally broadcast The Tony Kornheiser Show by criticizing Hannah Storm's outfits.

Apparently these comments were a bit too over the top for ESPN management. He has now been suspended for a few days, as confirmed by The Big Lead. Deadspin goes a little deeper and wonders if the suspension may have been more about this shot about Chris Berman on the same show:

The MLB Network has announced that they will once again televise the Spring Training series 30 Clubs in 30 Days, with hour-long features on each of the 30 Major League clubs previewing the 2010 season. Starting March 3, MLB Network hosts Greg Amsinger, Victor Rojas and Matt Vasgersian as well as reporters Trenni Kusnierek and Hazel Mae will report from each of the 30 Spring Training camps throughout Florida and Arizona, conducting interviews with key players, coaches and others associated with each club.

During this weekend's curling coverage on the NBC Universal Networks, host Fred Roggin made a quip that NBC really stands for "Nothing But Curling." There is more to this than one might suspect as the CNBC women's curling round robin coverage from 5:00 to 8:00 PM on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 brought an eight year high for that time period on CNBC.

The 1.8 million viewers was the highest number since February 22, 2002. And this is not the only metric for the growing interest in and curiosity about the sport.

Not all photographs from the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver come from photographers "blessed" by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Plenty of talented photographers are up there and are sharing their pictures of scenes you are not seeing on television in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games photo pool on Flickr. Here is a slide show of the pictures from that shared pool.

Vernon Davis, tight end for the San Francisco 49ers, is getting a lot of press and air time as the honorary captain of the 2010 United States Men's Olympic Curling Team. Here is the public service announcement he did for the U.S. Curling Association.

When Anton Apolo Ohno won his seventh Olympic medal, NBC Sports and others in the media started citing the phrase "Apolo VII," a historical reference to NASA's Apollo space program from the 1960s and 1970s. While I would not put Ohno's accomplishments in comparison to the heroism and bravery of the Apollo astronauts, I wondered what a NASA inspired Anton Apolo VII mission patch might look like. This is what I cam up with.

Asking where you were for the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics "Miracle on Ice" is a leading question. It is leading because unless you or I were actually in Lake Placid 30 years ago today, we probably have no idea where we were. That is because the game was not aired live.

What we all share as a collective memory is where we were when we watched the game on ABC Sports that night. Yes, we all have a shared collective memory of an event that had already occurred, but no one was complaining about delayed coverage back in those days.

Courtesy of ESPN's policy allowing embedding of videos, here is the full statement made by Tiger Woods today. Unlike ESPN, we will not be interviewing any body language experts (one of which know nothing about how emotionless Woods can be) or asking pundits for their opinions. Instead, we offer the video and we will let his future actions tell the story.

Michael Vick just can't get a break. He may be working on rebuilding his image by hanging out with nuns (see picture after the jump), and such, but he just can't get away from his previous troubles dogging him (pun intended) in unexpected places. During last night's first run episode of Pysch (no video available yet) on the NBC Universal owned USA Network, there was a scene involving a gun and a dog. Of course, they had to slip in a Vick joke/reference.

Every day we see changes in the media world, as the model of traditional mainstream media become obsolete. At the same time, the new media model is not so much taking hold as much as ever evolving each day as people and organizations try to get their arms around what exactly is meant by new media, and how they can adapt to it. If you throw out the hype there are very few college sports organizations that get it, with a few exceptions.

With that being said, Eye on Sports Media is pleased to present the 2009 Bloodshot Eyeball Award for BCS Football New Media Awareness to not just one person or organization, but to a combination of recipients that came together to define a new road map to how college sports can maintain and expand their coverage. The recipients are...

Saturday mornings in the frigid winters at Niagara University meant one thing for me and my dorm-mates: eating wings and cracking open some liquid refreshment while watching the CBC Curling Match of the Week. We had no idea how the game worked or how it was scored. It just gave us an excuse to be social and avoid the freezing air outside.

So like many other Americans, my only exposure to Curling these days (sort of a guilty pleasure) is when the Winter Olympic games roll around. Now that I am older, but not necessarily wiser, it would be nice if NBC Sports would explain the rules of the sport and how scoring works before the first end begins.

Last night's half-pipe gold medal win by Shaun White was a lot of fun to watch, late as it was. What was more "fun" was listening to the almost stunned silence when a few profanities came out of White's coaches as they celebrated the win. There as an extended pregnant pause before the on-air "oops, but you have to understand their enthusiasm for the win" was uttered by the NBC Sports on-air talent.

Tiger Woods is not playing in this week's Accenture Match Play Championship, but he is stealing the spotlight from the event and from the title sponsor. ESPN has just reported that a press conference meeting has been called for Friday, February 19, 2010 at 11:00 AM ET at PGA Tour Headquarters in Sawgrass, Florida. Woods will reportedly make a statement to apologize, and discuss his past and future.

Saying no is a hard thing to do, especially when saying it to a representative of the United States Olympic Committee. As much as I support the Olympic movement and the goals of the USOC, I have to make business decisions on whether or not to link to web sites of organizations such as the link requested last week and again today.

The decision is, however, easy when the site to be linked to requires users to provide personally identifiable information and the USOC reserves the right to sell or lease the information to unaffiliated third parties.

Florida "edged" by Xavier last weekend? Just how does one define a 12-point loss to an Atlantic 10 team as being edged? It happens when that is how the losing school writes it up for their web site. It happens when schools try to control the message through their web sites. It is a perfect example of why moves by schools and conferences to create and control the message on their own should not happen.

First off, Carter Blackburn sounds much taller on television. In person he is just as tall as me...and sooo much younger. But he is so good at what he does. Meeting this up and coming play-by-play man at this past Saturday's Southeastern Conference (SEC) men's basketball game between the University of South Carolina and the University of Georgia turned out to be more surreal than expected. Why? Because out of six people seated in a row at the television/radio table, five had some connection to Syracuse University as a student or a parent of a student.

Bruce Feldman of ESPN The Magazine put out an interesting tweet last night. It read, "Who says the SEC is just a football league? There's actually 5 SEC products in the NBA All-star game more than any other conference." It almost sounded like he was being a shill for the SEC now that ESPN has the 15-year contract with the conference.

Does anybody really think that the Southeastern Conference is a basketball conference beyond one or two teams (especially in the past couple of years)? Let's look at the five players he was referring to in his tweet.

From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel (via Tim "TW" Stephens on Twitter) comes this video of Dwight Howard making the longest basketball shot while seated on the floor. Does this mean he will get tickets to the Final Four, or would that have required him to be blindfolded and punked by his students?

NASCAR fans are probably glued to their television screens or radios following today's running of the Daytona 500. But what does it look like behind the scenes of the NASCAR on FOX coverage? What do the announcers see from inside their set called the "Hollywood Hotel"? Here are some pictures posted to TwitPic by NASCAR on FOX.

The International Olympic Committee has issued the following statement following the tragic death of Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili today at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver:

Tragedy is especially magnified when it happens at an event like the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The death of Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili is the latest example of this. Here are some photos of what transpired today. There are no images of the actual crash here.

North of the United States border is a little country called Canada. This country is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. People in the States know that Bob Costas will be hosting the Opening Ceremonies on NBC Sports. But NBC does not have the rights in Canada. That falls to CTV. So just who are the hosts for CTV tonight?

Tragedy struck at the 2010 Vancouver Games today as Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died following a crash in training at the Whistler Sliding Centre. CTV decided to air this video of the crash that killed the athlete. My gut reaction when I heard that they aired it is that they should not have aired it. However, after watching it, my thoughts changed because it is not gruesome or graphic. In fact, it is pretty straight forward vanilla. Do you think CTV was right in airing the video? You can answer below the picture after the jump.

"Bloggers!" When written that way in the discussion fora of sportsjournalists.com, it is with disdain and sarcasm because the mainstream sportswriters that live on that site, using anonymous, anti-social, and cowardly behavior by hiding behind fake screen names that they blast bloggers for doing, express hatred and disdain for bloggers. But there is one BCS school beat writer that not only blogs for his employer(s), but he is not afraid to include links and shout-outs to non-mainstream media bloggers in his posts. He is not afraid of this brave new world in sports journalism.

Journalism as a viable mainstream business has been under assault from a weakened economy, weak ad sales, and uncertainty by publishers on how to adapt their old models to a new media world. One way they have tried to adapt is by having long-time writers blogging on the newspaper web sites as opposed to writing long-form articles. Some have done better than others, and it is hard to identify a single sportswriter who has adapted best. That is until you look at one sportswriter specifically.

Binghamton University has received the independent report on the problems in their athletic department, particularly basketball, since their move up to NCAA Division I status. The school may wish they never asked for it for a number of reasons.

There should be no surprise that the CBS Sports' broadcast of the New Orleans Saints 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV won the weekly broadcast television ratings last week. After all, the game did displace M*A*S*H as the most watched show in United States television viewing history. But The PGA Tour and NBC Sports were losers for this year's PGA Tour event at Riviera (aka the Northern Trust Open nee the Nissan Open nee the L.A. Open).

FOX Sports kicks off their 10th Season of NASCAR coverage this Sunday with the running of the 52nd Daytona 500. The network has re-branded the pre-race show "FOX NASCAR Sunday". They are also adding a new weatherman to the crew. But there is still no conspicuous mention of the fan-hated Digger. Perhaps Digger has moved on to new opportunities? One can only hope.

Seated in the stands behind the University of Georgia basketball team at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia, 21-year old Doug Penning looks like any other fan cheering the team on to hopeful victory. But to those that know him, they also see a young man that has appeared in a movie about giving, serves as an acolyte at the Catholic Center at UGA, works hard at his full time job, and come tomorrow night will hopefully earn his black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Oh, and Doug has Down Syndrome.

On Sunday, February 14, 20010, Daytona 500 race day, SIRIUS NASCAR Radio will start broadcasting live from the track at 7:00 am ET and will offer listeners 15 hours of live coverage throughout the day. SIRIUS NASCAR Radio will offer all the action on the track during the 52nd running of the Daytona 500, which starts at 1:00 pm ET, plus full pre- and post-race coverage with expert analysis, reports from pit road and the garages, driver introductions and interviews with the race winner and other competitors.

The Asian Television Network (ATN), Canada’s largest South Asian broadcaster, has convened a seven-member broadcast team to deliver 107 hours of live Games coverage in six languages across seven channels.

“ATN is delighted to make history by broadcasting the Olympic Games in six South Asian languages on seven of our Canadian channels. The energy level among our broadcast team and their willingness to learn and perform has been commendable,” said Shan Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN.

OMNI Television, Canada’s broadcast leader in multilingual/multicultural programming, has assembled a 20-member broadcast team, bringing together well-known talent from OMNI News and Diversity programming and experts in Winter Games sports. OMNI will deliver 100 hours of coverage in a total of seven languages across five stations.

OMNI Television, Canada’s broadcast leader in multilingual/multicultural programming, has assembled a 20-member broadcast team, bringing together well-known talent from OMNI News and Diversity programming and experts in Winter Games sports. OMNI will deliver 100 hours of coverage in a total of seven languages across five stations.

Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium has announced the 36-member broadcast team for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). APTN, the first ever Aboriginal network worldwide to broadcast live coverage of the Games, has assembled a team which includes veterans as well as newcomers. The network will produce three distinct hosted shows for its Aboriginal, English and French broadcasts.

Branding is king right? Well it all depends on how you do it. ESPN feels that the ESPN360 brand is inconsistent, so come April 4, 2010, it will be rebranded as ESPN3.com. Whether this is good or not remains to be seen. Personally I think it is a bad idea. Right now if someone asks where they can see an event, I can simply say on 360 and they know what I mean. To me, ESPN3 makes it sound too much like a television channel.

The NFL Network will be airing a replay of the New Orleans Saints 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV tonight (Tuesday, February 9, 2010) at 8:00 PM ET. Not to leave west coast viewers feeling disrespected, there will be a encore (fancy word for repeat) of the replay at 12:30 AM ET/9:/30 PM PT).

Saints fans around the world, and even the rest of us happy for the city of New Orleans can catch this evenings victory parade live on the NFL Network (if you get it) at 6:00 PM ET. And while you are waiting, here is video from a New Orleans bar after Terry Porters interception run for the touchdown that sealed the victory. Thanks to bracketologist Jerry Palm for posting the link to the video on Twitter.

Numbers that have been floating around the internet and mainstream have pegged potential losses for NBC Sports on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games at $200-250 Million. According to one source knowledgeable of what is happening at the network, the losses could exceed $400 millions if the ratings are just average. So what is NBC Sports doing to cushion the blow, according to this source?

ESPN basketball and football play-by-play man Brad Nessler (read biography/profile) has been named the winner of the 2010 Furman Bisher for Sports Media Excellence. The Award, which is made by the Atlanta Sports Council (ASC), is named for longtime Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher (and blogger) to honor outstanding coverage of local sports.

NBC Sports has just sent out the official notification of the Universal Sports talent assignments for coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Terry Gannon, one of Jim Valvano's "Cardiac Kids" on the 1983 North Carolina State basketball team that won the NCAA Championship, will be the host for the Vancouver Olympic News Center.

NBC Sports has just sent out the official notification of their talent assignments for their coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Coverage starts Friday, February 12, 2010 with the opening ceremonies. As unusual, Bob Costas will be the primetime anchor, with Al Michaels joining the team for his first Olympic Games in 22 Years as the NBC live weekend and weekday host.

Broadcast rights for the Super Bowl and other National Football League (NFL) games in Canada will remain with CTV for another four years. In an announcement made yesterday, CTV said that the contract extension "comes on the heels of last night’s SUPER BOWL XLIV broadcast and at the end of an incredibly successful year for the NFL on Canadian television, with record-setting playoff audiences and CTV’s most-watched regular season audience ever."

Super Bowl XLIV not only scored in the United States based Nielsen Ratings, it also set the record for the most watched Super Bowl ever in Canada. With 6.7 Million viewers on CTV and RDS, the game had a whopping 52% increase over last year's Super Bowl XLIII. In addition, it outdrew the CFL Grey Cup game.

Unlike the United States, however, the game did not become the all-time ratings champion. It only became the second-most watched show since CTV began archiving ratings results in 1994.

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen! The reign of M*A*S*H is over. Unlike the members of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphin team who get all bent out of shape when their legacy might be eclipsed, it is probably safe to say that Alan Alda is not as concerned that the series finale of M*A*S*H had its 27 year run as the most watched television show ever was eclipsed by the CBS Sports broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV last night.

How big was the audience? Nielsen estimates show that over 106 million people, and 51.7 million households, tuned in for at least part of the show.

One of the big head-scratchers after last night's Super Bowl XLIV victory by the New Orleans Saints was that CBS Sports seemed to have only had a single camera on the French Quarter, and did not spend nearly enough time or attention to the celebration on the streets. Si.com's Richard Deitsch tweeted that he was already getting emails on the subject shortly after the game ended.

Well here is a great video capturing a moment that many feel eluded CBS Sports last night (maybe it was a safety issue?). Thanks to Steve Dittmore of the University of Arkansas tweeting the link from Deadspin.

Yesterday was, as Bob Schieffer said on CBS News Face the Nation (FtN) in the morning, a day of national unity of a sort. So he was on the field of Sun Life Stadium with Jim Nantz, his on-air partners, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell talking about the game and the important issue of concussions. Earlier in the morning, CBS News Sunday Morning gave us fluff stories about football in France and the 2010 Lingerie Bowl. OK, we might could give Sunday Morning a pass for being light, and FTN a mulligan for not discussing real issues facing everyday Americans as a whole.

That is until Katie Couric's 14+ minute interview with President Barack Obama, which was 98% political content that belonged on FtN, not 2 hours or so before kickoff.

Monday morning is here, and the sun has risen in this part of Georgia. Like many of you, I watched the game and the commercials last night. Some we liked, some we did not. Were you part of the 51% of people who Nielsen says tune in for the Super Bowl only do so to watch the commercials. Even if you watched for the game, you can now offer your feedback on the commercials through the Forbes Magazine widget below.

MediaCurves.com is conducting a study with thousands of Americans on the 2010 Super Bowl commercials. Participants of the study will evaluate the ads shortly after they air during the game. As the preliminary results come in, this widget updates with the ads’ scores and overlaying “curves” to represent real-time interest levels.

Eye on Sports Media is pleased to present you with this twitter mashup of twitter feeds from as many members of sports media (Print, TV, radio, at al), including the Ochocinco News Network. This CoverItLive! live blog will show you the tweets of all people we add to the list. This means that we will add people as the day goes on.

Enjoy!

Warren Sapp is no stranger to controversy in regards to his off-field/off-camera behavior. His latest brush with the law, an arrest yesterday for domestic battery, not only landed him in jail overnight. He has now been removed from today's NFL Network coverage of Super Bowl XLIV.

I received an email today that the "Jim Nantz's Top 25 in 25 Years at CBS Sports" presentation was selected by the SlideShare editorial team to be featured/spotlighted on the home page of their web site. SlideShare, which I have been recently for the slide presentations displayed on this site, is a free services that allows people to share presentations online in a manner which protects your intellectual property (i.e. it is difficult for people to steal your material).

Broadcasting the Super Bowl is a major undertaking in terms of planning, staffing, logistics, etc. But just how many people does CBS Sports have on site for Super Bowl XLIV? I cannot answer that question for you at the moment, but take a look at this shot of the crew from Super Bowl XLI in Miami and you might get a rough idea.

Twenty-five years is a long time for someone to be in one job these days, especially in an on-air position in network TV Sports. Yet, Jim Nantz (bio) is now in his 25th year at CBS Sports. It is hard to believe that I first met him that long ago as he gave me a ride in a golf cart at a PGA Tour event. It is funny how moments like that stick with you over time.

While Nantz probably has no memory of that, he does have a lot of memories over his 25 years at the network. He recently shared his Top 25 moments from those 25 years, which you can read in this slideshow, or in the text version that follows the show.

When CBS Sports pushes the switch to air "Super Bowl Today" this Sunday, viewers will get a lot off the fluff they might expect, like cooking the perfect tailgate food with The Food Network’s Guy Fieri, stories about New Orleans, and a return of Barack Obama to CBS Sports in the form of a Katie Curic interview.

Aside from all of this, perhaps the most compelling feature will be a prison interview with Super Bowl hero turned convict Plaxico Burress.

Football fans and regular television viewers can debate until the cows come home on if the introduction of new technology to football broadcasts is a good or bad thing. In the end it does not matter as it has been done in the past, will be done this weekend by CBS Sports, and will be done in the future.

The biggest change which all fans should like is the fact that the first down line painted on the field by SportsVision will be calibrated with five cameras.

Super Bowl logos have all shared one common element over the 44 years the game has been played: They have all had different degrees of ugliness and tackiness. There were occasionally a few good ones. So the NFL, after studying eight different design proposals, has unveiled the new standard logo that will be put into play next year with Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, TX..

Documenting the history of the National Football League (NFL) is what NFL Films does best. On Saturday, February 6, 2010, CBS Sports will be teaming up with NFL Films to present back-to-back specials. The first, airing at 2:00 PM ET, focuses on the 2009 NFL Follies. The second, airing at 3:00 PM ET, is a full-color history of the American Football League (AFL).

Last Saturday I wrote about SI.com's Stewart Mandel tweeting about President Obama and Vice-President Biden being at the Duke - Georgetown game in our nation's capital. We even posted a picture he took of the two.

Well in case you did not hear or see, President Obama also put on a headset and served as a guest analyst on CBS Sports' broadcast of the game. Here is a picture of Obama answering the call (well actually he was trying to make the call) in between Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg,

While the production team for NASCAR on Fox remain intact, there is one subtle but important change. The pre-race show has been rebranded "FOX NASCAR Sunday." According to a FOX spokesperson, this brings it in line with the "FOX NFL Sunday" brand.

And while there were major changes in the NFL on FOX production crews, with the demotion of A-Team director Artie Kempner, the NASCAR crew has been kept intact (i.e. Kempner is still the director). Here is the production and talent crew covering the 2010 NASCAR on FOX racing schedule.

People who dream of working in sports information departments at major universities, or in media relations for professional leagues, teams, or television networks share a common vision. That vision is that working in these jobs means they can share in the glory of the teams and the athletes. Unfortunately, they are missing out on a key point that might shatter their vision: sports information has absolutely nothing to do with sports, and very rarely to do with information.

This is a key lesson that was learned by Kyle Whelliston of The Mid-Majority, as he spent a night "playing" Assistant Sports Information Director at an IUPUI basketball game in December.

Here are the broadcast sporting event Nielsen Ratings for the week of January 18-24, 2010 (The most recent week posted by Nielsen in their media center). As would be expected, FOX and CBS took the top two positions with the NFC and AFC Championship Games. What is interesting is thast despite all the crys of soccer fans for more game broadcasts, NBC's Poker After Dark outdrew many of the games that were broadcast.

What is the plural of LEGO? LEGO. And why does it matter on the eve of a major snowstorm bearing down on Washington, DC? In the big picture of life, not much. But what Warren Elsmore, a colleague of mine across the pond, is doing with LEGO bricks and an open-source computer program blows me away, and shows that technology may not instill creativity, but it helps take innate creativity to new levels.

Media days at the Super Bowl are intense, fast-paced, and a place to see.be seen. In this picture, Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals is not kissing or trying to kiss Suzy Kolber of ESPN. No, he is being interviewed  by Kolber on Super Bowl XLIV Media Day. Or is he the one doing the interview?

Through our affiliation with Yardbarker, we are pleased to be able to start offering our readers a look at some pictures from around the sports media world. This first image is from the visit of ESPN Gameday to Manhattan, KS on Saturday, January 30, 2010.

Commercials. We hate them. We hate them until the Super Bowl that is. Then we love to watch them, laugh at them, call them stupid, and.or discuss them to death. In fact, Nielsen says that 51% of people who tune in for the Super Bowl only do so to watch the commercials.

Well if you have a hankering for the ads and cannot wait until this Sunday, Forbes Magazine has made this viewer available. Here you can watch all of the 2009 ads, and come 4th quarter on Sunday, watch the 2010 ads (and vote on them).

Enjoy!

Major League Baseball games on FOX Sports at night? Two of them? FOX surely is trying a new experiment by scheduling two night games in their 15th season of covering Major League baseball. And in a shocker, the NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies are on the scheduled a maximum nine times, one more than the New York Yankees!

Running and maintaining a web publication (or any web site for that matter) is in some ways like living in a bubble. Your friends and colleagues will always tell you they like the site (even if they do not). Visitors to your site that have problems/difficulties navigating and or using the site will generally not tell you. They will just leave, and not come back (as I have discussed in this white paper).

So when you get a blunt e-mail from a visitor, you have to leave your ego out of it and take what they say to heart. This e-mail forced me to rethink how I was using a customized template, and make some design changes that you might have noticed over the past two days.

Universal Sports has announced that they have entered into a multi-year agreement with the Boston Athletic Association for the exclusive broadcast and multimedia rights for the Boston Marathon.

Anchored by Al Trautwig, Universal Sports’ three-hour broadcast will kick-off at 9:30 a.m. ET on Monday, April 19, 2010. WBZ-TV will continue as the exclusive local broadcast partner for the Boston Marathon.

UniversalSports.com will start at 9:30 a.m. ET with live coverage of the complete race, along with athlete trackers, course maps, field previews, full-length videos, highlights, photos and recaps at UniversalSports.com.

Just because their is a small football game called the Super Bowl this coming weekend, it does not mean that all other sports are shutting down. Nor does it mean the other networks have nothing to offer. This Saturday afternoon and evening, FOX Sports will be kicking off their 2010 NASCAR schedule with qualifying from Daytona Saturday afternoon, and the Budweiser the same night.

Here is the NASCAR on FOX 2010 schedule, followed by the FOX Sports Press release.

While we are awaiting an official release of the 2010 ESPN Bracketbuster Matchups, information is starting to leak via Twitter. A live announcement of the 11 televised matchups will be made tonight at 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

We are still trying to find information on the 15 10 9 8 6 remaining non-televised BracketBuster games. Not all conferences have announced their match-ups yet, with the following outstanding:

America East
Big West
Mountain West Conference
Southern Conference
Mid-American Conference
Missouri Valley Conference

and a couple of others.

We will update here as information becomes available.

In 1956, CBS Sports began coverage of the National Football League. This Sunday (February 7, 2010), the network will be televising Super Bowl XLIV from Miami, their 17th Super Bowl broadcast. This slideshow looks at the 17 Super Bowl games covered by CBS Sports, and other things that happened in the world around the time of the games