Also completely misinterpreted the original assignment. Don’t want to write about #LochMess so shifting gears to you guessed it…..multisport athletes. Specifically, the tendency of multisport athletes to end up in their sport later in life than say, a basketball player. Additionally, how we are beginning to see a slight shift coming from the younger generation.

Recent Olympic triathletes are great examples. Of the five athletes to represent the U.S. at the Games, only one, Ben Kanute, grew up in triathlon. The rest found their way to the sport post-college.

Story 1: Gwen Jorgensen.

Story 2: Ben Kanute

Story 3: Specialization

Story 4: Sarah True

Story 5: Not a story, but a good enough source.

Questions for late bloomer athletes:

What led you to multisport?
Did you specialize in one sport through college?
Do you see more success in multisport or in your individual sport?
What has your physical health been like since taking up multisport?
How often do you deal with injury?
Why do you think younger generations are straying away from multisport?
What are the pros and cons of specialization at a young age?

Contracts

I’m not quite sure this is what I want to do my personal story on, but this process has helped to specify what it would look like. I’m interested to see how sports apparel contracts influence the school, but more so development of how a school performs after a large contract. In some instances, large apparel contracts and television contracts still don’t produce results, such as Texas, but in other instances, schools grow after a contract.

Story 1: Texas apparel contract background

Story 2: UCLA, this may be too recent to find trends off of but it’s something to take into consideration of largest contracts to date. This article also helps with this background.

Story 3: This one is more of a database of what contracts at the time were and what athletes got, super interesting to play around with but would be helpful in narrowing down and comparing school to school or conference to conference.

Story 4: Similarly, this article lays out contract of the time and when they lasted until.

Story 5: Biz Journal did an in depth look at just how much goes into a contract. It’s more than just clothes. Tickets, internships, and other benefits are laid out in apparel contracts.

Questions:

How does conference to conference success differ based on size of contract?
Does the negotiation of a contract come after there is success or is it a contributing factor of success
What are the other benefits than just clothes that come for a contract? How are these benefits justified?
How do apparel companies put a direct value on just how much a school is worth? Or how much they can be worth?
With football and basketball being the main drivers of income, how do colleges divide contract?

FBS Scheduling Practices Information

Looking at the college football schedule issues I discussed, there are three categories of questions I would have.

The first is questions on the FBS side, like how long these games have been going on and if they are more frequent now than ever before. The second question would be on the FCS side and would concern how valuable the money from these games is and if there is a trickle-down effect to Division II teams. The third category would be about the finances in general, such as if the money they give to teams is worthwhile in the end as well as how many times FCS teams have defeated FBS squads.

One story I found from the Savannah Morning News in 2012 was titled “SSU Reaps Rewards of Moneyball Matchups.” The story discusses FCS program Savannah State, which infamously scheduled games against Oklahoma State and Florida State for the sake of making money. It features interesting quotes from the school’s athletic director, who was quite surprised that the Tigers got so much attention. Unfortunately, I could not find an online version of the story, only the PDF I was able to download.

I also took interest in a 2014 story from the Miami Herald’s Jacob Feldman titled “Money and the College Football Landscape – Checkbooks and Balances.” This story reached out past just one single FCS school, instead looking at several different programs that have taken on these kinds of games. It also detailed the scheduling practices of Miami at the time.

On the odd non-conference games featuring conference games, there’s the store from The Herald-Sun’s Steve Wiseman “Duke wants to follow UNC, Wake Forest on football games.” The story details the information behind the deal between North Carolina and Wake Forest as well as the fact that Duke likes the precedent these two schools have created.

In the area of pro-FCS teams, The Daily Commercial’s Eric Olson had a story three years ago that discussed how the Big Ten would not penalize teams for still playing FCS schools. Along with quotes from commissioner Jim Delaney about his thoughts on playing FCS teams are really good quotes from coaches on the games, specifically then-Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen, who was once the head coach at Southern Utah.

Another good story with a coach’s perspective was The Palm Beach Post’s titled “Fisher not looking down on FCS teams” from last November. This article focused on the thoughts of Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who has been one of the activists for playing FCS teams. Considering his background as a former FCS quarterback, it’s interesting to see his opinions on the matter and how he’s determined to push for others to see the points he’s making.

My questions would be:

Is there a true trickle-down effect from FBS to Division II football programs?
How much would FCS teams who normally schedule FBS opponents suffer financially if not for these games?
Is playing FCS — or Division I-AA as they were once known — more prevalent today than ever before?
What is the average difference financially for FBS programs to schedule another FBS team rather than an FCS team?
What is the outlook of the four College Football Playoff teams from last year in regards to playing FCS programs?

5 stories

I don’t want to write about Ryan Lochte, but what I’m considering for my personal story is Cobb County and the Atlanta Braves.

The Braves’ dealings with Cobb County have been well-documented, especially by Deadspin, who has been very critical of the move. I shared stories from them as well as from the AJC, who presented the more investigatory approach.

Questions:

Did the franchise truly have no regard for the county and its businesses?

Who was hired in the development process to do research about where the new stadium should be placed?

Who are behind the local businesses that the Braves took the parking away from?

Who were the power brokers in this process?

Why weren’t citizens allowed to give more input than they were?

What culpability do local politicians have in this process? Was there ever a time they fought back?

What is the economic value of the parking the Braves are claiming as their own?

How much fluidity was the plan between moving from Turner Field and Georgia State moving in? Did this affect the move or was it a cause and effect? Is there any causation?

Story Questions

When looking the Last 2 Minute reports, some questions that could drive the reports are:

How accurate are refs on a given night?
Does any other professional sports league reveal this type of information?
Will Commissioner Adam Silver continue to release the reportS?
What will the NBRA (National Basketball Referee Association) do if the NBA doesn’t meet their demandS?
How do coaches and players feel about the reporting?

This story on NBA.com show the NBRA’s reaction the reports after the season. The union wants the NBA officials to at least make reforms to the process if they won’t abolish it.

Here the NBA defended the referee’s after a two controversial calls after two different playoff games. The article even gives a few statistics about how accurate referee’s are (which is about 90% of the time).

Charles Barkley shared his opinion about the L2M report, saying its one of the stupidest thing the NBA has done. Barkley point out how slow motion replays make the refs job easier but they also make them more prone to scrutiny when they miss a call.

This column in The Washington Times goes in depth on how the L2M reports undercut the referee’s jobs. The article says the practice is pointless because we already know that mistakes happen, that refs make bad calls and miss good ones throughout each game, not just at the end.

The referees missed five calls in the last 13 seconds of a NBA Playoff game decided by one basket, but this article says the refs are not to blame. It points how the whole game is just as important as the last two minutes.

5 Stories on International Athletes

I was interested in doing a story about athletes from foreign countries and how the handle the transition and the culture barriers. I wanted to do a story of a subject that isn’t widely discussed, but one that I would be able to have an ample amount of sources. UGA has plenty of athletes from foreign countries and I’m hoping I can find some high athletes as well. I’m not yet sure whether I want to focus the story on high school students, college students or both.

One story I found on the topic was about the amateur eligibility of foreign athletes and basically just describing the policy and process.

http://www.athleticscholarships.net/amateurforeign.htm

Another I found was more about what I’m focusing on, titled Foreign Athletes Face Unique Challenges. The author explains the transition process and uses international student athletes at USC (Trojans) as sources.

One of the most interesting one was posted on Runner’s World, titled NCAA’s Fear of Foreign Athletes. The sub head says, Should college teams be reserved for local runners? This is what initially caught my attention. The article goes into Oklahoma State’s cross country team who won the national title in 2012, but has a roster consisting of many foreign athletes. Many debated that it was unfair and advocates have pulled in the favor of only local runners.

Another story I found was published by the Athens banner Herald titled, International athletes seek NCAA for development, better competition. This article acknowledged many coaches and American athletes’ opinions that international athletes have hindered competition especially in sports like track and field. The article also countered these arguments with the foreign athlete’s views and how they feel like they face their stiffest competition.

And final, I found a PDF packet, about the recruitment process of international student athletes titled U.S. College Athletics: International Student Athletes Recruiting Process. It’s a theses and dissertations written by the University of South Carolina Scholar Commons. I didn’t read the entire 72 pages, but I skimmed through and read some passages and it has a lot of great information that I can use for this individual process. It also contains a lot of helpful statistics and NCAA policy.

The questions I would ask about this topic would include:

When did you start considering coming to the states to continue your athletic career?

Could you explain how the transition was, how were you feeling?

In your opinion, how is the culture different here?

Does your coach train you differently than your coach back home? How so?

Are there any other (ethnicity) students on that you interact with or confide in on campus?

Does the language barrier make competing more difficult for you?

What are some things you miss most about home?

Do you feel like UGA does a good job making international students feel welcomed and at home?

Did you take any visits to other schools in the U.S.? What made you choose UGA?

Do you see yourself staying here after graduation?

Refugees in Clarkston, Fugees Family background reading

I’m hoping to look into refugee resettlement, particularly in Clarkson, Georgia. Through that I want to explore how sports play a role in the lives of refugee children. I also want to see how being on a team like Fugees Family affects the lives of the players, parents and coaches. In addition, I want to do broad research about the city of Clarkston, how it became a refugee town and what it is like to be apart of that community.

I first started my story search with the broad topic by looking for articles about refugees in Clarkson without the sports component. I found this story about a Syrian family that was part of the first group of Syrian refugees to come to Georgia. It also said that “Gov. Nathan Deal has vowed to block other Syrian refugees from coming into the state,” which is important background. About 3,000 refugees move to Clarkson a year, but widespread acceptance across Georgia isn’t typical. I then read this article that details that “Georgia cannot exclude Syrian refugees from resettlement in the state or deny them federally funded benefits,” as attorney general Sam Olens wrote in an official opinion last year. Some of the fear of refugee resettlement stems from acts of terrorism around the world. In 2016, Deal withdrew the order stopping Syrian refugees from resettling in Georgia.

I found this article about Luma Mufleh, who is the founder of Fugees Family. Mufleh spoke at a high school in Virginia and she explained some of the roots of Fugees Family. She grew up in a wealthy family in Jordan and said, “Everything I wanted was handed to me.” Similarly, this is a story written when Mufleh spoke at Illinois Wesleyan University. When she saw kids playing soccer in Clarkston without shoes, she felt motivated to begin a program that could help.

Looking on a worldwide scope, I read this story about refugee athletes competing in the 2016 Olympics. A year prior, IOC president Thomas Bach said at the UN General Assembly that “these refugee athletes will be welcomed to the Olympic Games.”

Age Regs Background

So, I’m not sure that I want to dedicate my personal story to this topic, but I have always found it really interesting. That being said, here are some stories I’ve found on the topic.

This story, written in 2014 shortly before the Kentucky Wildcats played for the national championship, laments the “one and done” rule since all five freshmen expected to start for UK were expected to leave for the NBA. This journalist believes the regulations exploit athletes during college and then deprive them of an education.

I also found this opinion piece, which makes an interesting point. Most people know the names and legacies of Coach K, John Calipari, Tom Izzo, etc. but would be hard-pressed to name a player on their current roster, because nearly the entire roster changes from year to year. The writer also believes that the quality of college basketball has deteriorated since the rule was implemented in 2006.

In this story, the journalist suggests the NBA adopt a new draft eligibility policy similar to the NFL’s policy. Under this new rule, basketball players would not be eligible for the draft until three years after their high school graduation, perhaps extending their time in college.

In terms of football, the plight of age regulations is not so severe. However, many players choose to leave school early and enter the NFL draft. As this story points out, 37 percent of players who leave early are not picked in the first seven rounds, jeopardizing their chances at making a roster and a living in football.

Finally, this article discusses Nick Saban’s view on his players declaring for the draft before graduation. Saban generally supports his players that receive first- or second-round looks, but tells the others they should wait it out. He also brings in speakers to caution his players on the woes of short NFL careers with no college degree.

If I were to write on this topic, I think my main driving questions would be:

Does leaving early for the draft (NBA or NFL) increase a player’s profitability or span of his career?

What percentage of professional players have college degrees?

If basketball players were allowed to enter the draft right after high school, how many would actually be ready for NBA play?

What is the average length of a pro career in each of these leagues?

What do retired professional athletes typically do for a living after playing?

Would staying in college longer and/or graduating typically hurt a player’s chances to be drafted?

5 Stories

So I completely misinterpreted the first assignment. I do not want to report on Ryan Lochte. I just found that how the story was covered was surprising.

What I want to write about is lacrosse and how it has slowly spread down the east coast over the last few years.

Here’s an article from the AJC back in 2011 talking about how lacrosse was starting to spread across the Metro Atlanta area.

Last year, in 2015, lacrosse debuted in northwest Georgia in Dalton at Dalton Parks and Recreation.

Another article from 2011 talks about setting up lacrosse programs in high schools in Richmond County.

This article from 2011 as well talks about Curt Gary. The man who brought lacrosse to Augusta.

Finally, there was a piece back in 2012 on Lakeside’s Abby Harrover.

My initial questions would be as follows

When and where was lacrosse first introduced to Georgia?
What level was it introduced at?
Has it seen significant growth?
How many middle and high schools in the state have programs?
How many club or rec teams are there in the state?
Is the sport concentrated in certain areas of the state?
Do players get signed to play at colleges?
Do they stay in-state or go out of state?
Is there a “powerhouse” program?

I think those questions are a good place to start and then I would probably interview club players and high school players.