SportsHoncho

Epilogue: College Football Rivalry Week (Utah at BYU)

OK, so I have had a few days to reflect, think and let off steam concerning Utah's 17-10 loss at BYU.   I have come to terms that Utah lost the game when they allowed BYU to convert a 4th and 18, from their own 10 yard line, and NOT because of the two horse-shit calls made against Utah right after that play.  As you can tell, I haven't completely absolved the referees part in the loss, but after watching the replay of the game can accept the loss. 

The two bad calls were Unnecessary Roughness and Pass Interference, one right after other, right after the 4th down conversion.  Being at the game and when talking to people right after, I was adamant that they were horrible, horrible calls; the refs were obviously paid off and giving the game to BYU (I'm a Utah fan, what else was I suppose to think).  After watching the replay I have toned that down to just 'two BAD calls.'  The problem with the unnecessary roughness call was the inconsistency, since almost the exact same thing happened a few minutes earlier against a Utah receiver, without a call... and the safety was in the air to hit the receiver, who did get a hand on the ball.  The pass interference, when watched live, looked like the BYU receiver pulled the Utah corner onto him, but after seeing the replay, I think it should have been a no call.  The Utah corner had caused the receiver to run the route further out and DID turn to find the ball.  The receiver was out of position to get to the ball without cutting back into the corner.  (Yes, I understand that my argument could be flipped to defend the PI call, but that is not how I see it.)  The corner didn't grab or shove the receiver, only made him run outside of the correct pattern.

Now my biggest problem with the game is that the announcers for the The Mtn. (the Mountain West Conference TV channel) were the two biggest BYU homers they could have assigned to the game.  Both are ex-BYU something or other, I felt like I was watching the BYU channel.  They sounded depressed when Utah took the lead and jubilant when they came back.  I think a conference-wide channel should provide at least a little bit of objectivity to the announcing team.

College Football Rivalry Week (Utah at BYU)

I can't believe the college football season is coming to an end already.  Utah's season ends this weekend with its rivalry game with BYU (see this Wikipedia entry that describes the great characteristics of the rivalry).  One of the great parts of this rivalry is that immediate family's have divided loyalties.  I grew up a BYU fan (that makes me sick to admit) because my Dad is a BYU fan.  However, I went to Utah, saw the error in my fandom and now support Utah (and hate BYU!).  My brother-in-law Wayne was a longtime BYU fan, he was personally recruited by Lavell Edwards, but now has season tickets with me to Utah.... and 3 of his 4 sons are still BYU fans and call him a traitor.  Family dinner discussions during the football and basketball seasons can get a little heated.

Utah had won 4 straight until last year's win by BYU.  I still have not watched a replay of this game, where BYU throws a last second TD to win (makes me sick to watch, so I refuse to embed the video into my blog).  Wayne has watched it and insists its one of the best ever games between Utah and BYU.  However, Utah has beaten BYU on their home-field 6 of the last 7 times, and the last 2.   

Unfortunately, since college football changed to 12 regular season games, the Utah/BYU rivalry has been on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I say unfortunate, because I have always had a huge Thanksgiving weekend in St.George, UT with my Dad's family.  This has been an annual event for our family since before I was born (33 years ago) and I think I have only missed 1 year.  I realize that many people think this is a great weekend, since they will be coming "home" to the Salt Lake valley and can enjoy the rivalry, but since I leave town, it is a hassle when I have tickets.  And... I have had tickets to both home and away games in the rivalry for the last 6 years, so I make my family come home early.  This year will be no exception.  Me, Wayne, my nephew Nathan from Iowa, and an unspecified lucky person (most likely my brother Bruce) will be going this year, along with Spud, my high school buddy, and his family.  Should be a good time and a great game.

Revamped ZipCodeSports.com is launched, let the marketing begin!

ZipCodeSports.com has now been re-launched as completely FREE and over the last week, in addition to the affiliate programs already integrated, I have signed up and incorporated other revenue sources, including banner networks and text ad placements.  We are going to rely entirely, for now, on Advertising and Affiliate programs for revenue.  Now I am going to start the push full time to drive traffic and signing up members.

2008 NLL season schedule loaded, 97 events, including All-Star Game

The National League Lacrosse (NLL) 2007-08 season was canceled on 10/16/07, due to the inability of the Professional League Players Association (PLPA) coming to terms with the owners on a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).  Both sides seem to have worked hard however to come to terms on an amicable CBA on 10/25/07, allowing the 2008 season to be revived.

2007-08 ABA season schedule uploaded (and a Bill Simmons video)

The ABA season schedule has been uploaded to the ZipCodeSports.com database, total of 566 events. That takes the total loaded events for 2007 above 55,000.

Below is Bill Simmons from ESPN, on a E:60 feature video.  Bill is one of the best sports writers in the business and one I read religiously.  However, I don't hold it against him that he is from Boston and gloating with all his teams' successes right now.  Pretty good video.

NCAA Women's Basketball Schedules (and others) have been loaded on ZipCodeSports.com!

9,800!! games for all divisions of NCAA Women's Basketball were loaded into the database over the weekend.  Again the source is incomplete for Women's Basketball and more events will be gathered in the future and will be uploaded when available.

The following schedules were also added to the database:  NEHL (North Eastern Hockey League) season schedule, CFL (Canadian Football League) playoff games and the MLS (Major League Soccer) playoff games.  See the Leagues Gathered page on ZipCodeSports.com for the updated list of information included.  Check back to this page frequently, events are uploaded almost every week.

ZipCodeSports.com is now FREE!... No subscriptions! (Site has been updated)

ZipCodeSports.com is now a FREE service, without a subscription fee.  A FREE membership is required to do any searching, but without any future obligations.  On Sunday, 11/4/07, the website was seamlessly "re-launched" with the FREE functionality and all existing memberships were updated.  Please sign-up, search the database, enjoy the games, and tell others.