"James Madison wins CAA crown, ends NCAA tourney drought"

From FoxNews.com

Review by Shane McMahan in SRM 334 (section 2)

Last Monday, the James Madison Men’s Basketball team won the school’s first CAA Basketball championship since 1994. JMU beat their third team in as many days, jumping out to an impressive start, and coasting to a 70-57 win in front of a dominant JMU crowd at the Richmond Coliseum. Being a faithful supporter since I can remember, I believe that this historic event will help take not only our basketball team to another level, but take our school to another level. 

Obviously, winning a championship will get you tons of media support and coverage. One thing that I have learned to be more aware of because of this class is how powerful Twitter really is. I don’t think that anybody really saw this much coverage for JMU coming. Nike Basketball tweeted about Harrisonburg being “now being on the map,” ESPN tweeted about it being our first time dancing since 1994, and Matt Brady took part in several interviews, including one by the well-known ESPN host, Jim Rome. Being that twitter is such a big part of today’s society, anything posted by a well-followed Nike or ESPN is huge for many reasons. One, it is just good publicity for the school and helps give JMU some coverage worldwide. Basketball related, this is huge for prospective recruits that are considering JMU. Like the quote, “If you build it, they will come,” it is not much different in basketball. If you win games, like VCU has recently shown, you will start getting high-level recruits. Just a few years ago we had two guys take official visits to JMU. One was Victor Oladipo, another was named Josh Selby. Oladipo now plays for Indiana and is a favorite for National Player of the Year, and Selby is a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. We were able to get these guys on campus for a visit. If we continue to win, it’s only a matter of time before we start getting some of these recruits to come to JMU. Overall, this is a huge step forward for James Madison University. 

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Review by Tory Key in SRM 334 (section 2)

Our group did our presentation on the media’s impact on JMU basketball due to its recent success. The team did not start off the season as if they were going to win the CAA championship. The buzz about the team was not as high then as it is now. The media jumped on JMU when they won the CAA championship. It was the team’s first championship since 1994, so that became a headline right away. The championship was covered by NBC Sports, which is becoming a competitor with ESPN as far as sports coverage. NBC Sports usually covers teams from the CAA and others. Not only did NBC Sports give JMU basketball some exposure by putting the championship on national television, but media sources such as ESPN and NIKE talked about the team. Both tweeted about the team’s success and ESPN showed highlights of the game and the crowd storming the court after the victory. Having both of those situations happen are huge deals for the program. A lot of people follow NIKE on twitter and watch ESPN. Many people on the west coast who never knew James Madison existed probably do now. Also, Coach Matt Brady had significant interviews on the Jim Rome show and Tim Brando show. Once again many Americans listen and watch to these shows, JMU’s name reaches across the country. Most importantly, students have been showing their support for the team more now due to recent success. After all, the fan base starts with the students. JMU’s recent basketball success has gotten them a lot of exposure and it looks like the program has potential for more media attention in the future.
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Review by Donshae Joyce in SRM 334 (section 2)

After defeating Northeastern to capture the CAA Tournament crown, the JMU Men’s basketball team has brought about usual national exposure and an unfamiliar buzz amongst JMU Nation. The team’s recent success has been uncharted territory for all invested parties considering the program has not qualified for the NCAA Tournament since 1994. Since that time, JMU basketball has experienced minimal success that has resulted in low media attention and student support throughout the campus. Combined with the fact that other JMU athletic teams have experienced their fair share of success of the years, this run made by the men’s team has been long overdue.

After earning their place in the championship game, the excitement on campus from our students was blindsiding. Typically, the care for our men’s team is absent and the team is an afterthought. However, the amount of students that traveled to Richmond was shocking compared to the amount of that make the short trip to Convo every home game. Immediately after winning the CAA and clinching their spot in this year’s NCAA Tournament, there were highlights and analysis on ESPN that instantly put JMU on the national map. This is relevant to this course since the power of media outlets, such as ESPN and Twitter, has the basketball team, and the university as a whole, being discussed on a world-wide platform.

The opportunity the men’s team has playing in the NCAA Tournament has elevated the brand of JMU to levels previously not reached. The attention through the media and overall support for the team, the benefits has been and will be priceless. 

"EA and ESPN Kick Off Madden NFL 25 Cover Vote"

From ESPN

Review by Austin Davidson in SRM 334 (section 3)
On August 27, 2013, EA Sports’ Madden video game franchise will release its 25th anniversary edition installment. Since 2011, EA Sports has tried to find ways to get the fans more involved in the process of how each player deemed worthy to grace the cover, every year, is selected. Befitting such a monumental anniversary, this year has taken it above and beyond any previous year’s aspirations. The usage of ESPN television shows, social media (esp. Twitter), and many internet web destinations, has created an unprecedented buzz around the game, almost six months before its release. 

The way the voting for the cover player is a familiar concept to many sports fans. One word; brackets! It has been narrowed down to 64 players, half of which are NFL legends, and the other half are up-and-coming stars in the National Football League. The fans can vote by going to the ESPN website, and some live-tweet voting on Twitter is carried out during ESPN’s SportsNation television show. After each round of voting, the results are revealed on the show, with the overall winner being revealed on April 24, 2013.

I find this to be tremendous marketing strategy for everyone involved in the process. This idea has brought the internet and social media, and television into an incredibly effective and interactive relationship. The companies have found more ways to connect with their demographics and even got the rising hip hop star, Kendrick Lamar, to perform on the SportsNation Madden Cover Vote kickoff show. It has created a buzz most video game companies would die for, this early before release. I am fairly certain we’ll be seeing more of this type of collaborative efforts between EA Sports, and ESPN to milk this newly found cash-cow as much as possible.
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Review by Allison Straley in SRM 334 (section 3)
The Madden NFL Cover Vote is in the middle of their second time having fans vote what player should appear on the cover of the popular EA Sports game, Madden NFL. 

Each week fans have the opportunity to vote in two brackets, old-school, which consists of former players, and new-school, which consists of current players. They players “face off” each week in hopes of advancing and gaining that spot on the cover of the game. Fans are able to vote through the ESPN website as well as Twitter.

The program SportsNation, which airs on ESPN2, has weekly updates for fans on which former and current players have advanced. They also bring some of the players on the show where they can plead their case on why they should receive votes. The winner will be announced April 24th, and the game will be released August 27th. 

Having fans vote on who should be the cover player is a great way for everyone across the nation to get involved in something that is extremely popular. ESPN and EA Sports are using media outlets that have a lot of viewers/usage, such as SportsNation and Twitter. This topic is relevant to the course because media is being used in multiple aspects to get an event known to the public. The different aspects of media, such as advertising, public relations and strategy are presented in this topic. The advertising is through the ESPN website and on the show and Twitter. Public relations was big at the launch party for the competition for the cover. Finally, the strategy is to get as many people to vote and that is occurring by using popular media outlets. The game is very popular and giving the consumers a say in what the game with look like, gives it the potential for even more success.

"Richard Sherman To Skip Bayless: 'I'm Better At Life Than You'"

From the Huffington Post

Review by Schuyler LaClair in SRM 334 (section 2)

Professional athletes have many different ways and strategies to get their name known through out the sports world, which also grabs the attention of the media. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has done just that in a matter of months starting from controversies in just a couple games during the 2012 season. Not only did the spot light shine on Sherman during the season but also after the season was over he has multiple occasions of venting through social media and expressing how he felt in open interviews on television.

During the 2012 season Richard Sherman talked trash before and during games. One game that stood out was when the Seahawks upset the Patriots 24 – 23. After the game Sherman went up to New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady screaming “You mad bro?” Two weeks later Sherman predicted that he would shut down Detroit Lions all pro wide receiver Calvin “Megatron” Johnson and gave himself the nickname of “Optimus Prime.”

When the 2012 offseason started, Sherman got into a heated twitter battle with New York Jets cornerback Derrelle Revis about who was the best cornerback in the National Football League. Then Richard Sherman was a guest on ESPN’s “First Take.” While interviewed by Skip Bayless, Sherman blew up on Skip and just expressed how he felt towards him. While on national television, Sherman showed no respect to the show’s host.

Richard Sherman and the events he’s been involved in recently is related to sports media by how athletes decide to act off the field. When an athlete goes on a rant over social media or television, the media loves giving the athlete the attention they basically asked for. Anytime an athlete goes outside the boundary lines of generalized answers during an interview, it gains the attention of every media outlet in the sports industry. Richard Sherman knows what he has done and hasn’t slowed down since then. His name will known in every household if he keeps going on this path.
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Review by Cameron McKinley in SRM 334 (section 2)

In today sports world, athletes have been known to use various media outlets as a way to vent frustrations or to promote their own brand, whether through traditional media sources, such as television or print media, or newer forms of media, i.e. social media. Richard Sherman has not been on the scene for very long, but he has certainly made use of these forms of media for both purposes. Following his Twitter feud with fellow cornerback Darelle Revis, Sherman took to TV and radio to try to promote his off-season charitable cause, Students with a Goal. While making the rounds for this, he came on to ESPN’s “First Take” and immediately began personally attacking co-host Skip Bayless.

With athletes continually being brought on media programs, whether TV or radio or social media, they are now subjecting themselves to more scrutiny than ever before. They way an athlete handles himself or herself in the media can greatly affect how they are seen as a player. Take Derek Jeter for example. He has always handled himself very well when dealing with aspects of the media, and his on the field accomplishments are magnified and are able to speak for themselves. But with a young, relatively unknown player such as Sherman, such a portrayal in the media can be detrimental to his image and can make people look past his on the field statistics or success when all they know about him is how he handles himself in the media.

Being that this is a class based upon sports media, in the past we have focused on such media outlets and the evolution of the Sports Communication Model. In the past, it would not have been possible for a player such as Sherman to take to all the media outlets to promote himself and his causes, nor to have his feud with Revis and Bayless. He was able to reach the wider sports audiences through his TV rounds, as well as to reach more niche, local markets through radio and Twitter. This is also a two-way street with fans being able to show their reaction directly to him by being able to call in to radio shows he was on or to tweet at him following everything that has happened in the off-season.