The Serie A strike ended Monday after the Italian players' association and league signed a temporary collective contract, clearing the way for the season to start this weekend.
The new contract expires in June, whereas usually the deals last three years.
The players' strike postponed the scheduled start of Serie A the weekend of Aug. 27-28, and both sides wanted to reach an agreement before the second round begins Friday with defending champion AC Milan facing Lazio at the San Siro.
Breaking Down the Slow Death of Notre Dame Football
By TheXLogGoing into Week 1 of the College Football season I found myself wondering, "What year do the people who placed Notre Dame 16th in the preseason rankings think this is?" After losing their opener 20-23 to South Florida, I would still like to know, "What year did the people who placed Notre Dame 16th in the preseason rankings think this was?"
Notre Dame has the most consensus national championships (11 or 13, depending on how many you recognize) and has produced more All-Americans than any other school. Additionally, seven Fighting Irish football players have won the Heisman Trophy. None of those legendary players or coaches are associated with this year's team however and there haven't been any associated with the program for quite some time. In fact, I'm quite certain that the janitor that befriended Rudy isn't there any longer either.
Notre Dame suffers from what I like to call the "ESPN effect". The way I see it is that ESPN is solely responsible for taking down the Notre Dame Football Empire. No it doesn't have anything to do with the Irish's national TV contract which they renewed with NBC in 2008 through the year 2015 (I bet NBC would like to rethink that one), it has to do with the fact that no longer do the best players in America feel compelled to go to the very best football programs in the nation to get the recognition to take them to the next level. NFL caliber players can now go to a Division 1 college that has a football team near where they live (it can be just about anywhere) and play on an ESPN televised game almost every weekend.
Be honest, if you don't live in the South West or don't root for a team in the Big 12, how many of you out there reading this even knew where Baylor University was before Friday night's 50-48 classic against TCU? I'm guessing that the only thing you may have known about Waco, TX before this Friday's prime time nationally televised thriller was that the Branch Davidian Cult Massacre occurred there in 1993. And if you're not at least in your mid 40's, you probably didn't even know that. After Friday's game however, everyone in America now has Baylor QB Robert Griffin on their Heisman watch list.
Legendary football schools such as Notre Dame once attracted the very best players in the nation like magnets, but no more. Take a close look at the NFL Draft and you'll find a plethora of players coming from schools you never heard of or that you didn't know had a competitive Div 1 football program. Remember the September 2007 Appalachian State (34) vs. Michigan (32) upset game? That doesn't happen in the Bo Schembechler era. The advent of cable television has changed the landscape of College Football forever. Now that you can play anywhere and be seen, entire programs have been built around the concept that "if you build it they will come".
In 1992 Boise State installed a blue playing field to attract national attention to their program. Four years layer in 1996 the Boise St. Broncos started playing major Div 1 College Football and the rest is history as they seem to have a top 10 program every year. Maybe Notre Dame ought to color their field.
Despite their national TV contract Notre Dame is no longer relevant. Should NBC decide not to renew their contract with them after 2015, you will find your grandchildren asking you who Notre Dame is and where they play. One has to wonder if they are starting to feel the pressure to have to join a conference. With all the big-time programs aligning to create super conferences, Notre Dame is at a real risk of totally falling off the map, something that just a generation ago no one would have imagined.
In 2008 when NBC renewed their contract with Notre Dame, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said the network doesn't look at year-to-year results when it comes to Notre Dame, calling the football program a premier brand that defines the network as much as the Olympics, the NFL and the U.S. Open golf championship.
"We're big believers in how Notre Dame time and time again over all these generations has maintained its strength," he said. "I don't see that going away."
Dick, it went away!
Ebersol said the important thing for Notre Dame, who hasn't won a national championship since 1988, is to be in the race to be a top 10 team in most years "for it to be a wildly successful arrangement."
"We go into this thinking that if the vast majority of the years has Notre Dame competitive in that top 10 or for that top 10 through the majority of the season, then we'll be very happy," he said.
Forget wildly successful Dick, how about just mildly successful!
The time where everyone looked up to the Fighting Irish for doing things the Notre Dame way is long gone. Notre Dame is flying around the College Football landscape using planes with propellers while the rest of the programs throughout the country are whizzing around in jets. Programs and fans of other schools are now laughing at them for trying to take their old school approach and implement it in today's society. Players are no longer quaking in their cleats when they line up against Notre Dame, they are licking their chops.
This one time proud football institution appears to be too stubborn to change with the times. Should Notre Dame not have their NBC contract renewed and also attempt to remain independent, history will have people talking about the legendary football program that was Notre Dame like they talk about the dynasty that once was the Army.
For more information on these matters, please call our office at 305-548-5020.
Faceback page: www.facebook.com/lawofficeofyoelmolina
Linkedin profile: http://tinyurl.com/linkedinpagemo
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/molawblog
"Turn to us when you need help"
Got a traffic ticket in Miami -Dade? go now to www.miamionlinetrafficattorney.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.