Staccato - It's a Series

After having done it a couple of times before, I'm officially declaring Staccato - a number of short notes from around the sports and marching/athletic music realms - an 80 Minutes of Regulation series.

I've actually been out of town for the better part of a week, vacationing in Kentucky (including a couple of days spent in the home of the toothed birds). I did a few sports-related things (Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, Churchill Downs and Kentucky Derby Museum) and sports-adjacent (does bourbon count as a sports-adjacent?) things while I was there, but I share this mostly to point out that due to my absence, some of the topics may not be the freshest, as I made note of them before I left.

-The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, which has been spread between CBS and Turner networks, has announced that the semifinal games will be on TBS, making the championship game the sole Final Four matchup on network television.
-Following a brief stint paired with the Southwestern Regional in San Antonio, DCI's Individual and Ensemble competition will return to championship weekend in Indianapolis.
-Chances are pretty good that the highest paid public employee in your state is a football or basketball coach.
-There's discussion once again on whether or not the Washington Redskins will ever change their racist name. The word from owner Dan Snyder? Never - You can use caps.
-In news that surprises no one after the crumbling of the Big East, the ACC has its sights set on Madison Square Garden for the men's hoops tournament.
-Memorial Day weekend action is set: Denver, Duke, Cornell, and Syracuse advance to the men's Division I lacrosse Final Four.
-The Bobcats have begun the process to bring the Hornets name back to Charlotte.

-And last but certainly not least: Since we ditched cable a month and a half ago, one of the things I've been missing is regular sports coverage, a la SportsCenter. With YouTube as my primary go-to, I've been curating sports (and, because it's me, marching/athletic music, though that's thin at this time of year) news every few days into "shows" I can watch with stuff that interests me. A great side effect is that I'm getting content from not just ESPN, but also Fox, CBS, SBNation, and a host of other sources. With that in mind, would anyone be interested in me sharing the shows I put together? I'm glad to; it you want them, just say the word!

SoCon, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye...

The Southern Conference has lost better teams than you ever had, son. We've seen the Big East hemorrhage teams during the latest rounds of conference realignment, but it pales in comparison to the SoCon's history.

As the name suggests, the SoCon has at one point or another been home to just about every school of note south of the Mason-Dixon and east of the Mississippi. The conference spawned both the ACC and the SEC, but as of late has been a mid-major, one-bid league that is finding itself on the bottom rung of the realignment pecking order.

Now Davidson, collegiate home of NBA star Stephen Curry and two-time reigning conference basketball champ, is the next to get called up to the big leagues, leaving the conference for the Atlantic-10. Davidson will just miss the opportunity for a great conference rivalry with Charlotte, who will depart the same year for Conference USA. Davidson's departure further compounds an already rough realignment season for the SoCon, which also recently learned of the loss of Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, and College of Charleston.

The SoCon is left with just eight teams, and only seven playing football in the conference - an interesting wrinkle is that UNCG is the only remaining conference school that doesn't field football. There has been speculation about who may be the newest conference members: East Tennessee State and VMI, both former conference members, have been the names I've heard the most. While there may be other possibilities, SoCon is relatively low in the hierarchy, so they'll have to make quite a case as to why they are an advantageous move for teams in other D-I conferences.

Despite beliefs to the contrary, the realignment wheel continues to roll.

Staccato Notes :||

Once is a post, twice is a reprise, and if I do it three times, it's a series, right? After the last Staccato Notes, I felt it was a good way for quick delivery on a few topics, so here it is again.

-At the top of the sports news cycle this week, Jason Collins, currently an NBA free agent, came out on his own terms to Sports Illustrated, becoming the first active openly gay athlete in one of the four major American sports.
-This is so far-flung that I can't link to anything more credible than a tweet, but the latest realignment rumor mill has USF and Central Florida to the Big 12. Right. And if I entertain it for half a second, I find myself a little conflicted. Moving back into a power conference should be a no-brainer, but there's something to be said for USF regularly appearing in NC, PA, and MD as a member of the American.
-Marching Roundtable spoke with representatives at DCI about the new initiatives SoundSport and Drumline Battle. It was evident both that they're probably on the verge of something cool and that they're making it up as the go along.

-The ACC's looking at taking the gridiron game across the pond. You know, because London's been clamoring for that Georgia Tech-Wake Forest matchup.
-The new stadium in Atlanta, affectionately nicknamed the Stankonia Dome by SBNation's resident ATLiens, is taking shape through concept designs.
-By the time I post this, my own UMBC Retrievers will be facing off against conference-leading Albany for the America East crown and the NCAA Tournament bid up at Stony Brook.
-The Kentucky Derby has a black jockey for the first time in 12 years, and Harlem is celebrating.
-The SEC has released some of the details surrounding their network, and its 100% ESPN ownership is giving Big Ten and Pac-12 fans something at which to look down their nose.

-And last but far, FAR from least: Yale women's lacrosse has selected its team captain for 2013-14. It's my cousin. Congratulations, Adrienne!

A D-League of our Own

The state of Delaware once again has a professional basketball team, this time competing at its highest ever level as a member of the NBA's D-League. The team, a D-League affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers, will play its games at University of Delaware's Bob Carpenter Center. Its name? The 87ers.

OK, it could've been worse. We could've gone with the Ratifiers or the Tax-Free Shoppers. It's not as though I don't get the rationale. Delaware ratified the Constitution in 1787, making it the First State. But here's the thing. 1787 isn't unique to Delaware, as both Pennsylvania and New Jersey would also ratify before the year was out. What's more, while the team is a Sixers affiliate, 87ers just sounds like it's trying too hard, especially for a state that constantly lives in the shadow of Philadelphia.

I don't know who they asked, but they didn't ask me. I've been making up names for faux Delaware pro teams nearly all my life. Here's some of those, plus some others that I came up with out of the blue, that I'd offer as alternatives to 87ers.

• If you want to keep it colonial, you could do just that with the Delaware Colonials, sporting, naturally, the colonial blue of the state flag. You could celebrate our First State heritage simply, as the First Staters, or perhaps as the Pioneers. Or you could commemorate Caesar Rodney's historic ride, immortalized in Rodney Square and on our state quarter (not to mention of direct relation to the 76ers) with the Riders. 
• Want to go geographical? You could invoke the river as the River Runners (or Otters, or Boaters, but I think that's my favorite) or if you want to get a little more cerebral (read: nerdy) you could invoke some of the features that make up our borders: the Liners for the Mason-Dixon Line, or the 12 Milers for the 12 Mile Circle. 
• How about Delaware features and attractions? The Racers could reference either horse racing at Delaware Park or auto racing at Dover International Speedway (another source went with the Monsters for the Monster Mile). The Airmen, long suggested as an alternative for the team in Charlotte owned by His Airness, would work here, given the prominence of Dover Air Force Base (and sadly, its morgue). Horseshoes could be an intentional double entendre both for the aforementioned horse racing and the horseshoe crabs that call the Delaware's brackish tidewater home. The Bridgemen (or Bridgers, if you'd rather) would reference another key feature, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, while doubling to reference the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, the only Revolutionary War battle fought on Delaware soil and the first time the stars and stripes were flown in combat.
• Want to reference the duPont legacy? Everything else in the state does. If you're one for collective team names, you could go with the Kevlar or the Gunpowder, though I understand why those may not be options in the current climate
• Historically, you could use another nickname with the Diamonds or Diamondcutters, as Thomas Jefferson referred to Delaware as the Diamond State 

But my personal favorite? The Crossovers. Granted, it takes a slight historic inaccuracy to see the reasoning, but bear with me here. One of the primary historical references with Delaware in it is the General Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, though he crossed between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Beyond that, the D-League is not above using basketball terms to name their teams (looking at you, Los Angeles D-Fenders). But perhaps most poignantly - and this may seem Stannish - the name invokes one of the players known best for his crossover, Allen Iverson. Iverson played for the parent franchise, and like the state of Delaware is small in stature but of great value. 

No Television Contract

As I type this, I'm over three weeks removed from having cable. After much hemming and hawing, most admittedly on my part, my wife and I made the decision to get rid of cable. It's functionality has largely been replaced by AppleTV and over-the-air TV via an antenna. I'm loving it - in fact, the HD actually looks better on AppleTV and via antenna - but the biggest void is sports.

Ever wonder why sports contracts are so lucrative? For one, they've got the power to keep schmucks like me shackled to the cable company for longer than need be. While there have never been more methods to watch sports on devices other than your TV, most of them are still predicated upon subscribing to cable, like WatchESPN's offerings. Others, like the MLB and NBA apps for AppleTV and other devices, in addition to requiring a pricey subscription, also follow local blackout rules, meaning that you still won't see your local team (and don't forget MLB has a rather liberal definition of "local team"). The message is clear: In the eyes of the providers, other avenues are there to enhance, not replace, and the leagues and cable companies are still intimate.

Losing cable won't keep me from watching, but it will certainly change the way I watch. The most salient effect is the loss of everything on the ESPN family of networks. I thought I could stave off that hunger until college football rolled around, until I realized that once March Madness is over, emphasis on ESPNU is shifted to college lacrosse, which I can no longer watch. Barring that, however, my next biggest hurdle comes when college football season rolls around.

Given that The American Athletic Conference (née Big East) no longer enjoys major conference status, televised games of my dear alma mater will be harder to come by anyway, so perhaps this was the best time to make the move. My Saturdays will change, but not too drastically. As long as it doesn't move to the new Fox Sports 1, I'll be one of the relatively few folks starting my day with Fox's college sports pregame show instead of College Gameday. I'll stick to major network programming, which for me will mean SEC on CBS, Notre Dame on NBC (and ND's halftime on NBCsports.com), the big game each week on ABC, and ACC coverage available on local TV. Fox will also be the source of my late day fix with their 7pm-ish studio show.

As for the pros, I'm used to missing the Eagles, living in NC. Barring that restriction, it looks like there are only two Eagles games I'll miss due to not having cable, one Monday night game on ESPN and one Thursday night game on NFL Network, so the landscape there doesn't change for me too much.

So here we are. I've gotten the Time Warner Cable monkey off my back (mostly; they still provide my internet) and I've still got plenty to choose from. And when the time comes that I need to catch something, I'm sure the local sports bar will be glad to have me.

Staccato Notes

There's a longer post coming soon, but with a few pieces of interesting news, I figured I'd give you a few short notes.

-The ACC presidents have signed a grant of rights that will keep the conference together and in the belief of many stop realignment for the time being, or at least until someone decides they want to snag a school from the American.
-I think rumors of halted realignment are greatly exaggerated. We're still not too far removed from  Appalachian State and Georgia Southern joining the Sun Belt, or rumors of Davidson to the A-10, which would further rock the Southern Conference, perhaps the only conference that's historically been more gutted than the Big East.
-The College Football Playoff has a name! It's... the College Football Playoff. In addition to its eponymity, it's actually a bit insulting to the two other divisions and one other Division I subdivision, which, you know, have had a college football playoff for some time now.
-Speaking of the playoff, Brett "Sources" McMurphy has stated that Cowboys Stadium as the site of the first championship game is official and will be announced tomorrow.
-The ACC has released its 2013-14 basketball schedule. As some had postulated, College Park won't host Duke or UNC in its final year in the ACC as punishment for bailing. This means that Duke's last trip to College Park ended in a victory for the good guys.
-Speaking of the Rough Draft, their game vs. UMBC got postponed earlier this year due to weather. There are no signs it's being rescheduled.
-Major League Lacrosse will be airing 15 games live via their YouTube channel this season. Further detail on its significance in a later post.
-WGI has ended its season, crowning both its guard and percussion champions.
-And finally: Who knew I hailed from a pair of cricket powerhouses? UMBC bested USF in the college cricket national championship.

For Boston

In times of tragedy, we sometimes look for ways to shorthand our support; a quick, easily identifiable symbol to let those affected know that we stand with you. Often, this comes in the form of sports logos. After all, in many cases, this is the primary point of connection with a city with which one may not otherwise identify. Further, because sports tend to be something about which many are passionate, it can be particularly poignant when fans can lay aside a rivalry in support of a greater cause, as the Yankees have done tonight.

While baseball's continued status as our national pastime can be questioned, its logos are undoubtedly still the go-to for such displays. After all, more than any other league, most of MLB's logos incorporate the location's primary letter, meaning they often transcend just the team and become a symbol of the city. In the time following 9/11, the Yankees' interlocking NY became synonymous with support for New York, and in the aftermath of yesterday's bombing, the Red Sox' iconic B has taken on that role. Indeed, it was second nature to reach for my Red Sox cap when leaving my house this morning.

Still, in the face of the recent tragedy, I'd submit the logo of the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps. The Crusaders incorporate a rampant lion, a heraldic symbol signifying strength, valor, and bravery. In these tough times, it is precisely what the people of Boston, and indeed, all of us, are displaying.

The American Way

Sam Eagle, our conference mascot.

The remaining football faction of the splintered Big East announced today that it will rebrand itself as the American Athletic Conference.

Make no mistake, no matter what name had come forth, the Twitterverse would've been prepared to clown it. I can't pretend I didn't get my shots in. But in all honesty, it's a solid choice. It's safe, simple, and self-evident. It doesn't write any checks the future can't cash; there's no geography (save for simply America, and I'm reasonably certain the conference can keep its membership in the confines of two continents), no numbers, and it doesn't even get into self-aggrandizement with "big". It might as well be called the Conference Conference. The conference has already stated that their preferred branding will be The American, not the AAC (despite the pleas for #AACtion), meaning that All-Conference players will automatically become All-Americans.

The comparisons will - and have - come to Conference USA. It's actually fitting; most of the conference membership spent time there. As the new conference rises from the ashes, it's not quite  as big, it's not quite east, but it's All American.

Big East (1979-2013)

I never thought I'd find myself eulogizing the Big East Conference. While I've spoken plenty of its demise, I've got no right to speak at its funeral. After all, I'm an alumnus of one of the football Johnny-come-lately schools, a school which, other than a spark in the 2011-2012 season, has absolutely no birthright to the rich tradition that is Big East basketball. Perhaps that's precisely why I saw what I saw, and why I feel compelled to write this.

The championship game of the final Big-East-as-we-know-it Tournament provided a perfect allegory for the downfall of a once great conference.

Syracuse and Louisville arrived at the same point by two very different means, in more ways than one. Syracuse was an architect of the grand experiment that became the Big East Conference in 1979; Louisville joined during its last expansion in 2005, a last-ditch effort to save the conference after Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College were poached by the ACC. Both are now ACC bound; Syracuse was an addition as the conference decided to expand to 14 (now 15) schools; Louisville was added to replace the University of Maryland-College Park after it announced its departure for the Big Ten.

1 Timothy 6:10 is often misquoted. "Money is the root of all evil," quote many, but in full, the love of money is the root of all evil. Likewise, some will claim that football killed the nation's greatest basketball conference, but it was the love of football, its ever growing contracts, endless paper chase, and the realignment that was precipitated by it all, that killed the Big East.

As the conference swansong began, it seemed that a night in which all things Big East basketball were celebrated would be a coronation of the old guard. Syracuse dominated the first half, entering the locker room with a 35-22 lead and leading by as many as 16 in the second half. But when Louisville awakened, it took a lead off of a 24-3 run and never looked back. From that point on, it was all Cardinals, leaving those watching to wonder what they had just witnessed as the final seconds ticked away from the Big East Conference.

There's something perversely poetic about the end of the Big East Conference coming as a conference newcomer takes down an original member. Louisville is the conference's current football champion (to be fair, so is Syracuse, in a four-way tie that further highlights the absurdity of Big East football of late, but Louisville was the BCS representative) and was a member of Conference USA just eight years ago. The two will part ways for just a season, as Syracuse heads to the ACC and Louisville plays one year in the yet-to-be-named conference containing the remaining Big East football schools and additions, before being reunited when Louisville joins the ACC in 2014.

The Big East isn't dead, some may say. Indeed, a Big East tournament will play a year from now, in Madison Square Garden. But the Big East, as long recognized and celebrated, has died. It may have died tonight. It may have died back in 2005 and it's just been Sixth Sensing it ever since, because we all wanted to believe. But after this season, the founders will be scattered to the four winds. Boston College has been gone for nearly a decade. Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, and Seton Hall will carry the name into the new conference, with Villanova and newcomers Marquette and DePaul. Syracuse, much to the annoyance of head coach Jim Boeheim, will play its next conference tournament in Greensboro, NC, and Louisville will spend a year in limbo before joining their foes from tonight in the Gate City. No one extant entity will lay a legitimate claim to the history of the Big East, but it is possible the conference's entire story was told tonight in 40 minutes.

Protect Ya 'Neck'

Nearly a year ago, when Norfolk State beat Missouri to become just the fifth 15-seed to ever upset a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament, their pep band didn't pull up the fight song. They didn't pull up Behold. They played Neck.

Neck - the colloquial abbreviation for Talking Out the Side of Your Neck by Cameo - has long been an HBCU band staple, and the example above points out just how ingrained it is in the culture of those bands. Lately, you're just as likely to hear Neck at a sporting event, HBCU and PWI alike, as you are to hear Land of A Thousand Dances or the Hey Song. In one session of the ACC Tournament this week, two of the four bands in the session played it, and many more have it in the books. Some in the HBCU band world and beyond have cried foul.

I'm of two minds on the subject, and while I realize I don't have the ownership of the song that comes from having played at an HBCU, I cannot begrudge those group's that feeling. When I first heard it coming off the horns of LSU, one of the first predominantly white bands, to my knowledge, to begin playing Neck, I quipped something about them sneaking across town under cover of darkness to watch Southern University practice. Many noticing would say that this is just one more thing being appropriated from black culture.

The counterpoint is that music is music, and of course PWI bands have just as much right to play the song as HBCUs. After all, it's silly to dictate who can play what song, especially if that divide comes along cultural or racial lines. Besides, all sorts of athletic bands have been playing jazz, funk, R&B and hip-hop charts for decades. What makes this song so special?

I think it represents an evolution in the activity, and part of it I'd attribute to the Drumline Effect. I was brought up as a musician being taught that music is there to thrill an audience, and Neck certainly does exactly that. Any HBCU bandhead will likely tell you that they put the most exciting product on the field and in the stands. Then, isn't it worthy of emulation? Isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

On the other hand - and I'll admit I'm not sure the best way to do this - it wouldn't kill PWIs who have picked up the tune to acknowledge its roots. The song rose to prominence off of the horns and drums of HBCUs, and that mention ought to go part and parcel with playing the song. Give credit where credit is due.

Otherwise, you're talkin' out the side of your neck.