By Paul M. Banks Once again the old adage "it's not what you know, but who you know" rings true. This time it's applied to ESPN's location selection process for broadcasting their national college basketball pregame show. From 2003-07 Illinois had MORE WINS than any program in the nation. But ESPN College Gameday never visited once (not even during the Champaign Campaign … [Read more...] about Connections, Nepotism Brings ESPN College GameDay to Champaign Saturday
College Gameday
Northwestern-Stanford Live Blog
By Paul M. Banks No Sideshow Bob, no problem. With Stanford's Disney movie-loving Lopez twins (You know, Brook and the guy who looked like Sideshow Bob, or maybe Robin is the one with the hair I might have gotten them confused) now graduated, I think this is the year the Cats nip the Cardinal. … [Read more...] about Northwestern-Stanford Live Blog
Northwestern-Notre Dame Private School Battle for Chicago’s Heart
By Paul M. Banks Welcome to the Chicago Invitational Challenge Live blog day one. It's both an invitational and a challenge. Not just an invitational, nor merely a challenge, or tournament. But a challenge and an invitational. The fun started at noon today with the mid-majors going at it, but the action ramps up with Iowa St. vs. Saint Louis. Where it's currently 30-27 … [Read more...] about Northwestern-Notre Dame Private School Battle for Chicago’s Heart
Jim Phillips, CEO of Northwestern’s Athletic Program Part 1
By Paul M. Banks In 2008-09, Chicagoans became well aware of how Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, along with team Vice President John McDonough re-branded the Blackhawks from red-headed stepchild to main event on the Second City’s sports stage. Forbes named them the biggest turnaround in sports business history. When you’re a university Athletic Director, you have … [Read more...] about Jim Phillips, CEO of Northwestern’s Athletic Program Part 1
What’s Your Favorite League Overall?
By the TSB Staff October brings the busiest time of the year for sports, and the multitude of choices might cause overload for the fan. It’s a plethora of choices on parallel with the amount of art displayed in the churches and museums of Florence, Italy. When I visited the “flowering city on the Arno River,” I was amazed by how much marble and canvas had been aesthetically … [Read more...] about What’s Your Favorite League Overall?
College Football Week 6 Live Blog
10:30 AM: Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by! We'll be chatting up some solid college football action, with a lot of Big Ten early on in the day, and some big national games later on! Paul Banks will help us get things kicked off live from the Northwestern campus, giving us insight from the "box", and the rest of us will have insights on the games on TV. The tentative … [Read more...] about College Football Week 6 Live Blog
College Football Live Blog, Part 2! Now With More Night Games!
We're back for the evening, and it's been a "great" day of football so far. You know, unless you happen to like Illinois. Then you're surly. I'm not saying...I'm just saying. You can expect to see some commentary on a lot of games this evening, including, but not limited to: Iowa at Penn St. Notre Dame at Purdue Texas Tech at Houston Should be fun, come on in … [Read more...] about College Football Live Blog, Part 2! Now With More Night Games!
Area College Football Teams Need to Step it Up
By Paul M. Banks If you follow college football, you know by now that Illinois was pretty much the biggest disappointment coming out of the gate in week one. Of course, that’s another story for another post, but they did get some redemption tonight when they throttled Illinois State 45-17. And they did that pretty much entirely without their star combo of Juice Williams and … [Read more...] about Area College Football Teams Need to Step it Up