The conclusion of the 2008 NCAA Division I baseball season took place June 25th in Omaha Nebraska. One of the most unlikely teams to ever win the championship came together and completed a run that will be talked about for years to come.
Fresno State University Bulldogs Win!!!
Bulldog Fans Celebrate in Fresno Pub Steve Detwiler is wired on right...
There were references during each broadcast of the games the Fresno State University Bulldogs played during the NCAA Regionals, Super-Regionals, and finally during the College World Series itself that tried to describe how low the Fresno State seeding into the tournament actually was. Fresno was compared to a thirteenth seed in terms of the NCAA National Championship Basketball Tournament regional of 16 teams, and then as the team continued to progress from one regional to another, they were finally said to be the lowest seeded team to ever reach the College World Series. The Bulldogs had a preseason ranking in the nation’s top 25, but a shaky start left this team scrambling the rest of the season to win their Western Athletic Conference championship. Winning the WAC championship was the only way the Bulldogs could make it into postseason play, where this unlikely championship run began 35 days and 18 games ago. They had to go undefeated in the WAC Championship Tournament, and they pulled it off. The newly crowned WAC champions sported a record of 37 wins and 27 losses (16-16 in non-conference games) as postseason regional play began. They found themselves as the fourth seed in the Long Beach Regional.
Georgia's Powerhitting Shortstop, Gordon Beckham
Fresno State's winning pitcher Justin Wilson
Fresno's College World Series Outstanding Player Tommy Mendonca receiving award
The team played and won 6 elimination games, including two against the eventual runner-up Georgia Bulldogs, as they ended by hoisting the NCAA National Championship Trophy.
I hope this helps to put what the Fresno State Bulldogs’ baseball team accomplished into perspective.
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So what exactly is the beauty of all this? Well I’m here to tell you… This, my friends, is the beauty of a tournament. Just as we’ve seen the moniker of “Cinderella” laid on this FSU Bulldog team that would not quit, and just as we’ve seen that name applied to many different teams year after year in the NCAA National Basketball Tournament, this is the stuff of a playoff. The championship being won on the field of play in an equitably seeded tournament is the essence of sports. All of the major sports’ champions in the NCAA as well as in the various major professional team sports are determined on the field of play in a tournament format with one exception. Why must we, as sports fans in America, be submitted to the antiquated bowl system in Division I college football?
There is an elitist element in college football that has, over the years, wedged itself into place by waving bushels of dollars in front of the universities involved in supposedly amateur athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association spends thousands of hours and I suppose millions of dollars each year to insure the amateur nature of collegiate athletics, but they have allowed the bowl system to usurp their authority when it comes to Division I football. I also believe this system is supported by the “major” and “traditional” Division I football “powerhouses”. I liken this to nothing short of pure greed on their part as they continually attempt to corner the market on high school recruits while jealously excluding the so-called “minor conference” schools as they attempt to assemble competitive football teams. The bowl system, their elitist backers, and the elitist “powerhouse” teams in Division I have formed an alliance designed to be unfair and inequitable. The fact that the Bowl Championship Series has worked to exclude 51 schools in five Division I conferences and three schools not affiliated with a conference from eligibility in the national championship process is all you need to know. How in the world did we get here???
There won’t be any Cinderellas in Division I football this year or at anytime in the future so long as the current BcS system continues to line the pockets of the “major” schools and conferences in Division I…
Congratulations to the National Champion Fresno State Bulldogs baseball team. You have done something I hope to someday see in NCAA Division I football. Your team is a true champion as it won the right to be called champion on the field, not because some pollster thought they should be in the championship game. The Fresno State Bulldogs have given hope to all the schools around our country as any can point to what they did and say “Why not us?”
If a BcS type system had been used in NCAA Division I baseball, the Bulldogs, also now known as the “Wonderdogs”, wouldn’t have even been in the game and all of the sports fans around the country would have missed out on a truly wondrous occurrence.
Since the beginning of the modern sports era, and with the exception of 2007-08, there have been 1,641 NCAA Division I National Champions. Today there are 36 such championships awarded each academic year. Since the NCAA National Basketball Tournament when I noticed the UCLA Bruin’s men’s team uniforms were slightly different from normal, I decided to take a look at who has won all of these NCAA Division I National Championships. This then led me to break the country into regions and finally to look at it in terms of the Division I conferences.
Single season UCLA phenom, Kevin Love... Notice the "C".
The thing that caught my eye about the Bruin’s uniforms was that the “C” in UCLA instead of being blue like the other three letters, was gold. After a little research I found that the gold C represented one hundred NCAA National Championships. UCLA is the first school to get that many titles and they were happy to use this avenue to gain national recognition.
So what did I find? Well 168 schools share those 1,641 national championships. I thought about posting them all with their titles but reason got the best of me. If you know the universities in your home state, you should be able to figure out which schools have won championships over the past 107 years. If you need specific information, ask in the comments and it will be provided. Here is a breakdown by geographical region and state…
Boston Col. Men's Hockey, Syracuse Men's Lacrosse, Brown Women's Rowing Crew
NORTHEAST Schools Titles
Connecticut 2 38
Delaware 1 2
Maine 1 2
Maryland 3 35
Massachusetts 5 20
New Hampshire 2 5
New Jersey 3 24
New York 10 54 3.29%
Pennsylvania 7 65 3.96%
Rhode Island 3 7
Vermont 1 5
Washington DC 3 3
41 24.40% 260 15.84%
North Carolina Field Hockey, Wake Forest Soccer, Georgia Women's Gymnastics
SOUTHEAST Schools Titles
Alabama 2 28
Florida 4 38
Georgia 3 35
Kentucky 5 15
Mississippi 1 1
North Carolina 4 50
South Carolina 3 6
Tennessee 3 20
Virginia 5 31
West Virginia 3 18 .
33 19.64% 242 14.75%
Ohio State Buckeye's Fencing Team Celebrates
MIDWEST Schools Titles
Illinois 6 33
Indiana 4 51
Iowa 5 42
Michigan 8 83
Minnesota 2 24
Montana 2 3
Nebraska 1 20
North Dakota 1 7
Ohio 4 35
South Dakota 0 0
Wisconsin 2 26
Wyoming 1 3
36 21.43% 327 19.93%
LSU Tigers National Championship Football Team
University of Denver Pioneers National Champion Ski Team
Kansas Jayhawks National Championship Basketball Team
SOUTHWEST Schools Titles
Arkansas 1 42
Colorado 3 49
Kansas 2 11
Louisiana 4 48
Missouri 2 12
New Mexico 1 1
Oklahoma 3 75 4.57%
Texas 11 99 6.03%
27 16.07% 337 20.54%
Stanford Women's Cross Country National Champion
University of Alaska-Fairbanks National Championship Rifle Team
WEST Schools Titles
Alaska 1 9
Arizona 2 34
California 15 364 22.18%
Hawaii 1 3
Idaho 3 7
Nevada 1 2
Oregon 3 18
Utah 2 30
Washington 3 8
31 18.45% 475 28.95%
Totals 168 1,641
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Regional Comparison:
Schools %Total Titles % Total
WEST 31 18.45 475 28.95
SOUTHWEST 27 16.07 337 20.54
MID WEST 36 21.43 327 19.93
NORTHEAST 41 24.40 260 15.84
SOUTHEAST 33 19.64 242 14.75
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Conference Comparison:
Schools %Total Titles % Total
Pacific 10 10 5.95% 374 22.79%
Big Ten 11 6.55 245 14.93
Big 12 12 7.14 191 11.64
Southeast 12 7.14 185 11.27
Atlantic Coast 12 7.14 114 6.95
Conference USA 12 6.55 48 2.93
Big East 8 4.76 47 2.86
Mountain West 9 5.36 41 2.5
WAC 9 5.36 17 1.04
MAC 13 7.74 7 .43
Sun Belt 8 4.76 4 .24
Independents 4 2.38 36 2.19
120 71.43% 1,309 79.77%
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Finally, the 2007-08 academic year is winding down… With Baseball and Outdoor Track and Field yet to determine their champions, here are the schools that have won titles this year:
Five titles have been won by affiliate members of Division I and three titles remain unclaimed…
Arizona State University National Championship Softball Team
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Are there any conclusions to be drawn from all of this?
Well… The obvious one has to be that the western region has dominated Division I NCAA athletics since 1900. By state, California is dominant, while the Pacific 10, the premier conference of the west, is also the most dominant.
UCLA National Championship Women's Tennis Team
Men's Golf National Championship
UCLA's National Champion Women's Water Polo Team
Here are the top twenty National Championship schools in NCAA Division I (including the 2007-08 results):
School Titles % of Total
1. UCLA 103 6.14%
2. Stanford 96 5.72
3. USC 95 5.66
4. Oklahoma St. 48 2.86
5. Louisiana St. 45 2.68
6. Texas 43 2.56
7. Arkansas 42 2.50
8. Michigan 41 2.44
9. Penn State 38 2.27
10. No. Carolina 33 1.97
11. California 30 1.79
12. Ohio State 29 1.73
13. Georgia 27 1.61
13. Yale 27 1.61
15. Oklahoma 26 1.55
15. Denver 26 1.55
17. Notre Dame 25 1.49
17. Wisconsin 25 1.49
19. Indiana 23 1.37
19. Iowa 23 1.37
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I’ve heard comments about the weather in California that makes the athletes from this area better… If that’s the case, then why isn’t the Southeast region one of the strongest in the country? Another reason I’ve heard is that the sports being played are more favorable to warm weather. Sports like swimming and water polo. I have to say that these types of sports are more than offset by ice hockey and skiing. Then there are the sports almost exclusively played at the Division I level in other parts of the country. These include lacrosse and fencing…
Taking all of this into consideration, can you think of any other reasons why the far west produces the most NCAA Division I National Championships?
Where's the money coming from in the future? This is the standard question being asked as business people strive to increase profits and stay out in front of the competition. Sports has become a huge business over the last few decades and this same question must be being asked here as well. What drives sports revenues? Well, we as fans do.
San Francisco's old Kezar Stadium
In the early days we paid admission to stadiums and arenas so we could watch and cheer for our favorite teams. We bought publications that kept us abreast of the daily fortunes of our teams, we listened to radio broadcasts and occasionally we even got to see our favorites on live television. Man, that was a great treat!
So the ticket prices began to rise. In the professional sports we were told that the advent of free agency forced these prices up… Then there was inflation. If it wasn’t one thing it was another. Next, we had to more closely identify with our favorites so it became important for us to wear the team colors. Sports apparel has grown from the days of simply wearing a ball cap or a tee shirt emblazoned with our team’s logo to some now wearing complete outfits in their team's sanctioned authentic apparel lines. Have you priced a ball cap or tee shirt these days? Next, the stadiums and arenas were more than happy to supply the fan's needs for food and beverages. Today we have to pay ridiculous prices if we want something to eat or drink. On top of this we are normally banned from bringing our own snacks inside the stadiums. Couple this with the cost of getting to the various sporting venues. Parking fees, something unheard of in the old days, were begun and have steadily increased to the point that they exceed what a set of two tickets used to cost. Today the cost of fuel has skyrocketed. It seems that now, everywhere a sports fan turns, there is someone standing there with their hand out expecting you to cross it with silver just so you can attend a sporting event.
All of these things have changed the fan's faces in the stands, as many just can't afford to attend these events anymore. Today we are seeing some sports beginning to suffer as their fans have stopped attending their events. The major professional sports, the NFL, NASCAR, MLB, the NBA and the NHL are seeing the effects of their exorbitant costs to the fans as many of the smaller market teams are now struggling to make ends meet. They simply don’t have a fan base large enough to include several thousands of fans willing and able to afford these expenses more than once or twice a season. The same effect is beginning to be seen in the collegiate sports and smaller time sporting enterprises like your local race tracks and minor league baseball. So where is the money going to come from in the future?
Through all of this there has been one shining star that kept fan interest high. In the 1950’s our nation, having won a world war with our citizen’s courage and our technological prowess, our industries developed and brought us wonderful new conveniences. One of the most significant was that we got wired into television. We had entered into the communication age and by the end of that decade, darn near every home had a television. The world had shrunk considerably. The sixties brought us color television and in the seventies the major television networks that had sprung up started getting competition from independent stations. Most of the country could receive television transmissions over the airwaves by antennae. You had to have electricity, but the programming was paid by advertiser’s dollars. The nation’s space program brought us satellite technology that in turn made the first “super stations” available. These came to us by satellite transmission and satellite receiving dishes became a common feature around many homes. Then another communication age phenomenon took place as cable television began following the lead of our country’s electrification and telephone wiring procedure. Another network of wires began to grow based upon the satellite technology. Today all of the country’s metropolitan areas have cable television and for a relatively low price, our citizens can enjoy all sorts of entertainment on television. The country’s sports fans have benefited greatly as we are able to see all kinds of sporting events on a twenty-four hour a day basis. For around $40.00 a month I have 6 ESPN channels, 4 Fox Sports channels, 2 local sports channels, Speed, Golf, Fishing, and more… The channels still bring me advertising while I cough up the monthly fee, but what the heck. Compared to personally going to a live big time sporting event, it’s nothing.
With this basically free television coverage to satisfy our sports appetite, all has been well, but there appear to be dark clouds gathering on the horizon as these business types continue to search for the money. In November of 2003, the NFL owners voted unanimously to fund a new television venture by devoting $100 million towards it’s start up. In 2006 this venture came to life and we know it today as the NFL Network. The problem is we can’t all get this new offering. If you subscribe to the satellite network, Direct TV, you’re in. Most of the cable TV networks haven’t been able to reach a satisfactory agreement with the NFL and so most of the country’s NFL fans are being left out. Then in 2006 a college athletic conference, the Mountain West, started their own sports television network. This is a joint venture between the conference, the Columbia Broadcasting System’s Sports Network and Comcast Cable Television. Known as “The MTN”, it features 24 hour a day of exclusive Mountain West Conference athletic events. Next, in 2007, the Big Ten Conference launched its own sports network as well. In another joint venture, “The Big Ten Network” came into being with the Big Ten Conference owning 51% while Fox Cable Networks operates the network and owns the minority 49%. So a new idea has come to life in the revenue stream… Today I read where the Southeastern Conference is now considering a television network of their own. Considering the conference’s recent successes in football and basketball, it might turn into a very lucrative deal as Fox and CBS would most certainly line up to bid for a partnership similar to the previously mentioned conferences. The trend is clear and I expect to see the other major collegiate conferences join in or they will lose a potential revenue source.
So if all of these new ventures prove to be successful, can we expect to see the other major sports in our country join in? I think we all know the answer to that. What then is the next step in this ongoing need to siphon dollars from the sports fans of America? It’s been around for awhile, it’s called pay per view. At first only the biggest events will go that route, but eventually it will become commonplace. Can NASCAR, MLB and all the others be far behind?
It’s not enough that most of us can’t afford to attend the sporting events in person on a regular basis anymore. It’s not enough that we now pay for our cable television and still have to listen to the advertisements to boot. Will it be enough when we not only pay for the cable television monthly subscription costs, while forced to watch the commercials, and also have to cough up a fee to watch each event?
This Friday marks the beginning of the 34th Annual NCAA Division I Baseball Championship tournament. Sixty-four teams from around the nation have played their way into the tournament which will ultimately boil down to eight teams advancing to Omaha, Nebraska where the “College World Series” will determine the national champion.
Oregon State won the last two national championships but didn't make the field this year.
One of the intriguing stories to come out of this regular college baseball season is the play of the LSU Tigers. Just five short weeks ago the Tigers were mired in 11th place in the SEC standings, but, as baseball teams are sometimes able to do, the Bayou Bengals warmed up with the weather and reeled off a school record 20 game winning streak enabling them to claim their first conference title since the 2000 season. Propelled along by their Sophomore outfielder Blake Dean, pictured here, who hit .438 with three dingers and nine RBI’s, the Tigers won four straight games in the league championship series where he was named the Most Valuable Player. Blake’s performances were highlighted by a walk off game-winning home run in the 10th inning of a first round SEC Tournament game against South Carolina. LSU enters the national tournament as the 7th seed. Congratulations to LSU!
Just as in the NCAA Basketball National Championship Tournament, there are many great stories on how different teams have made their way into this national championship tournament. The University of Miami (FL) (47-8), fresh off its first Atlantic Coast Conference Championship title, will be making its NCAA record 36th consecutive regional appearance this week as they host a four-team regional for the 22nd time.
UC Davis Pitcher Andy Suiter
The University of California, Davis, in it’s first year of eligibility as a Division I school made it into the tournament after earning an at-large bid. They will appear in the regional hosted by Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers will host a regional for the second consecutive year as they claimed their sixth Big South Conference title in the last eight years. This will mark their eighth tournament seed in school history.
Despite a 21 – 32 season record, Mount St. Mary’s of the Northeast Conference won the conference’s automatic berth and enters the tournament for the first time in school history. The Mountaineers have the unenviable pleasure of beginning the tournament against the number two seed North Carolina Tar Heels in Raleigh, North Carolina no less…
Nebraska's Johnny Dorn, UCLA's Tim Murphy and Oklahoma State's Luis Flores
more closely identify with our favorites so it became important for us to wear the team colors. Sports apparel has grown from the days of simply wearing a ball cap or a tee shirt emblazoned with our team’s
logo to some now wearing complete outfits in their team's sanctioned authentic apparel lines. Have you priced a ball cap or tee shirt these days? Next, the stadiums and arenas were more than happy to supply the fan's needs for food and beverages. Today we have to pay ridiculous prices if we want something to eat or drink. On top of this we are normally banned from bringing 
our own snacks inside the stadiums. Couple this with the cost of getting to the various sporting venues. Parking fees, something unheard of in the old days, were begun and have steadily increased to the point that they exceed what a set of two tickets used to cost. Today the cost of fuel has skyrocketed. It seems that now, everywhere a sports fan turns, there is someone standing there with their hand out expecting you to cross it with silver just so you can attend a sporting event. 
venture between the conference, the Columbia Broadcasting System’s Sports Network and Comcast Cable Television. Known as “The MTN”, it features 24 hour a day of exclusive Mountain West Conference athletic events. Next, in 2007, the Big Ten Conference launched its own sports network as 
well. In another joint venture, “The Big Ten Network” came into being with the Big Ten Conference owning 51% while Fox Cable Networks operates the network and owns the minority 49%. So a new idea has come to life in the revenue stream… Today I read where the Southeastern Conference is now considering a television network of 
their own. Considering the conference’s recent successes in football and basketball, it might turn into a very lucrative deal as Fox and CBS would most certainly line up to bid for a partnership similar to the previously mentioned conferences. The trend is clear and I expect to see the other major collegiate conferences join in or they will lose a potential revenue source.
pictured here, who hit .438 with three dingers and nine RBI’s, the Tigers won four straight games in the league championship series where he was named the Most Valuable Player. Blake’s performances were highlighted by a walk off game-winning home run in the 10th inning of a first round SEC Tournament game against South Carolina. LSU enters the national tournament as the 7th seed. Congratulations to LSU! 
Miami (FL) (47-8), fresh off its first Atlantic Coast Conference Championship title, will be making its NCAA record 36th consecutive regional appearance this week as they host a four-team regional for the 22nd time. 
consecutive year as they claimed their sixth Big South Conference title in the last eight years. This will mark their eighth tournament seed in school history. 
Despite a 21 – 32 season record, Mount St. Mary’s of the Northeast Conference won the conference’s automatic berth and enters the tournament for the first time in school history. The Mountaineers have the unenviable pleasure of beginning the tournament against the number two seed North Carolina Tar Heels in Raleigh, North Carolina no less… 
