Block party

As I've said many times before women sports do not get enough recognition. This time of the year although there are two NCAA championship basketball tournaments only one is religiously followed. Lucky for the womens tournament many fans are no longer interested in watching the men due to the large number of upsets this year. The average fan doesn't know who butler is and hates Duke. So this is the womens time to shine. Thanks to a young lady named Brittney Griner who plays center for Baylor people are beginning to talk. The 6ft 8in freshman phenom has put up monster numbers this tournament forcing the sports world to notice. She has 36 blocks through 4 games and is practically averaging a triple double in points, rebounds, and blocks. Watching five minutes of Baylor's elite game against Duke I couldn't help but be entertained. Anytime a Duke player went into the paint their shot was altered or rejected by Griner. This is exactly what the NCAA women tourney needed star power. Accompany that with Uconn's win streak and viewer ratings could go up any maybe even compete with the mens tournament this March.

Mad month of march

As we all have waited the past 11 months the time has finally come. The most sacred and exciting sporting event on the planet. Everyone gets involved when it comes to the mens college basketball championships. But the excitement is in fillingout the brackets, attempting to be perfect or at least be better than your friends. The tv ratings for the NCAA on cbs are rediculous every year because everyone wants to see drama, a cinderella story unfold. But is this really true? It happens year end and year out, some little team from nowhere beats a powerhouse and we fall in love with them. Usually its one team, not this year the little guys are knocking out all the heavy favorites. In only 3 days kansas, georgetown, and villanovas championship hopes have ended(to name a few). 56% of america picked Kansas to win it all, them no longer playing could cause many people to lose interest in the rest of the tournament and not really want to watch anymore. So we must be careful what we wish for. We want the drama of a cinderella story, but maybe not so much when they knock out everyones favorite team.

He's a smart man...

Ochocinco may be highly critisized for his behavior but he does it all for a purpose. From changing his name from Chad Johnson to "Ochocinco" he created a buzz around the entire sports nation. He taunts, talks trash to opponents and just about invented the idea of a touchdown celebration. Beyond his stellar performances as an NFL athlete Ocho always knows how to continue to build a cult like following. In this recent era of the internet and social media (twitter,blogs,facebook...etc), he has been a leader, being one of the first stars to actively use twitter his fans an upclose look into his everyday life. From his twitter account he has created his own reality show that fans and followers can watch daily. And apparently that isn't enough, according to espn radio Ochocinco plans on starting a second web show for our viewing pleasure as early as next week. This man is brillant, other than Terrell Owens Ochocinco might be the most critisized, followed and fined by the NFL and sports media but in the end its all just him building his brand that many of us love. I'm sure his new show will be interesting and exciting and only continue to set him apart from his athletic peers in the wide world of sports.

Its all about the money...

If you didn't already know, the uconn women's basketball team just might be the most dominant program of all time, in any sport and in any division. They just won their 70th straight game only to tie a record that was just set by themselves a few years back. That is just rediculous, but whats more rediculous is the lack of their tv coverage. We all know womens basketball isn't the hottest commodity but this doesn't mean they don't deserve recognition. The problem is sports even in college is a business, and womens basketball (in many peoples eyes) is like watching the minor league game compared to the pro game. Its nots fair but not many consumers follow womens basketball which in turn means theres not much profit to be made by networks who air their games. I'm not sure how but this needs to change, marketers behind ncaa womens basketball need to develop a plan to increase their following. Once this is done (which I'm not sure can be done), then maybe a team (uconn) won't have to win 70 games in a row for a 30sec blip and highlight on sportscenter. but they may even earn more coverage of their games.

Olympic Marketers Happy

This past Sunday it seemed every household in America was watching the gold medal hockey game (reportedly more than 1 million homes). The winter Olympics haven't quite got the hype they've had in previous years. We can all agree from an American perspective, other than the hockey portion no one really cares. In recent years we haven't been very good in the hockey tournament. But this year that changed, after beating Canada in early rounds of the winter Olympics Americans all of a sudden began to believe again. From a marketing and advertising standpoint this was perfect. Because the gold medal game came down to the Americas biggest rivalry Canada. With those expected TV ratings, which were met, advertisers had the opportunity to capitalize on an event the USA team typically wasn't in. Better yet an event majority of Americans wouldn't even watch. So millions of hockey fans around America mourn over the loss, but I'm sure the media world was very appreciative for the opportunity.