Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Jonathan V. Last, Rachael Larimore, and Jim Swift discuss why America fell hard for 16-seed UMBC and Sister Jean's Loyola Ramblers and whether this was the best March Madness ever.
It's the first day of March Madness and I'm at a community center playing volleyball.
On this latest micro episode, the Substandard celebrates a Duke-less Final Four. JVL and Vic are rooting for the Ramblers and love Sister Jean—Sonny, less so. Vic recounts punishment by the nuns at his grade school.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Jonathan V. Last and Michael Warren discuss the 60 Minutes interview of Stormy Daniels, March Madness and why Duke losing is good for America, the Russia investigation, and JVL's night at the Playboy Mansion.
In this latest micro episode, the Substandard recaps the NCAA history-making defeat of 1-seed UVA at the hands of 16-seed UMBC. Sonny remains stoic, unfazed, and indifferent, despite being a UVA alumnus. (It helps that he really is not a fan of college basketball.) JVL asks Vic how Georgetown did.
There is an argument, based on both stats and results, that the 10 best programs in Division I men’s basketball the last half decade are Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Villanova, Virginia—and Wichita State.
The numbers are staggering: CBS and Time Warner together pay close to $1 billion a year for the broadcast rights to March Madness. ESPN pays $470 million a year to air the College Football Playoffs and related bowls. Nick Saban will make $11 million to coach the Alabama football team next year—and…
Was the Peach Bowl the real national championship game? Since the University of Central Florida took down Auburn 34-27 on January 1, the school’s athletic director has been making that case. Ignore for a second the fact that UCF’s weak schedule killed their chance of making it to the College…
On Sunday afternoon, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee awarded the sport’s fourth and final playoff spot to Alabama over Ohio State. It’s clearly the most controversial pick of the committee’s four-year tenure. One immediate question is this: What four-team playoff field would the…
When Auburn upset #1 Alabama in the Iron Bowl on Saturday evening—a day after #2 Miami managed to lose by double-digits to #70 Pittsburgh (5-7)—it seemed like chaos was once again reigning over college football. And in a sense, it was. Yet, at the same time, Alabama’s loss actually helped shrink…
Four assistant college basketball coaches are among 10 people arrested on federal charges as the result of a wide-sweeping bribery and corruption investigation carried out by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
On this mini episode, the Substandard talks college hoops, NCAA bracketology, and Fred Barnes's curious winning streak, plus the latest on Vic's alma mater, Georgetown (and why it's not JVL's alma mater).
The year's at the spring, And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in His heaven— All's right with the world! —"Pippa's Song," Robert Browning, 1841 As momentous events like the NCAA basketball finals and Major…
NCAA office pools once served a special societal purpose. Before the advent of tweeting, they were the one communal activity in which the entire populace could weigh in on things it knew absolutely nothing about. (Well, that, and elections.)
The NCAA says it has not ruled out venues in North Carolina as possible sites for championship events between 2018 and 2022, after a letter from a local marketing agency addressed to lawmakers said all the Tar Heel state's bids to host post-season competitions in that time frame would be rejected…
We ate black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, the way you are supposed to in the South, where my wife and I were raised. We live in Vermont now, but we were told when we were kids to eat black-eyed peas for luck, and why take chances?
The election may be over, but the arguments and recriminations are still going strong. Which brings up an interesting point. You frequently hear people say, "Now is not the time for recriminations," and you think, "Well, sure. Okay. Let's wait a while. There's plenty of time." But you never hear…
The election may be over, but the arguments and recriminations are still going strong. Which brings up an interesting point. You frequently hear people say, “Now is not the time for recriminations," and you think, "Well, sure. Okay. Let's wait a while. There's plenty of time." But you never hear…
You have to figure out, after a tough loss, how you are going to handle it. It has to hurt, but it is probably better if you don't let it show and, instead, heed these lines from Yeats:
You have to figure out, after a tough loss, how you are going to handle it. It has to hurt, but it is probably better if you don’t let it show and, instead, heed these lines from Yeats:
Earlier tonight, the NCAA announced it was pulling seven different collegiate championship events out of North Carolina this year. The NCAA's actions were prompted by North Carolina's law that stops local governments from passing ordinances forcing businesses to allow biological men into women's…
In honor of Opening Day, I had a short discussion of baseball in yesterday's weekly newsletter (yes, you can get it--it's easy, just sign up here. And yes, it's free!) But I'll admit last night's Villanova-North Carolina game could call into question my endorsement of the superiority of baseball.…
It's a little hard to find underneath the bright banners advertising football conference schedules, field hockey scores, and special video clips from recent games in a half-dozen different sports, but at the bottom of NCAA.com is a small menu entitled “About the NCAA,” which takes you to NCAA.org…
You quit or we don’t play. That is essentially what dozens of players on the University of Missouri football team told the president of the university. They had lost four straight games, five of their last six, including a 31-13 home loss to Mississippi State on Saturday night. But they won this…
For 16 years, the Bowl Championship Series focused fans’ and reporters’ attention on teams’ actual success in winning games against strong opponents. Just over a year into the new Selection Committee era (in which 13 people determine which teams will be invited to a 4-team playoff), it’s clear…
On a crazy college football Saturday that saw Michigan State pull out about the most improbable win since Stanford’s band came onto the field against Cal 33 years ago, the LSU Tigers beat previously undefeated Florida and claimed the top spot in the Anderson & Hester Rankings. In three weeks, the…
Half of this college football regular season (7 of 14 weeks) is now in the books, and neither of the two standout teams to date has won a conference championship, let alone a national championship, in the past half-century. Each played in a bowl game in Tennessee last year (the Music City Bowl and…
After finishing the season ranked #29 last year, the Arizona Wildcats — hot off their upset win at Oregon — have claimed the top spot in the inaugural 2014 Anderson & Hester Rankings. The second and fourth spots are held by two schools from Mississippi — #2 Mississippi and #4 Mississippi State —…
I experienced some rough emotions rooting for my alma mater, the University of Kentucky, during the NCAA tournament. Partly because of the close games and come-from-behind wins, and partly because of their one-and-done reputation under Coach John Calipari. The media contrasted UK’s likely NBA-bound…
College football wasn’t always like this. The eyes of the nation weren’t always riveted on a massive stadium in a tiny town in southeastern Alabama, wondering whether the two-time defending national champion Crimson Tide could really—against all probability—be knocked off by archrival Auburn.…
ESPN reports that the NCAA has backed off and granted an indulgence to a recently discharged Marine and given him permission to play college football.
The NCAA might just as well become another department of the government and build a lavish headquarters building in Washington. Its bureaucratic culture would make it a perfect fit. The complexity of its rules would make for a seamless merger. And the high-handed, arrogant management style would…
According to Art Carden in Forbes:
As the men of Harvard exit the NCAA tournament at the hands of the Arizona Wildcats, you'll surely want to wish them a fond and hearty farewell. So sing along with the final verse of "Fair Harvard," written by Reverend Samuel Gilman for the university's 200th anniversary in 1836.
Mighty Georgetown, a number two seed, fell to Florida Gulf Coast, a number fifteen seed, last night. Florida Gulf Coast has only been eligible to play in the tournament for two years.
On March 21, 2013, history was made. Ivy League champion and 14th seed Harvard men's basketball team busted brackets everywhere as it upset 3rd seed New Mexico, winning its first NCAA playoff game ever and notching its first victory over a top-ten team. Read all about it here and here.
In an interview with the New Republic, President Barack Obama is asked, "I'm wondering if you, as a fan, take less pleasure in watching football, knowing the impact that the game takes on its players."
Tonight’s NCAA national championship game between storied basketball programs Kentucky and Kansas probably won’t top the 1992 East Regional final between Duke and Kentucky. Sportswriter and ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski meticulously recaps that March Madness landmark twenty years later in The…
So Obama filled out his NCAA bracket -- we hear he's picked Qaddafi to go all the way.