A large outcry happened in the college football universe over the weekend with University of Central Florida letting players put social media handles on the name plate area of the back of their jerseys. A lot of pepole think it is a huge deal because these social media handles are usually linked with Venmo accounts of the players and the players getting money benefits from this. With this what will the NCAA look like in ten years? I think it will look very different it starts with the 2021-2022 season with players being able to make money off of their likeness and image. This will change the landscape I think you will see more powerhouse programs across different sports. For example a kid that is offered a basketball scholarship at Duke will make more in team branded commercials rather than going to San Diego State. Or in collegiate hockey a player that plays for North Dakota and has been a star on the U.S.A. junior national team is going to get deals with major hockey companies out of the gate rather then some decent kid who played junior and high school hockey all of his life. Also you could put the point in only major stars or certain sports will make money and we could even see some sports being cut due to these benefits, since they don’t make anything.

Some good things that I listened to was some of the more personal stories, the host focused on the subject, very descriptive questions, looking for details. Some dislikes the audio quality was not the best, the host didn’t get to the point with the introduction of SUU head coach Todd Simon but didn’t get to the point of Simon at SUU. The host didn’t prepare a lot of questions.

The NCAA transfer portal is a total double-edged sword you have the good and the bad. the good is usually certain circumstances like transferring closer to home, more potential at bigger school and much more. The bad of it is when you have big schools snatch up amazing athletes from mid-major schools. Personally I don’t like the transfer portal due to those types of situation or the situation of players I like to call “bunny hoppers” that hop around from school to school and it is not because of a certain situation it is because that they just want to do it just to do it.

I am writing my feature story about the SUU Hockey Club since I am apart of the club and know everyone on the team. The mood of this story is going to be a funny laid back story of how the club came to be from a group of pepole watching NHL games to turning it into a legit club playing in a local hockey league. The theme is how the hockey club has became a thing that some students on campus look up too during the winter months of the year. The deeper thoughts of the story will be how we are different from other hockey clubs or teams like are dressing room is basically a heated shipping container that is cramped with gear and players while chaining, to some players having to give up hockey when they were younger because of the cost, and coming back to college and seeing the club and playing hockey again. We have had some talent come through the club we have a former University of Utah hockey player who played ACHA Division l hockey, and a guy who practiced with the Utah State team play for us, and us even playing UVU who has a actual hockey team and recruits some of the best players in Utah. Also the brotherhood part of hockey that we get to together as a club after games and go grab dinner at 10:30 after games, renting air bnb’s to play the northern Utah schools. To almost winning the playoffs for the A league team losing in the finals.

Today I had a great interview with Seth Whitehouse. We talked about how his family is super sports-oriented with multiple family members playing at Division l schools like BYU, and Dixie State. Seth is a passionate Los Angeles Chargers, and San Diego Padres fan. He played multiple sports in high school being the all-around athlete playing football, ruby, baseball and basketball. Seth’s most favorite sport to play was football and had a up and down career with multiple coaching changes but did have winning success placing third in region his junior year and fourth in his senior year. Somewhat a highlight of his senior year was playing against Ben Sewell the younger brother of potential top five pick in this years NFL draft Penei Sewell.

Today I had a great opportunity to practice for my feature story with a great friend of mine, Adam Rogers. The interview I had with Adam we talked about basketball and love of his sports teams starting with how he is so passionate about the NBA and the plethora of jersey and sports cards he has in his collection is one of the best I have ever seen. His favorite team is the Toronto Raptors falling in love with them in middle school and liking the game style of Jonas Valanciunas being the big man for the Raptors and wanting to be that guy when he played basketball as a kid. Adam is a huge Utah State Aggies fan for football and basketball with him growing up in the Logan area, and having family members attend Utah State University. Along with the Aggies, Adam has a soft spot for two other college programs being LSU for football playing as the Tigers on the Wii when the college football game was on the console, and the Kentucky Wildcats for basketball watching John Wall, and Anthony Davis tearing it up for Coach Calipari. I asked Adam since he loved basketball all of his life who des he compare his game to the most. And he said ” I compare my game most to Trae Young, Damian Lillard, and Stephen Curry. If you leave me open at the three point line I will drain it 24/7, and if you try to block me I will pump fake and go for the lane.

The feature example I read was about how Alabama’s football team dealt with an early SEC conference loss to Ole Miss, and how the team’s star players took responsibility and held a team meeting where everyone who wanted to speak could speak on what the team could do. I like how this feature brought itself into a college locker room, and what it looks like when one of the nation’s top football team and predicted to be national champions loss early on in the season and now the pressure is on especially at this time when the college football playoff was brand new and now one loss can basically wreck your season. In addition, it shows hard work and determination in defeat and shows how emotions fuel college football.

It is time to go dancing everybody! The tournament is here and the road to the final four begins, my predictions for the Men’s tournament is either Gonzaga who I think is the most complete team this year will win or Illinois due to the Big 10 being so strong this year and Illinois has pulled out wins against Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State and many more top teams. Good luck to everyone’s brackets and let March Begin!

My favorite sports story of all-time was when the Bears were facing Peyton Manning’s colts in the 05′ or 06′ super bowl in Miami. the bears came into that season a fairytale favorite to win and they had a season no one had in mind. I had to be five or six years old at the time and so happy the bears were in the super bowl I had the Brian Urlacher buzz cut and the 54 jersey to match. My family had a huge super bowl party but everyone knew the colts would win even my dad knew that and he is the biggest bears fan in the world. Well the game started with Devin Hester the “ridiculous one” returning the opening kickoff and everyone went crazy, the colts got the ball back and scored little me started to panic next drive the bears went four and out colts got the ball and scored my little mind crashed as I started to cry, everyone at the whole party felt bad that everyone started to cheer for the bears, they ended up losing to the Colts.

BOISE, Idaho — The Regular Season Men’s Big Sky Regular Season Champions and number one seed Southern Utah University Men’s basketball team will face off against eight seeded University of Northern Colorado Bears, after having a first round bye in the Big Sky Tournament. 

The last time the ThunderBirds hit the court they won in dominating fashion over Portland State 73-54, and clinching the Big Sky regular season title. 

The Thunderbirds have a lot to look forward too in the Big Sky Tournament with multiple conference honors including Tevian Jones being elected to All-Big Sky First Team, Maizen Fausett All-Big Sky Second Team, Dre Marin Honorable Mention and Head Coach Todd Simon receiving the honor of Big Sky Conference Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year. 

SUU will face off against Northern Colorado who beat Sacramento State 90-83. The Bears headlined this win with Bode Hume with a career high 30 points while shooting lights out from the 3 point line shooting 7-10. And adding eight rebounds and three blocks during the contest. Matt Johnson II finished with 15 points and Kur Jockuh earned his fifth-straight double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Bears also scored a team season high of 90 points. 

Northern Colorado dominated on the boards out rebounding Sacramento State 34-19. Sacramento State did lead at halftime 45-42, and have many positives such as only committing four turnovers to Northern Colorado’s eleven. The Bears struggled to guard the three point line against the Hornets, at one time in the game the Hornets were shooting 86% from three point and finished the game at 70%. 

The regular season series between Northern Colorado and Sacramento State was canceled. 

Southern Utah swept Sacramento State in the regular season series in Cedar City by margins of 19 and 20 points in those contests. 

Southern Utah and Northern Colorado will face off for the first time this season in the Big Sky Quarterfinals due to the regular season series being canceled due to COVID-19. The last time these two teams played was February 20, 2020 with Northern Colorado winning 68-66 in Greeley, Colorado and earlier on in the year with the Bears being successful pulling out the 68-60 win in Cedar City. 

Tipoff will occur at 11am tomorrow at Idaho Central Arena with all games being streamed on PlutoTV channel 1050.