NCAA Championships

Random thoughts...

Surprisingly, the best place to keep up with the action over the four days is Let's Run. I've never though the Johnson brothers were particularly smart or good at writing, but they've gotten better as they've produced more and more of their own material. They really, really like this stuff and they pay attention to the little things in the same way that good analysts in any sport do. Since they have no pretense as being journalists, they bridge the gap between sportswriters and columnists...that strange thing called a blogger.

I like that CBS covers this live and in HD, but other than that I think it's an amateur operation. They did profiles instead of showing the women's 800 and 1500. They covered field events in the same "oh, I guess there are field events" way that domestic TV has done for the better part of two decades, even though they each ended up making a huge difference in the team titles. They couldn't even pronounce German Fernandez's first name right, and no one in the studio bothered to correct them through their earpieces. In other words, they do not respect the event (how could you, if you employ Carol Lewis?) and don't cover it like real sports.

Speaking of Fernandez, three of the last four NCAA D-I men's mile/1500 titles have been won by Latinos (and probably all four if Fernandez hadn't skipped the indoor championships). Please, please someone out there notice the latin upsurge in US distance running and try to build on it. Soccer is still far and away the biggest spectator sport in the American hispanic community, but there's an opportunity here that someone should take advantage of.

The NCAA indoor/outdoor championships sites appear to be set mostly with Oregon, Texas A&M and Arkansas, the same teams that either rule the present, recent history or near future of the championship titles.