Archive: August, 2009
I don't generally look forward to this time of year, to be honest with you.
Those of you who know me well know that I'm not all that into professional football, and that I especially can't stand the suffocating hype that surrounds the NFL preseason.
But as Michael Vick's exploits swallow up even territory claimed by the Phillies' run towards another NL East title, this blog makes space for another traditional autumn pursuit.
The new college football season begins this week, which means it's time to hang some new livery above the headlines.
On Thursday night, I'll be at the Linc to liveblog Temple's showdown with Villanova. But we've got a good bit of ground to cover before then, starting with a trip to Franklin Field for Penn's media day.
It's been a little while since the Quakers had serious expectations placed upon it coming into a season. It's also been a little while since Penn last won the Ivy League.
Strike that. It's been a long time, at least by the standards of Al Bagnoli's tenure.
Six years without a title may not seem like long if you're Dartmouth or Columbia. But in Bagnoli's 17 years on 33rd Street, only his two most recent graduating classes never won a title at any point in their college careers.
Keiffer Garton might just do something about that. Once he got the reins at quarterback midway through last season, he literally ran over Bagnoli's offensive playbook. The more he played, the louder the rumblings grew that Penn's championship drought might come to an end in 2009.
Of course, it didn't hurt that among Garton's runs were a game-winning touchdown at Princeton and two more the next week in a last-minute loss to Harvard. The question now is whether the Quakers can turn six years of almosts and nearlies into actual wins.
"Hopefully we've learned," Bagnoli said. "We had every chance last year to win it and couldn't quite get it done."
There's more from Garton and Bagnoli in the audio player below.
As ever, Penn's schedule is backloaded with all of its tough games at the end of the season. Nor does it help that the Quakers' two toughest games, against Brown and Harvard, are both on the road.
But this is the first year in a while in which Penn is seriously in the title conversation, and Garton is the biggest reason why. As this rather glowing piece in Saturday's New York Times notes, spread-option offenses are not the norm in Ivy League football.
Expectations for Penn success are nothing new, though. The question is whether Garton can fulfill them.
If he does, perhaps his newfangled offense can wake up some old ghosts at Franklin Field. It's been a while since anyone's heard from them.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
200 meters in 19.20 seconds.
Seriously.
And people said Michael Johnson's 19.32 would never be broken.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
The U.S. Soccer Federation whittled its list of potential World Cup cities from 38 down to 27 this afternoon, and Philadelphia made the cut.
Among the notable markets that did not make it were Columbus, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Salt Lake City came as a surprise to me because of Sunil Gulati's statement about wanting to have games in all four time zones. This leaves Denver as the only Mountain Time city in the bid process, though Phoenix observes Mountain Time in the winter.
It's a little bit interesting that Cleveland is the only Ohio city left, as Cincinnati also was eliminated at this stage. Cleveland is the biggest market in the state, but Columbus has the MLS team and the larger stadium.
Market |
Stadium |
Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, Ga. | Georgia Dome | 71,250 |
| Baltimore, Md. | M&T Bank Stadium | 71,008 |
| Boston, Mass. (Foxborough) | Gillette Stadium | 71.693 |
| Charlotte, N.C. | Bank of America Stadium | 73,778 |
| Chicago, Ill. | Soldier Field | 61,000 |
| Cleveland, Ohio | Cleveland Browns Stadium | 72,000 |
| Dallas, Texas | Cotton Bowl | 89,000 |
| Dallas, Texas (Arlington) | Cowboys Stadium | 100,000 |
| Denver, Colo. | INVESCO Field at Mile High | 76,125 |
| Detroit, Mich. | Ford Field | 67,188 |
| Detroit, Mich. (Ann Arbor) | Michigan Stadium | 100,000 |
| Houston, Texas | Reliant Stadium | 71,500 |
| Indianapolis, Ind. | Lucas Oil Stadium | 64,200 |
| Jacksonville, Fla. | Jacksonville Municipal Stadium | 82,000 |
| Kansas City, Mo. | Arrowhead Stadium | 77,000 |
| Los Angeles, Calif. | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum | 93,607 |
| Los Angeles, Calif. (Pasadena) | Rose Bowl | 92,000 |
| Miami, Fla. (Miami Gardens) | Land Shark Stadium | 75,540 |
| Nashville, Tenn. | LP Field | 69,143 |
| New York/N.J. (East Rutherford) | New Meadowlands Stadium | 82,000 |
| Oakland, Calif. | Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum | 63,026 |
| Orlando, Fla. | Florida Citrus Bowl | 65,616 |
| Philadelphia, Pa. | Lincoln Financial Field | 67,594 |
| Phoenix, Ariz. (Glendale) | University of Phoenix Stadium | 71,000 |
| San Diego, Calif. | Qualcomm Stadium | 70,500 |
| San Francisco, Calif. (Palo Alto) | Stanford Stadium | 50,500 |
| Seattle, Wash. | Qwest Field | 67,000 |
| Seattle, Wash. | Husky Stadium | 72,500 |
| St. Louis, Mo. | Edward Jones Dome | 67,268 |
| Tampa, Fla. | Raymond James Stadium | 65,856 |
| Washington, D.C. | RFK Stadium | 45,600 |
| Washington. D.C. (Landover, Md.) | FedEx Field | 91,704 |
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Let me start by stating that I work a night shift at Philly.com. So when word came that Temple and Villanova would be holding a press conference at 8:30 this morning at City Hall to promote their upcoming football game, I wasn't exactly pleased.
But I’m not one of those sportswriters who believes that the rest of the world’s schedules must revolve around theirs (I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that such people exist). So I got myself out of bed at a reasonable hour for once and made my way to Broad Street.
You’ve probably seen the billboards and newspaper ads promoting the game as the Mayor’s Cup. If you’re going to play for a trophy of that name, it helps to have the actual mayor involved. Lo and behold, there was Mayor Nutter joining Al Golden and Andy Talley in front of the cameras.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
ESPN announced its slate of basketball College GameDay venues for the season, and the show will be at the Carrier Dome for Villanova's game against Syracuse on Feb. 27.
Figure on it being another one of those ridiculously huge crowds where 35,000 people show up dressed head to toe in orange. But Villanova is the better team and should win the game.
Here's the full schedule, which includes the show's first ever broadcast from a women's game.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Returning to college basketball a bit faster than I thought we would...
The Big 5 just announced its 2010 Hall of Fame class, and it's a big one: John Chaney, Rollie Massimino and Speedy Morris.
You knew they'd all be inducted at some point, but to have it happen in the same year is quite something.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
You might have seen it a few hours ago, and kudos to NBC for actually showing it live.
Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt set a new world record in the 100-meter sprint today, crossing the line in an astounding 9.58 seconds at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
There was no easing up at the finish this time, unlike Bolt's previous record-setting run at the Olympics last year. But there was a slight look to the side.
Some of it makes sense even if you don't speak German. Here's how NBC announcer Tom Hammond called the race for the U.S. audience:
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
For the record, the press release went out at 10:11 p.m. on a Friday night.
ESPN has struck a deal with Fox Soccer International, which owns Fox Soccer Channel, to air 48 English Premier League soccer games on ESPN2 in the 2009-10 season.
As in the season that starts in just over seven hours as I write this post.
In fact, if you don’t see this until late in the morning, you’ll have missed the first game: Chelsea vs. Hull City at 7:45 a.m. Eastern time. The broadcast will begin at 7:40.
Hull City’s roster includes U.S. national team forward Jozy Altidore. But as Washington Post soccer maestro Steven Goff tweeted earlier tonight, Altidore will miss the game because of work permit issues.
(It’s complicated, but just take it for what it is that he won’t be playing. We can discuss the weirdness of the work permit system some other time.)
Anyway, back to the news at hand, which is a big deal for two reasons. First, it gives the Premier League what is almost certainly its biggest ever broadcast platform on American television. ESPN2 reaches 98 million households, compared to Fox Soccer channel’s 34 million or so.
Second, it means that ESPN once again has a major European soccer property to broadcast in the U.S. after losing the UEFA Champions League to Fox Soccer Channel.
It's nice to have the World Cup and MLS on your channel, and you can get all kinds of games on ESPN360.com. But what you put on someone's television is still a much bigger deal than what you put on someone's computer.
ESPN2 aired a package of Monday EPL games in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 season, and I don’t know what its total distribution was back then. But I think we can safely say that the channel is more significant now than it was then, when all its highlight shows were labeled “2night” instead of “Tonight.”
Ireland-based Setanta Sports also airs a package of EPL games in the U.S. But the part of the company that airs games in the United Kingdom went bankrupt earlier this year, and ESPN acquired Setanta’s rights.
Once that happened, it was only a matter of time before ESPN worked out a deal for United States broadcast rights. I figured it would happen for the 2010-11 season, and I’m a bit surprised they got a deal done this quickly.
It certainly makes sense, though. I suspect FSC will get first dibs on games, Setanta and ESPN third, but there’s plenty of games to go around.
Here’s ESPN’s slate through September. Again, all games will air on ESPN2. Broadcast times listed are Eastern: and include a five-minute pregame show
August 22: Wigan Athletic vs. Manchester United, 9:55 a.m.
August 24: Liverpool vs. Aston Villa, 2:55 p.m.
August 29: Chelsea vs. Burnley, 7:40 a.m.
September 12: Liverpool vs. Burnley, 9:55 a.m.
September 19: Burnley vs. Sunderland, 7:40 a.m.
September 26: Portsmouth vs. Everton, 7:40 a.m.
September 28: Manchester City vs. West Ham, 2:55 p.m.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
If you're bummed about the U.S. national soccer team's 2-1 loss to Mexico this afternoon at the Azteca, maybe this will cheer you up.
The Philadelphia Union front office sent along a batch of new photos this afternoon of the soccer stadium under construction in Chester. If you look close enough you can see that the stands are starting to go up.
As for my verdict on today's game, I thought it was impressive enough that the U.S. scored first. Charlie Davies scored a great goal in the ninth minute, set up by an even better pass from Landon Donovan. The strike merited a "golazo" from Telemundo play-by-play announcer Andres Cantor, whose call of the game was quite enjoyable even though I don't speak much Spanish.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
The headline pretty well sums things up. I'm on a conference call with the league's coaches at the moment, and I'll be back later with quotes from Al Bagnoli and a link to the audio.
Here's the full preseason poll:
1. Harvard, 129 points (10 first-place votes)
2. Penn, 117 points (4 first-place votes)
3. Brown, 106 points (3 first-place votes)
4. Yale, 82 points
5. Princeton, 67 points
t-6. Columbia, 44 points
t-6. Cornell, 44 points
8. Dartmouth, 23 points
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
